The Book of the War (novel)
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The Book of the War was the first novel in the Faction Paradox series of novels.
Publisher's summary
The Great Houses
Immovable. Implacable. Unchanging. Old enough to pass themselves off as immortal, arrogant enough to claim ultimate authority over the Spiral Politic.
Not so much an army as a hostile new kind of history. So ambitious it can re-write worlds, so complex that even calling it by its name seems to underestimate it.
Renegades, ritualists, saboteurs and subterfugers, the criminal-cult to end all criminal-cults, happy to be caught in the crossfire and ready to take whatever's needed from the wreckage... assuming the other powers leave behind a universe that's habitable.
A fifty-year-old dispute over the two most valuable territories in existence: "cause" and "effect."
Marking the first five decades of the conflict, THE BOOK OF THE WAR is an A to Z of a self-contained continuum and a complete guide to the Spiral Politic, from the beginning of recordable time to the fall of humanity. Part story, part history and part puzzle-box, this is a chronicle of protocol and paranoia in a War where the historians win as many battles as the soldiers and the greatest victory of all is to hold on to your own past...
Entries
The Core Entries
- The Spiral Politic
- The Great Houses
- The House Military
- The Celestis
- Faction Paradox
- Inset: The Faction Paradox "Family"
- The Remote
- Lesser Species
- Yssgaroth
History of Faction Paradox
- The Anchoring of the Thread
- Armour (Faction Paradox)
- Audience of the Ruling Houses
- The Caldera
- The Eleven-Day Empire
- Fashion Paradox, London
- The Gregorian Compact
- History
- The Imperator Presidency
- Intervention
- Protocols of Linearity
- Loa
- London (Eighteenth Century)
- Godfather Morlock
- House Paradox
- Recruitment (Faction Paradox)
- Ritual (Faction Paradox)
- The Act of Severance
- Sombras que Corta
- The Stacks
- Father Stendec
- Tower Hill
- The Unkindnesses
- New Palace of Westminster
The History of Earth
- The Analytical Engine
- The Book of Enoch
- Captain Sir Burton
- George Gordon, Sixth Baron Byron of Rochdale
- Ada Byron
- Canon per Tonos
- The Clockwork Ouroboros
- The Eleven-Day Empire: The 1834 Attack
- Ghost Clusters
- The Grand Families
- Grindlay's Warehouse
- Grotesques
- Karachi
- Liber Sanguisugarum
- Mal'akh
- The Maltese Incident
- The Mountains of the Moon
- The Musical Offering
- Napoleonic Era
- The "Princess of Parallelograms" Letters
- The Shelley Cabal
- The Society of St. George
- John Hanning Speke
- The Star Chamber
- The Walking Dead
- House Xianthellipse
- Robert Scarratt
The A-Z of the War
- House Strategist Entarodora
- The "Monsters" Coda
- Xenoprediction
- "You" Diversions
- The "Probability" Doctrine
- Confusion
- Utterlost
- Zero Time
- Gravity Spiders
- Time-thickening
- Apportation
- Women (Dressing Up As)
- Nechronomancers
- HEM (Highest Entropy Matter)
- Ordifica
- Intercreationals
- Leviathans
- Quintessence
- Redemption Cult
- Forced Regen Missions
- D-Mat
- Burlesque Devices
- "Killerbots" (Autonomic)
- Vaccinations (Temporal)
Houses and Orders
- Jungle Children
- Hauserkinder
- "Justine's Story"
- House Arpexia
- Babels
- Casts
- House Catherion
- House Ixion
- Lethean Campaign
- Order of the Weal
- Chatelaine Thessalia
- War Predictions: Chatelaine Thessalia
- Zo la Domini
The History of the Homeworld
- Closed Session (of the Ruling Houses)
- Dronid
- House Dvora
- The enemy
- The Faraway Declaration
- The First Message from the Enemy
- The Head of the Presidency
- The Homeworld
- House Lineacrux
- The Nine Homeworlds
- Noosphere
- The Presidency
- Protocols of the Great Houses
- Regen-Inf
- The Ruling Houses
- Sex
- Space (Five Famous Battles)
- Timeships
- Laura Tobin
- Academician Umbaste
- The War King
- Inset: The War King's Inaugural Address
- Carmen Yeh
- Appendix III: Carmen Yeh's "Fantastical Travels in an Infinite Universe"
- Compassion
The History of Posthumanity
- Earth: History
- Posthumanity
- Praxis
- Siloportem
- Time-Travel: Posthuman
- War Predictions: The Rivera Manuscript
- Appendix IV: Notes on the Rivera Manuscript
The Academician's Story
- Academicians for Game Logic
- Academician Devonire
- Grandfather Paradox (Representations)
- The Grandfather's Arm
- Kaiwar
- Paradox Anxiety
- The Thousand-Year Battles
- Waves of the House Military
- Appendix I: The Beginning of the War (A Chronology)
