I am calling this article of mine "incomplete" because I am commenting only on some of the highlights in that book which especially caught my attention the first time I read it. DAGGERS IN DARKNESS is the latest in the series of linked novels by S.M. Stirling which features Luz O'Malley, an Irish American/Cuban field agent of the Black Chamber, an Intelligence agency created by President Theodore Roosevelt in an alternate universe where he won the Presidential election of 1912, after the premature death of President William Taft opened the way to TR's victory.
DAGGERS
IN DARKNESS gradually shows us how Luz and Ciara were coming into
usually violent contact with increasingly senior agents of "The Mad
Baron," Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, a real, historical person who in our
timeline briefly succeeded in making himself ruler of Mongolia in 1921.
In the Black Chamber universe he came to rule Mongolia earlier and
succeeded in staying in power. His ambitions of gaining chemical
weapons and the steps he took for achieving that were what drew the
attention of the US and the Black Chamber to him.
DAGGERS
IN DARKNESS opens in 1922, after WW I ended in a drastically different
way from the Great War of our timeline. The US had conquered Mexico and
annexed Canada; a Greater German Reich overran France and vast parts of
eastern Europe and Russia; the British Empire was forced to evacuate
Great Britain and relocate to India; Japan seized eastern Siberia,
Manchuria, and chunks of China.
In
the US, Theodore Roosevelt's "Progressive Republican" policies were so
popular and seemingly successful that he had become virtually President
for Life, easily winning every election since 1912. One of the things
that first caught my eye and which I thought deserving of comment was
this bit from Chapter 1, pages 8-9, about TR's eldest son Theodore:
"Organizing the American Legion for veterans in '18 had shown he could
move men to action in peacetime by his words and force of personality.
The job in Manila [as Governor General of the Philippines] was a chance
to show what he could do as an administrator. If he did well in it,
there was no reason he couldn't be President himself someday, perhaps
after a stint in a Cabinet post... Secretary of State or War, say... or
nomination as Vice President in '28, and in either case in '32, when the
young man was in his prime."
The
US had become so vastly more powerful and larger that it was more an
empire than anything else. What we are seeing here, whether TR himself
understood it, were the old institutions coming to seem too small and
inadequate for managing the demands of ruling an empire. We see TR
coming more and more to think in dynastic terms, of his eldest son
eventually succeeding him as President. If the younger Theodore governed
as successfully as his father and was also blessed with an able son,
would that son be proclaimed Emperor of America, instead of being only
President?
Next, on page 27, I saw this: "Luz and Ciara's theoretically and
legally adopted orphans were in biological fact half-sisters who now
unmistakably resembled their mothers AND their sire, a man named Sven
Lundqvist, who'd met her and Ciara under carefully arranged false
circumstances. With the expectation that he'd soon be five thousand
miles away and under the impression that his extremely entertaining
weekend at a hot-springs resort in West Virginia had been just good luck
and charm on his part; in fact his ship had disappeared on the way back
to Stockholm; possibly a U-boat, probably a mine."
In many ways, I found Luz and Ciara's behavior here open to
criticism. They wanted children, but refused to get them by either
marrying men or honestly asking a man to knowingly become the father of
their children. I did not like the obvious implication that Luz had no
intention of ever telling Sven that he had become the father of four
daughters. He too had rights over those children!
It was too convenient, to have the hapless Sven Lundqvist
disappearing on the way home to Sweden. It meant there would be no
awkward personal and legal difficulties in the future if Sven found out
about his hitherto unknown children. It also meant there would be no
trouble when the twins started asking questions why there was no father
in their lives when other children they knew had fathers. And these
children might want to know about Sven's parents and possible brothers
and sisters. Which again could be awkward for Luz and Ciara. His too
convenient death made that less likely, at least for a long time!
Candidly, I thought Luz's treatment of Sven callous and cynical, he
was a mere sperm donor for her and Ciara. An impression which this bit
from page 161 (Chapter Nine) did not lessen, after Luz learned of how
the Swedish ship carrying Sven and other diplomats had been sunk by a
German mine or U-Boat early in 1918: "...sinking a Swedish flagged
merchant liner not far off the Kattegat, while carrying diplomats back
to Stockholm in the spring of 1918. She'd been mildly sorry to hear that
via naval connections, and hoped it had been quick at least..." A
casually used and discarded sperm donor!
I also thought it very implausible that both Luz and Ciara would
have twins, and that ALL of those children would be girls. it's far more
likely that either Luz or Ciara would have had only one child, not
twins. And I thought it very unlikely, even granting that, that none of
them were boys. It was far more likely that at least one or two of them
would have been boys. It was too neat and schematic, for Luz and Ciara
to both have twins and that all four children were girls.
