Fitzpatrick's War
Encyclopedia
Fitzpatrick's War is a work of post-apocalyptic fiction by Theodore Judson
. It was first published by Daw Books
in 2004.
takes the form of an autobiography
by a twenty-fifth century soldier, Brigadier General Sir Robert Mayfair Bruce, of the Yukon Confederacy, as edited by a prudish, bigoted academian of the twenty-sixth century, Professor Roland Modesty Van Buren. Bruce's story chronicles (and criticizes) the career of Lord Isaac Prophet Fitzpatrick, a consul of the fictional Yukon Confederacy whose life closely parallels that of Alexander the Great. This unique style allows the reader to simultaneously learn the "official history" of Fitzpatrick as well as the revisionist version of Bruce's purported work.
and elsewhere in North America
and Europe
through the rise of many rival factions and gangs. One such group, the "New Agrarians", became the primary source of agricultural products as market conditions rendered investment in farming unprofitable. Derided by urban elites as hick
s, they were called "Yukon
s" because of the remoteness of that Canadian
territory, a name which they eventually adopted for themselves. Nonetheless, the Yukons developed a high degree of competence in biological
and genetic
sciences. At the same time the Timermen, their hidden technological elite, began developing means of rendering their enemies' electronic
technology unusable through development of portable electromagnetic pulse
generation technology. In the 2070s and 2080s, a gang known as the Yellowjacket
s, under the control of a lawyer
named Bartholemew Iz, seized control of the United States
and launched a campaign of biological warfare
the goals of which are left unclear but which killed hundreds of millions of people worldwide. In 2081 war broke out between the Yellowjackets and the Yukons. The Timerman activated their electronic-inhibiting "Storm Machines" and in the ensuing chaos (known as the "Storm Times") took control of much of North America. Over the next several decades global civilization largely collapsed, leading to plague
s, famine
, and many local war
s which killed additional hundreds of millions. The industrialized world had its population reduced to a fraction of what it once was. Muslim
invaders seized continental Europe
and much of Africa
and Central Asia
, while simultaneously China
took over much of East Asia
. The Yukons resettled Iceland
, Greenland
, Australia
and the British Isles (after they were retaken from Muslim forces).
The course of the next several centuries is left somewhat ambiguous, though numerous wars with foreign powers and nations have left the Yukons a hyper-militarized society.
At the time the book begins in 2415, the Yukon Confederacy controls North America, Australasia
, Britain, Iceland and Greenland. A Turkish
empire controls the Muslim world, including Europe, Central Asia, Afghanistan
and Pakistan
; since it is based at Tashkent
, "Turkish" here may be used in the generic
sense. A totalitarian (and apparently still Communist) China
rules virtually all of East Asia, including Siberia
, Korea
, and Japan
. India
, Ethiopia
, the Philippines
and a much-truncated Russia
(called "Pan-Slavia" or the "Slavic Remnant") remain independent and allied with the Yukons, while Africa
is divided among numerous feuding states variously supported by the Yukons, the Turks and the Chinese. Finally, Latin America is dominated by a collection of banana republic
s; among others, Judson lists a bandit-plagued Mexico
, Brazil
(since the Muslim conquest of Europe, the home of the Pope
), Greater Colombia, and the Argentine Empire
.
The Yukon Confederacy of Judson's book is a neo-feudal, clan
based society. Its social mores are reminiscent of Victorian Age England (indeed, the national flag is the Union Jack), with strong echoes of the Puritan
settlers of New England
. The economy of the Yukon Confederacy is almost entirely based on feudal agriculture, though there is some light industry devoted entirely to military production. The technology is steam-based
, though far in advance of the technology of the Industrial Age
(approximately equivalent to technology from the 1950s), with great advances in chemicals and biological engineering over modern-day science. The Confederacy is governed by provincial Lords, who are theoretically elected to serve in the Senate
in Cumberland, their capital city, but in practice often pass their position to their children. The highest post is held by the Consul
. The dominant and official religion is the Unified Yukon Church, a Protestant denomination; Catholic
, Jewish and various Evangelical
denominations exist as barely tolerated minorities.
