Talk:The Morgaine Stories

Time Travel?

"The construct at the center of these novels is a set of "gates" that facilitate time travel" -- They don't facilitate time travel in the way that Morgaine is using them so much as they allow travel between distant worlds without a space-ship. It's mentioned that they can be used for time-travel, as far as Union Scientists can tell, and that the use for time-travel is what decimated the qual. Are we going for simplicity, or do we want to comment on this in the article?

Related, do we want to bring in the Alliance-Union link? I believe it's on the jacket of the Omnibus in the blurb that it says Union scientists sent Morgaine and all of her friends (who die prior to the start of Gate of Ivrel) to destroy the gates. Bo-Lingua 13:45, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

Ok, I fixed the wording to make the time-travel aspect clearer. I don't want to completely de-emphasize the temporal aspect; Cherryh herself referrs to them as "time-gates" on her Web site. But check out the new wording and see if it's any better. In terms of the A-U link, do you have the exact quote? I can try to dig out my omnibus edition and look too if yours isn't handy. I'm pretty sure (call it 80%) that there's no reference in the text of the novels to the A-U universe, but if the book's jacket identifies a clear link, that's good enough for me. Fairsing 18:19, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

I like the new wording much better. As for the omnibus, I know right where it is and will try to remember to look it up when I go home. :) Bo-Lingua 19:23, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

So I looked at it when I got home, and it spells it out clearly on the back-cover blurb. It says it in the second novel, as well, and anyone who has read her Alliance-Union stories could see from the medical kit that she has when she first meets Vanye that this has to be somehow related, or at least very similar. So there we have it. :) I may have been redundant in the article, remove if you feel like it. Bo-Lingua 13:31, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Wow, I had completely missed that. I dug up my old omnibus and you're right about the cover blurb. It doesn't say she was "sent" by Union, however, which is what you put in the article. Is that the reference from the second book you mean? (I'd like to insert the exact quote into the article and cite it by page number if possible). Fairsing 18:01, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm nearly 100% it's in the second book as she's talking at some point with Vanye, explaining why she was on this quest, and why he needed to know these things, and continue her quest, should she be killed. Bo-Lingua 19:45, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Did you ever find the quote on this? Fairsing 03:48, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

The impression that I got was that the Union sent 100 people on a quest to close the Gates (in the prologs) and that Morgaine's mother was one of them (her father being a member of the race that proceeds the qhal). I'm not sure if any of Morgaine's companions in the prolog to Gates of Ivrel are the remants of the Union team. I got the impression that Morgaine knew more about the abilities of the Gates than the Qhal and the Union team. As far as it goes her lesser weapon is some kind of solar recharged Laser Pistol/Wand (Vanye never having seen a pistol does his best to describe it).

Union references

Ok, the back cover reference to Union is clear, but I'm still not sure about the second book. I found the conversation I think you are referring to in book two -- near the end of Chapter 17 where she shows him some secrets of the gates and tells him he must go on alone even if she cannot. But nothing there that I found about another Union reference. Do you remember more specifically where it might be? Thanks. Fairsing 01:33, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

I'll have to re-read then, but I'm fairly sure that she spells it out. Bo-Lingua 13:27, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

It spells it out in the Prologue to Gate of Ivrel (First Printing), section #2 ends "Journal, Union Science Bureau, Vol. XXX, p.22" --99.242.180.131 (talk) 02:56, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Can someone provide a short synopsis of Exile's Gate - story for the Article Rajanala83 17:00, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Since this has come up on Alliance-Union universe - what is the basis for believing that the "Union" of "Union Science Bureau" is the same as the "Union" of the Alliance-Union universe? After all, it's a fairly generic word. --Alvestrand (talk) 10:51, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

It is indeed a fairly generic word, but the question then arises why would CJC use THIS generic word rather than another - 'federation', say, or 'commonwealth' or 'republic' or whatever? On the other hand, Gate of Ivrel was her first published novel. Can we be sure that the Alliance-Union universe actually existed in her imagination at the time of writing? Anyone know? Cenedi (talk) 16:30, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

It is interesting to note that CJC lists The Morgaine Stories under Fantasy Novels here, and not Alliance-Union. --Bruce1ee^talk 07:35, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Image copyright problem with Image:CherryhGateIvrelCover.jpg

The image Image:CherryhGateIvrelCover.jpg is used in this article under a claim of fair use, but it does not have an adequate explanation for why it meets the requirements for such images when used here. In particular, for each page the image is used on, it must have an explanation linking to that page which explains why it needs to be used on that page. Please check

• That there is a non-free use rationale on the image's description page for the use in this article.
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This is an automated notice by FairuseBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. --21:58, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

I've adjusted the fair use rationale on the image pages. --Bruce1ee^talk 07:21, 20 May 2008 (UTC)