The Boat of a Million Years
Encyclopedia
The Boat of a Million Years is a science fiction
novel
by Poul Anderson
first published in 1989 and nominated for the Nebula Award
for Best Novel
that same year. It was also nominated for the Hugo Award
for Best Novel
and the Prometheus Award
in 1990.
from the ancient past to the semi-distant future. Most of the novel follows the various immortals throughout their lives as they try to find others like themselves, avoid being killed, and remain quiet about their gift.
Gradually, the immortals begin to meet across the world and form a family of sorts. After sharing their secret of immortality to the rest of humanity, the ensuing years result in a human culture they no longer relate to or fit in with. Consequently, they create and crew a starship to explore new civilizations within the galaxy.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel
Novel
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....
by Poul Anderson
Poul Anderson
Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories...
first published in 1989 and nominated for the Nebula Award
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
for Best Novel
Nebula Award for Best Novel
Winners of the Nebula Award for Best Novel, awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The stated year is that of publication; awards are given in the following year.- Winners and other nominees :...
that same year. It was also nominated for the Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
for Best Novel
Hugo Award for Best Novel
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
and the Prometheus Award
Prometheus Award
The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal Prometheus. L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newly founded Libertarian Futurist...
in 1990.
Plot introduction
The novel follows a group of ten immortalsImmortality
Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
from the ancient past to the semi-distant future. Most of the novel follows the various immortals throughout their lives as they try to find others like themselves, avoid being killed, and remain quiet about their gift.
Gradually, the immortals begin to meet across the world and form a family of sorts. After sharing their secret of immortality to the rest of humanity, the ensuing years result in a human culture they no longer relate to or fit in with. Consequently, they create and crew a starship to explore new civilizations within the galaxy.
Timeline
- ~2000 BC(perhaps a bit earlier) Birth of Nornagest.
- 1000 BC Birth of the immortal Hanno, a PhoeniciaPhoeniciaPhoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...
n sailorSailorA sailor, mariner, or seaman is a person who navigates water-borne vessels or assists in their operation, maintenance, or service. The term can apply to professional mariners, military personnel, and recreational sailors as well as a plethora of other uses...
. - 310 BC Hanno hears that a philosopher named PytheasPytheasPytheas of Massalia or Massilia , was a Greek geographer and explorer from the Greek colony, Massalia . He made a voyage of exploration to northwestern Europe at about 325 BC. He travelled around and visited a considerable part of Great Britain...
is looking for a sailor to lead an expedition to locate a possible sea-route to the far North to avoid the dangers from the GaulGaulGaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
s. Hanno meets with him and agrees to head the expedition from Massalia (ancient Marseilles) to the north seas, reaching as far the country which would later be called NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. - 79 BC Tu Shan, an immortal, is born in the Three Great Rocks district.
- 27 BC Patulcius, an immortal, is born to a family of equestrian class in RomeRomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. He takes a job in the Roman Empire's bureaucracy; when it is time for him to retire, he moves far away and simply starts his career anew with a new identity, repeating the process as needed. - 1 AD Hanno lives as a trader in BritanniaBritanniaBritannia is an ancient term for Great Britain, and also a female personification of the island. The name is Latin, and derives from the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Great Britain. However, by the...
. - 19 AD Tu Shan wanders from village to village in ChinaChinaChinese 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...
preaching Taoist philosophy. He is approached by the Emperor of ChinaEmperor of ChinaThe Emperor of China refers to any sovereign of Imperial China reigning between the founding of Qin Dynasty of China, united by the King of Qin in 221 BCE, and the fall of Yuan Shikai's Empire of China in 1916. When referred to as the Son of Heaven , a title that predates the Qin unification, the...
's men who want him to serve in the emperor's court. He refuses and begins to travel westward, eventually arriving in TibetTibetTibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
. - 279 AD Hanno and Rufus' estimation of the time of Rufus' birth.
- 330 AD Patulcius moves to ByzantiumByzantiumByzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
with Constantine IConstantine IConstantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...
. - 359 AD Hanno has moved to Burdigala (BordeauxBordeauxBordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
) and become a successful merchant. During the decline of the Roman EmpireRoman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
he rescues and befriends Rufus. Rufus and Hanno flee Bordeaux and start to travel around Europe looking for others like themselves. - 641 AD Aliyat, a trader's widow from PalmyraPalmyraPalmyra was an ancient city in Syria. In the age of antiquity, it was an important city of central Syria, located in an oasis 215 km northeast of Damascus and 180 km southwest of the Euphrates at Deir ez-Zor. It had long been a vital caravan city for travellers crossing the Syrian desert...