Thanks to a series of laws regarding inheritance, the Yukon population has remained stable at about 30 million people for several centuries. Additionally, it is implied that the Yukon population is entirely white, and that the Yukons exterminated or deported all other ethnic groups that lived in the Confederacy. The evidence for this can be found in Doctor Murrey's discussions with Bruce (which see below), the racism of Judson's characters, and the fact that many American cities that had Spanish
or Native American
names are given new Anglo-Saxon or Latin names by the Yukons. For example, San Francisco was renamed "Grand Harbor", and Kansas City
was rebuilt as "Centralia". Non-white characters exist only at the fringes of society, as merchant mariners or as bandits in the Southwest referred to as "Latin
hordes". Most of the Yukon characters see foreigners, even the Yukons' Slavic, African and Indian allies, as little better than savages.
, and an Irish Traveller
girl named Charlotte Raft. Murrey is revealed to be a high-ranking Timerman chieftain.
Upon graduation Bruce is dispatched to India, where he works with a group of engineers constructing illegal airfields at the direction of Fitzpatrick the Younger. When the elder Fitzpatrick is killed under mysterious circumstances and his son is acclaimed the new Consul, it becomes clear that Isaac Fitzpatrick intends to use Bruce's work and the talents of the other basileis to conquer the world and create a universal, global society. Bruce is recalled to North America
to take a bride from Fitzpatrick's mother's finishing school. To his surprise he is paired with Charlotte, whom Dr. Murrey has maneuvered into the position for reasons of his own. Despite the circumstances of their pairing they remain deeply in love for the rest of their lives.
Returning to India with Charlotte, Bruce begins preparing for war. Meanwhile Fitzpatrick subdues the nations of the Western Hemisphere
and much of Africa, forcing them to sign the "Four Points Agreement" surrendering much of their independence to the Yukon Confederacy. Finally Fitzpatrick demands the obeisance of the Turks and Chinese, and war on an unprecedented scale is declared and fought. Millions of Chinese soldiers are killed in an attack on Yukon forces in India while, to Bruce's horror, swarms of genetically engineered locust
s are dropped on agricultural regions of China, causing a famine which kills hundreds of millions more. At the end of a few months the Yukons control most of the world. The defeated enemies and the Yukons' Indian and Slavic allies are all forced to sign the Four Points Agreement.
Fitzpatrick, beset on all sides by palace intrigues, becomes increasingly paranoid. When one of his generals, Field Marshal
Hood, retires to a village in China to try and remedy some of the harm he has caused, Fitzpatrick has him assassinated. Shortly thereafter an attempted coup by some of Fitzpatrick's most trusted friends (and his mother) is put down, but the Consul himself is left at the brink of madness and is nursed back to a semblance of health only by the efforts of Bruce, who by this time has become disillusioned with the actions of his liege lord.
Finally, Bruce finds himself manipulated into assassinating Fitzpatrick by the devious Murrey and his Timermen comrades, who threaten his family with death. After Bruce succeeds (with help from Pularski, Fitzpatrick's bodyguard) in blowing up Fitzpatrick's court, Bruce flees with a few survivors for Australia, where he is met by Dr. Murray. Murray reveals the secret of the Timermen to Bruce. He explains that all societies experience a hero
ic age, an age of imperial might and an age of decline. The Timermen's actions, going back to the Storm Times centuries before, are all engineered to keep the Yukons in a perpetual heroic age and avoid what they view as the decline of civilization that occurred during the early and mid 21st century. To achieve this end, they will continually promote the rise of a Yukon empire and then bring it crashing down through internal discontent, until the time when the rest of the world had been reduced to stone age
conditions. At which point they may allow a return to the electrical age.
Following the Consul's death, his capital at Samarkand is sacked. Pan-Slavic workers who had been brought in to settle and build the city are forced to fight their way home, in an episode reminiscent of the march
of the Ten Thousand
described by Xenophon
.
