Talk:Gaean Reach

Dating the Reach

At least some of the GR books are dated as 30,000 years from now--I'd have to dig through my research notes to specify, but it's unambiguous. The Oikumene of the Demon Princes period is at least 1500 years ahead. BTW, To Live Forever is almost certainly not part of this future history but a singleton. RLetson 22:09, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Indeed To Live Forever is set on Earth, and the only thing that could tie it in is that they happen to call the land under their control "The Reach" and at the end set out to colonize other worlds. Very tenuous, probably just an accident. One that feels like it is set in the early Gaean Reach, although it is never mentioned explicitly, is Galactic Effectuator. — Laura Scudder | talk 23:02, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

In my copy of Galactic Effectuator (called "Miro Hetzel", a digital version of the Vance Integral Edition as available on jackvance.com), in both stories, there are quite a few explicit references to the Gaean Reach. Martijn Faassen (talk) 13:45, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

membership

The Planet of Adventure series has a superficial resemblance to the Gaean Reach stories, but is not considered one of them. The same goes for other singleton works like Slaves of the Klau, Showboat World, Space Opera, etc.

Showboat World and Space Opera, yes; Klau maybe, as (iirc) the human slaves come from more than one world – but why Tschai? Does it even mention any human worlds other than Earth? —Tamfang (talk) 19:55, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

this comment section needs a better title

“ The human civilization in the Demon Princes is the Oikumene, which can be seen as a precursor or variant to the Gaean Reach. ”

The Gaean Reach is defined above as including all human worlds; the Oikumene explicitly does not include all (only those that participate in the Interworld Police Coordinating Company). Is there a term in Demon Princes that covers the Oikumene and the Beyond?

“ The Reach is mentioned in the three Alastor books, the Cadwal Chronicles, Ports of Call and Lurulu. Singleton works are also included, such as Emphyrio, Night Lamp, and possibly The Gray Prince. ”

This can be read as meaning that Emphyrio and Night Lamp are excluded from the first sentence because they are singletons, which is a strange criterion. Do they use the term "Gaean Reach"? If not, I'd drop the word "singleton" and make the second sentence something like

Other works generally considered part of this group, though they do not explicitly use the term "Gaean Reach", include ...

—Tamfang (talk) 20:07, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

Gaean universe?

1. What is the extent of the Gaean Reach in space? --in the fictional Gaean universe, one may as well call it(?)
2. Which stories are set spatially in the Gaean Reach, which are set spatially outside, which spatial settings are unknown without Vance's help, etc?
3. Which stories are set in the Gaean universe? in a universe where there is no Gaean Reach (a contradictory one, insofar as we understand its history)? unknowable without Vance's help?

About 3. This should be the primary point. Every work in a series shares a universe by definition of the terms, so the only exceptions must originate in honest mistakes or hanky-panky (often but not always by the author or marketing agents respectively). Right? Which of the seven series that organize the template {{Works by Jack Vance}} can be placed within or without Gaean universe? ISFDB uses the terms universe and series, but uses series and (sub)series in this case. Is there some problem with its classification? Gaean Reach series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database --P64 (talk) 20:57, 5 June 2012 (UTC)