Despite my distaste for the methods Luz took for her and Ciara to get children, that does not mean I am hostile to those children! Colleen, Mary, Patricia, and Luciana are thoroughly likable, bright, active, and energetic. I did wonder if they seemed too ideal, too perfect to be entirely convincing. But, I can see how, if the parents were healthy, intelligent, and free of any overt disabilities, that kind of selective breeding would maximize the chances of any children they had also being intelligent and healthy. But I continue to have my doubts about the plausibility of all four of them being girls.
And here is as good a place as any to state frankly I did not like
the lesbianism of Luz and Ciara. Because I believe homosexuality is a
distorting, a warping of the sexual and reproductive drive. So I read
through the more lesbian parts of DAGGERS with resignation.
And in Chapter Three, page 66, I saw this: "...plenty of Jews but
not as many since the Germans and Austrians plagued them now far less
than now-defunct Russia and Romania had before 1914." The question I
had being: what happened to the rest of Russia? I would expect a
victorious Germany to annex Russian Poland, the Baltic States, and much
of Ukraine, but not ALL of Russia (I assume Austria-Hungary annexed
Romania). Because I read of how, in the earlier Black Chamber books,
Nicholas II abdicated as Tsar in 1916, with his son succeeding as Alexis
II, under the regency of their respected cousin Grand Duke Nicholas.
While I would expect the Regent to often be compelled to yield to German
demands, I saw no mention of Germany deposing Alexis II and annexing
all of Russia at least as far east as the Ural Mountains. But DAGGERS IN
DARKNESS seems to clearly indicate that was what happened by 1922. Did
Germany seize all of Russia east of Ukraine or not? Was there a Russian
remnant state in western Siberia? We see no mention of what happened to
Alexis II and the Regent.
I don't think Wilhelm II and Paul von Hindenburg would have
tolerated a gruesome massacre of the Romanovs, of the kind ordered by
Lenin in our timeline, which occurred at Ekaterinberg and Alapayevsk on
July 17-18, 1918 in our universe!
I especially loved the Chinese parts of DAGGERS, because of how I
went through a Chinese phase earlier in my life, leading me to read a
lot about Chinese history, including translations of parts of historical
works such as Ssu-ma Chien's RECORDS OF THE GRAND HISTORIAN. But I do
have one quibble: Stirling's use of Pin Yin for Romanizng Chinese names
and words jarred on me, felt like a false note. Because, in OUR timeline
(and presumably the Black Chamber's), the Wade-Giles system for
Romanizing Chinese words and names is what was actually being used a
century ago. Lastly, I simply don't like Pin Yin, "Beijing" strikes me
as inelegant and poor English compared to "Peking."
Next, a minor point. In Chapter Five, on page 96, I read this: "A
big Marine marching band in smart dress blues and billed saucer hats
cane first..." It was a mistake for Stirling to say Marines wore HATS,
because the Navy (of which the Marines are a part of) insists on calling
head wear "covers." A US Navy officer I used to know online made a
point of stressing Navy personnel wore COVERS, not "hats."
Mr.
Stirling is a scrupulously careful writer. After showing so
many of the seemingly beneficial things brought about by the New
Nationalism of Theodore Roosevelt's so called "Progressive" Republicans,
he was careful to show us some of the darker things underneath the
glossy surface. For instance, in the same Chapter Five, on page 103, I
read this: "...San Francisco had always been a strong union town, and
the Party heartily approved of labor unions, as long as they were safely
Party-affiliated."
"SAFELY Party-affiliated"? I don't like that. It sounds all too
ominously like the puppet "unions" controlled by the Communist Party
both in and out of the USSR. It looks menacingly like the United States
becoming a de facto one party regime ruled by TR's so called
"Progressive" Republicans. The text quoted below came from the same page
103 of DAGGERS.
"The International Workers of the World hadn't been. The Wobblies had tried
to call strikes during what they called the capitalist-imperialist Great War. Many
of the Wobbly leaders and militants had been summarily shot in the back of
the head for that under the Espionage Act, as de facto enemy agents, so estab-
lished in nice fair fifteen minute executive-court hearings. Others had been
lynched by local patriots on a free-enterprise basis; one group had been
locked in boxcars and left in the Arizona desert to die of thirst and heatstroke
just to drive home the neighbors disapproval.
"Most of the remainder were still repenting their sins in Federal Bureau
of Security corrective-labor camps in very remote places doing very hard
work for very long days in very unpleasant climates on a diet of just
enough scientifically enriched and fortified corn-and-soy mush to keep
them going; it was also scientifically designed to be absolutely tasteless.