Fitzpatrick's in-laws, the Shay family, seize power and usher in a financially and morally corrupt regime that is ultimately overthrown in a coup (in which Bruce himself participates). Bruce then retires to an estate in Astoria
, a village in modern-day Oregon
. Yukon society has now largely rejected the universalism of Fitzpatrick's vision in favor of parochial isolationism, fulfilling Murray and the Timermen's vision.
The book concludes with the historian Van Buren's endnotes condemning Bruce as a liar and promoting the official version of history that is so drastically at odds with Bruce's account.
Theodore Judson
Theodore Judson is an American science fiction writer and highschool teacher. He began writing after the death of his wife and he is the author of Tom Wedderburn's Life , Fitzpatrick's War , The Martian General's Daughter , The Sultan's Emissary and Hell Can...
. It was first published by Daw Books
DAW Books
DAW Books is an American science fiction and fantasy publisher, founded by Donald A. Wollheim following his departure from Ace Books in 1971. The company therefore claims to be "the first publishing company ever devoted exclusively to science fiction and fantasy." The first DAW Book published was...
in 2004.
Plot introduction
The novelNovel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
takes the form of an autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
by a twenty-fifth century soldier, Brigadier General Sir Robert Mayfair Bruce, of the Yukon Confederacy, as edited by a prudish, bigoted academian of the twenty-sixth century, Professor Roland Modesty Van Buren. Bruce's story chronicles (and criticizes) the career of Lord Isaac Prophet Fitzpatrick, a consul of the fictional Yukon Confederacy whose life closely parallels that of Alexander the Great. This unique style allows the reader to simultaneously learn the "official history" of Fitzpatrick as well as the revisionist version of Bruce's purported work.
Backstory
The history of Judson's world is revealed in the form of an oral history exam given to cadets at the Yukon War College, in addition to various footnotes and references in the text. In the mid twenty-first century civil order began to break down in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and elsewhere in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
through the rise of many rival factions and gangs. One such group, the "New Agrarians", became the primary source of agricultural products as market conditions rendered investment in farming unprofitable. Derided by urban elites as hick
Hick
-Surname:*Benjamin Hick, , a mechanical engineer*Graeme Hick, , an English cricketer*John Hick, , a philosopher of religion and theologian*Pentland Hick , a British entrepreneur, author, and publisher*W. E...
s, they were called "Yukon
Yukon
Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....
s" because of the remoteness of that Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
territory, a name which they eventually adopted for themselves. Nonetheless, the Yukons developed a high degree of competence in biological
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
and genetic
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
sciences. At the same time the Timermen, their hidden technological elite, began developing means of rendering their enemies' electronic
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
technology unusable through development of portable electromagnetic pulse
Electromagnetic pulse
An electromagnetic pulse is a burst of electromagnetic radiation. The abrupt pulse of electromagnetic radiation usually results from certain types of high energy explosions, especially a nuclear explosion, or from a suddenly fluctuating magnetic field...
generation technology. In the 2070s and 2080s, a gang known as the Yellowjacket
Yellowjacket
Yellowjacket is the common name in North America for predatory wasps of the genera Vespula and Dolichovespula. Members of these genera are known simply as "wasps" in other English-speaking countries...
s, under the control of a lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
named Bartholemew Iz, seized control of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and launched a campaign of biological warfare
Biological warfare
Biological warfare is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi with intent to kill or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war...
the goals of which are left unclear but which killed hundreds of millions of people worldwide. In 2081 war broke out between the Yellowjackets and the Yukons. The Timerman activated their electronic-inhibiting "Storm Machines" and in the ensuing chaos (known as the "Storm Times") took control of much of North America. Over the next several decades global civilization largely collapsed, leading to plague
Pandemic
A pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease that is spreading through human populations across a large region; for instance multiple continents, or even worldwide. A widespread endemic disease that is stable in terms of how many people are getting sick from it is not a pandemic...
s, famine
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...