, does not age and has the sexual urges of a young woman - which forces her to flee her people out of fear of being killed. The only route for survival open to her is to become a prostitute, a profession she would continue across centuries and continents. - 698 AD Nornagest tracks down another immortal, a VikingVikingThe term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
warlord, Starkadh. He attempts to get Starkadh to join him, but Starkadh is more interested in plunder and glory. Starkadh later dies in battle. - 998 AD After getting baptized, Nornagest chooses to die by consciously stopping his heart.
- 1068 AD Patulcius is in AnatoliaAnatoliaAnatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
when it is conquered by the Great Seljuq EmpireGreat Seljuq EmpireThe Great Seljuq Empire was a medieval Persianate, Turko-Persian Sunni Muslim empire, originating from the Qynyq branch of Oghuz Turks. The Seljuq Empire controlled a vast area stretching from the Hindu Kush to eastern Anatolia and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf...
. - 1170 AD Asagoa is born in JapanJapanJapan 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...
. - 1065 AD Hanno has a brief sexual encounter with Svoboda in Kiev, neither realizing the other is an immortal.
- 1072 AD Hanno, under the alias Cadoc, tracks down Aliyat who is living as a high-class courtesanCourtesanA courtesan was originally a female courtier, which means a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person.In feudal society, the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...
under the name Athenais in ConstantinopleConstantinopleConstantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
. He is roughly rebuffed, as she wants no interference with her life, and narrowly escapes being killed. - 1453 AD When the Ottoman Turks captured the cityFall of ConstantinopleThe Fall of Constantinople was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire, which occurred after a siege by the Ottoman Empire, under the command of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, against the defending army commanded by Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI...
Oktay Saygun returns to join the civil service again. - 1540 AD Hanno leaves a box containing a physical description of himself in a church, with instructions not to be opened for a hundred years, to prove his immortality.
- 1570 AD Tu Shan and Asagoa meet in TibetNgawang Drakpa GyaltsenNgawang Drakpa was a king in Central Tibet who ruled from 1564 to maybe 1579. He belonged to the Phagmodrupa dynasty which held power in Tibet or parts of it from 1354 to the early 17th century...
, marry and have a child who dies shortly after being born. - 1572 AD Tu Shan and Asagoa leave the Tibetan village and journey out into the world.
- 1640 AD Hanno, as Jacques Lacy of Ireland, meets with Richelieu to discuss the possibility of immortals revealing their existence, a possibility the great Cardinal rejects.
- 1710 AD The Native AmericanNative Americans in the United StatesNative 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...
named Peregrino (who would later take the name John Wanderer) leaves his tribe. - 1821 AD Corinne Macandal escapes from slavery with the help of some friendly Quakers in Ohio.
- 1872 AD Going under the name of Tarrant, Hanno pursues John Wanderer, as Hanno believes that Wanderer is also an immortal. In the pursuit Rufus is killed trying to save a family from a native American attack.
- 1908 AD Patulcius works as a low-level bureaucratBureaucratA bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can comprise the administration of any organization of any size, though the term usually connotes someone within an institution of a government or corporation...
in TurkeyTurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. - 1925 AD John Wanderer locates and identifies Tu Shan and Asagoa. He meets with them in Tibet and speaks to them through an interpreter. At the time he is only able to hint at his true identity (as an immortal) and his belief about their identities. He proposes to return in fifty years.
- 1938 AD Hanno, as Kyrie McCready, meets Patulcius, as Oktay Saygun, having located him by placing an advertisement written by John Wanderer which reads, "Those who have lived so long that our forefathers are like brothers and comrades to them." Patulcius admits to Hanno that he is an immortal and agrees to keep in touch but makes it clear that he likes his life and doesn't want to join up with Hanno.
- 1942 AD Svoboda takes part in World War II skirmishes around Stalingrad.
- 1975 AD John Wanderer makes good on his promise and returns to Tu Shan and Asagoa. Tu Shan and Asagoa reveal that their children are all mortal despite the fact that they have two immortal parents. Wanderer convinces them to join him and Hanno in America. Hanno has been placing ads asking other immortals to join him. He has also founded a research team to find out how to grant immortality to everyone.
- In the future, everyone is immortal, and the Immortals have long ago revealed themselves. There is no civil service, so Patulcius is no longer employable. Tu Shan has tried to return to a primitive life and failed, as there is no longer a market for his handicrafts. They, mostly Hanno, convince the government to build them a ship with which to explore the universe.
- (some time later) They are on a near light speed ship to find other intelligent life. During the voyage, Hanno goes against the wishes of the crew and turns the ship in another direction. He spends an unspecified amount of time being ostracized by them for this.
Immortal Physiology
As their name implies, Immortals stop aging rather quickly, at the age of 25. When their teeth are damaged, they regrow. Immortals receive no permanent scars and also never get sick. They remain fertile for as long as they live and can heal broken bones or other serious wounds. They are not capable of recovering from fatal injuries such as a stab to the heart or decapitation.External links
- The Boat of a Million Years at Worlds Without End