You didn't die of starvation on that, or of scurvy or pellagra, and the
profoundly unsympathetic FBS guards didn't beat you to death with their
lead-weighted rubber truncheons or shoot you or lock you in a small iron
box to broil or freeze... unless you tried to escape or shirked or disobeyed
orders... but after a while you might not want to live very much."
The understated sarcasm in the passages I quoted above makes it
plain Stirling himself did not approve of how the Wobblies were
treated. And I agree with him! However much I would disagree with the
views of the so called International Workers, they had every right to
their own ideas and beliefs, as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the
US Constitution. They should never have been treated so brutally and
any trials of the Wobblies should have been in the regular state or US
courts, with all the protections granted to accused persons in United
States law. AND only for charges based on actual crimes allegedly
committed by the Wobblies. Not for mere political opinions.
In Chapter Seven, page 136, I saw this: "This is Universal Imports," a voice said at the other end." As all readers of Ian
Fleming's James Bond stories should immediately see, Stirling was having
a little joke with the "Universal Exports" used as a cover by 007 and
other agents of the British Secret Service.
Here I digress to touch on a minor misprint I noticed on page 276
(Chapter Fourteen): "Beds of chrysanthemums glowed gold and white and
red in the dusk against the green LAWS...." Of course I realized at
once this was simply a misprint and Stirling had meant "lawns."
Some of my comments above, especially of Luz and Ciara, were
critical. But I don't want readers to think I did not enjoy reading
DAGGERS IN DARKNESS. I did! So much so that I stopped taking as many
notes as I should have for writing a really satisfactory article about
this book. I loved the story and it was a true page turner.
DAGGERS is very much an action/adventure novel, and not all readers
might care for that, especially the more violent incidents to be found
in the book. But Stirling, like Poul Anderson, always added so much more
than simple blood and thunder and derring-do to his stories. Many
times, through out the tale, readers will find historical and
philosophical asides adding richness, depth, and nuance to the plot.
The example I quoted below, selected almost at random, came from Chapter
Thirteen, page 268 of DAGGERS, Luz speaking first.
"What I've heard is that the Red Gang...the Honghang...and a faction within the
Green Gang...don't want to cooperate with Mr. X. Partly it's a regional thing; the
Red Gang are linked to southern China and the Canton triads, and so are some
elements within the Green Gang. Politics are involved too; the Green and Red
gangs were allied for a while to support Sun Yat-Sen and the Kuomintang a few
years back, before and during the war...they called it the Mutual Progress Asso-
ciation of the Chinese Republic. The Honghang want to revive that."
"We heard about that," Tommy said. "Didn't come to much, after Yuntai's Dad
declared himself Emperor."
Here Stirling shows his knowledge of Chinese history, in particular
of how Sun Yat-Sen's base of support was mostly limited to southern
China, with the northern provinces either indifferent to or hostile to
his aspirations of founding a Republic of China after the fall of the
Ch'ing Dynasty in 1911-12. And "Yuntai's Dad" was none other than the
treacherous Yuan Shikai who, after deliberately not fighting as hard as
he could have for the Ch'ing, made a deal with the naive Sun that in
return for forcing the abdication of the last Ch'ing Emperor, Sun would
agree to Yuan becoming President of China. In our timeline Yuan tried to
secure his grip on power firmly enough that he could proclaim himself
Emperor, but failed. In the Black Chamber timeline, he succeeded, but
only at the heavy cost of becoming a puppet of Japan. To quote some more
from page 268:
It's ever so common, just being a President," Holly said, with an ironic quirk
at the corner of her mouth, as she glanced sidelong at the Americans. "Even a
President for life with a son being groomed for the job."
"As opposed to being Lord Protector," Ciara said, her tone equally pawky-dry.
The fact that he'd chosen Cromwell's title didn't endear Viscount Milner to her,
and she hadn't liked him to begin with. The Irish Republican Brotherhood had
sympathized with the Boers during the South African War and its guerrilla after-
math, and she'd heard a good many stories--some even true--of Milner's and
Kitchener's cruelties when she was an impressionable child.
In the Black Chamber's timeline Theodore Roosevelt had become de
facto President for Life and was grooming his eldest son to eventually
succeed him. And in our history the British had been harsh in breaking
Boer resistance to their rule, including the use of concentration camps
as a means of doing that. And anyone knowledgeable in British history
understands at once what "Lord Protector" means! All these are good
example of how much Stirling could "pack" into his stories.