, and many local war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
s which killed additional hundreds of millions. The industrialized world had its population reduced to a fraction of what it once was. Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
invaders seized continental Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and much of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
, while simultaneously China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
took over much of East Asia
East Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
. The Yukons resettled Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
, Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and the British Isles (after they were retaken from Muslim forces).
The course of the next several centuries is left somewhat ambiguous, though numerous wars with foreign powers and nations have left the Yukons a hyper-militarized society.
Judson's world at the beginning of Fitzpatrick's War
Australasia
Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...
, Britain, Iceland and Greenland. A Turkish
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
empire controls the Muslim world, including Europe, Central Asia, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
; since it is based at Tashkent
Tashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...
, "Turkish" here may be used in the generic
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
sense. A totalitarian (and apparently still Communist) China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
rules virtually all of East Asia, including Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
, the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
and a much-truncated Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
(called "Pan-Slavia" or the "Slavic Remnant") remain independent and allied with the Yukons, while Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
is divided among numerous feuding states variously supported by the Yukons, the Turks and the Chinese. Finally, Latin America is dominated by a collection of banana republic
Banana republic
In political science, the pejorative term Banana Republic denotes a politically unstable country dependent upon limited primary productions , which is ruled by a plutocracy, a small, self-elected, wealthy group who exploit the country by means of a politico-economic oligarchy...
s; among others, Judson lists a bandit-plagued Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
(since the Muslim conquest of Europe, the home of the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
), Greater Colombia, and the Argentine Empire
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
.
The Yukon Confederacy of Judson's book is a neo-feudal, clan
Clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...
based society. Its social mores are reminiscent of Victorian Age England (indeed, the national flag is the Union Jack), with strong echoes of the Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
settlers of New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
. The economy of the Yukon Confederacy is almost entirely based on feudal agriculture, though there is some light industry devoted entirely to military production. The technology is steam-based
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
, though far in advance of the technology of the Industrial Age
Industrial Age
Industrial Age may refer to:*Industrialisation*The Industrial Revolution...
(approximately equivalent to technology from the 1950s), with great advances in chemicals and biological engineering over modern-day science. The Confederacy is governed by provincial Lords, who are theoretically elected to serve in the Senate
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a legislature or parliament. There have been many such bodies in history, since senate means the assembly of the eldest and wiser members of the society and ruling class...
in Cumberland, their capital city, but in practice often pass their position to their children. The highest post is held by the Consul
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
. The dominant and official religion is the Unified Yukon Church, a Protestant denomination; Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
, Jewish and various Evangelical
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
denominations exist as barely tolerated minorities.
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
or Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
names are given new Anglo-Saxon or Latin names by the Yukons. For example, San Francisco was renamed "Grand Harbor", and Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
was rebuilt as "Centralia". Non-white characters exist only at the fringes of society, as merchant mariners or as bandits in the Southwest referred to as "Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
hordes". Most of the Yukon characters see foreigners, even the Yukons' Slavic, African and Indian allies, as little better than savages.
The story
While a student at the Yukon War College, Sir Robert Mayfair Bruce, decorated veteran of the Mexican War of 2412, is selected by Isaac Prophet Fitzpatrick (Fitzpatrick the Younger) to join his inner circle. Fitzpatrick, son of Consul Coronet Fitzpatrick, has assembled around him a group of men, each with unique talents or connections that will aid him when he (presumably) takes over his father's position. These men call themselves the basileis, or the "kings of men". During his time as a student, Bruce also makes the acquaintance of Doctor Jonathan Nehemiah Murrey, ostensibly a professor of historyHistory
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, and an Irish Traveller
Irish Traveller
Irish Travellers are a traditionally nomadic people of ethnic Irish origin, who maintain a separate language and set of traditions. They live predominantly in the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States.-Etymology:...
girl named Charlotte Raft. Murrey is revealed to be a high-ranking Timerman chieftain.
Upon graduation Bruce is dispatched to India, where he works with a group of engineers constructing illegal airfields at the direction of Fitzpatrick the Younger. When the elder Fitzpatrick is killed under mysterious circumstances and his son is acclaimed the new Consul, it becomes clear that Isaac Fitzpatrick intends to use Bruce's work and the talents of the other basileis to conquer the world and create a universal, global society. Bruce is recalled to North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
to take a bride from Fitzpatrick's mother's finishing school. To his surprise he is paired with Charlotte, whom Dr. Murrey has maneuvered into the position for reasons of his own. Despite the circumstances of their pairing they remain deeply in love for the rest of their lives.
Returning to India with Charlotte, Bruce begins preparing for war. Meanwhile Fitzpatrick subdues the nations of the Western Hemisphere
Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere or western hemisphere is mainly used as a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian and east of the Antimeridian , the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere.In this sense, the western hemisphere consists of the western portions...
and much of Africa, forcing them to sign the "Four Points Agreement" surrendering much of their independence to the Yukon Confederacy. Finally Fitzpatrick demands the obeisance of the Turks and Chinese, and war on an unprecedented scale is declared and fought. Millions of Chinese soldiers are killed in an attack on Yukon forces in India while, to Bruce's horror, swarms of genetically engineered locust
Locust
Locusts are the swarming phase of short-horned grasshoppers of the family Acrididae. These are species that can breed rapidly under suitable conditions and subsequently become gregarious and migratory...
s are dropped on agricultural regions of China, causing a famine which kills hundreds of millions more. At the end of a few months the Yukons control most of the world. The defeated enemies and the Yukons' Indian and Slavic allies are all forced to sign the Four Points Agreement.
Fitzpatrick, beset on all sides by palace intrigues, becomes increasingly paranoid. When one of his generals, Field Marshal
Field Marshal
Field Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...
Hood, retires to a village in China to try and remedy some of the harm he has caused, Fitzpatrick has him assassinated. Shortly thereafter an attempted coup by some of Fitzpatrick's most trusted friends (and his mother) is put down, but the Consul himself is left at the brink of madness and is nursed back to a semblance of health only by the efforts of Bruce, who by this time has become disillusioned with the actions of his liege lord.
Hero
A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...
ic age, an age of imperial might and an age of decline. The Timermen's actions, going back to the Storm Times centuries before, are all engineered to keep the Yukons in a perpetual heroic age and avoid what they view as the decline of civilization that occurred during the early and mid 21st century. To achieve this end, they will continually promote the rise of a Yukon empire and then bring it crashing down through internal discontent, until the time when the rest of the world had been reduced to stone age
Stone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...
conditions. At which point they may allow a return to the electrical age.
Following the Consul's death, his capital at Samarkand is sacked. Pan-Slavic workers who had been brought in to settle and build the city are forced to fight their way home, in an episode reminiscent of the march
Anabasis (Xenophon)
Anabasis is the most famous work, in seven books, of the Greek professional soldier and writer Xenophon. The journey it narrates is his best known accomplishment and "one of the great adventures in human history," as Will Durant expressed the common assessment.- The account :Xenophon accompanied...
of the Ten Thousand
Ten Thousand (Greek)
The Ten Thousand were a group of mercenary units, mainly Greek, drawn up by Cyrus the Younger to attempt to wrest the throne of the Persian Empire from his brother, Artaxerxes II...
described by Xenophon
Xenophon
Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, philosopher and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates...
.
Fitzpatrick's in-laws, the Shay family, seize power and usher in a financially and morally corrupt regime that is ultimately overthrown in a coup (in which Bruce himself participates). Bruce then retires to an estate in Astoria
Astoria, Oregon
Astoria is the county seat of Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. Situated near the mouth of the Columbia River, the city was named after the American investor John Jacob Astor. His American Fur Company founded Fort Astoria at the site in 1811...
, a village in modern-day Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
. Yukon society has now largely rejected the universalism of Fitzpatrick's vision in favor of parochial isolationism, fulfilling Murray and the Timermen's vision.
The book concludes with the historian Van Buren's endnotes condemning Bruce as a liar and promoting the official version of history that is so drastically at odds with Bruce's account.