The Non-History of the Celestis
- Anarchitects
- Chaotic Limiter
- Conceptual Entities
- Fluxes
- Gargoyles
- Meme
- Mictlan
- Order of the Dragon
- The Ottoman Purges
- Sacrifice
- Shifts
The Shift's Story
- Beshielach
- Dating War Era Events (Difficulties)
- The Greater Autrobulan Franchise
- The Lords Celestial
- Memeovore
- Planetesimals
- Personality Reboots
- Worldofme
The City of the Saved
- City of the Saved
- The Timebeast Assault
- Former Citizen Verrifant
- House Mirraflex
- Lady Armourer Mantissa
- Het Linc
- Secret Architects (of the City of the Saved)
- Uptime Gate
- Amanda Legend Lefcourt
- Gargil Krymtorpor
- Ghetto of the Damned
- Lord Foaming Sky
- Order of the Iron Soul
- Cousin Pinocchio
- The Rump Parliament
- Father Timon
- House Halfling
- The Piltdown Mob
- Sons of Tepes
The Impaler's Story
- Tirgoviste
- Ulterior Worlds
- Vlad III of Wallachia
- Wallachia
- Djinn
- The Edimmu
- Gragov
- Lord Halved Birth
- Investigators
- Investigator Thirty-One
- Mark of Indenture
- The Poenari Relic
- Grigori Efimovitch Rasputin
The Thirteen-Day Republic
- Cousin-Thrice-Removed Anastasia
- The Cult of Celebrity Death
- Father-Twice-Removed Dyavol
- The House of Lords
- The Malachite Room
- Cousin-Once-Removed Nadim
- Cousin Octavia
- The Red Burial
- Removal of Members
- The Thirteen-Day Republic
- Battle of Valentine's Day
- The Winter Palace
- Witch-blood
Labyrinths
- Biodata
- The Diaspora
- Eremites
- Faction Precursors
- Mrs. Foyle
- The House of the Rising Sun
- Labyrinths
- The Remonstration Bureau
- Voodoo Charter
- The Venue Accords
- Weaponstores (Remote)
The Ghost Dance
- A'daltem Ano'nde
- Cousin Belial
- Catch-the-Bear's War Bonnet
- Ghost Shirts
- North American Warrior Tribes
- Nunaha'wu
- Open Doors
- Pai'ngya
- Peyote Dream Runners
- Sand and Snow Ammunition
- Tenskwatawa
- Appendix II: From the North American Journals of Cousin Belial
The History of the Remote
- Anchormen
- The Broken Remote
- Fallahal
- The Jallama Reed Transmissions
- The New Young Gods
- Remembrance Tanks
- Shadow-Masks
- Simia-KK98
- The Viewers and Listeners Protocols
- Wovoka
Faction Hollywood
- Michael Brookhaven
- Brookhaven's Follies
- Christopher Rodonanté Cwej
- Cwejen
- Faction Hollywood
- The Fat
- The Gauntlet
- GCI Processor
- Hollow Spectaculars
- Inset: Brookhaven's Ghost Kingdom: The Six Central Characters
- The Hollywood Bowl Shooting
- The House of the Seven Gables
- The Mount Usu Duel
- "The Mystery of Edwin Drood"
- The North Los Angeles Cabal
- Order of the White Peacock
- Production Hell
- "Through the Eye of Eternity"
- Chad Vandemeer
The End
- "Briefings"
- Humanity
- Nanotechnology
- Parablox
- Ronald Bela Nevitz
- Time-Travel: Biodata Principle
- The Younger World Story
Coda
References
- Het Linc is a polymath.
- The Malachite Room is part of the Winter Palace.
- Faction Paradox uses Sabakash bones for armour.
- 104-forms are timeships.
Notes
- While editing the Book, Lawrence Miles described it as "a continuity in a book, it's an encyclopaedia to the War Era universe. It's got a structure rather than a plot, the way history's got a structure or a Bible's got a structure. Some parts of the universe are cross-referenced with other parts, and it all comes together to make up this great big ... vision."[2]
- It was deliberately kept unclear as to which authors contributed which articles. However, later releases in the Faction Paradox series would provide some clues.
- Lawrence Miles himself likely penned the entries for Faction Paradox, the Remote, the Great Houses, the Spiral Politic, Grandfather Paradox, and the enemy, at the absolute minimum. As editor, he rewrote many or all entries. The "Faction Paradox Family" section was credited to him in the book's notes.
- Simon Bucher-Jones wrote slightly more than any other contributor to the Book, with the exception of Lawrence Miles. The final edition of the book included at least one SBJ-authored entry for every letter of the alphabet, including "Lords Celestial", which was interrupted by the Shift.[3] PROSE: Weapons Grade Snake Oil identified him as the creator of Robert Scarratt; he presumably penned many of the entries about the Celestis, who he had previously explored in his Eighth Doctor novel PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5, and Entarodora, who featured in his novel PROSE: The Brakespeare Voyage.
- Daniel O'Mahony used Thessalia, the Imperator, and babels in his novel PROSE: Newtons Sleep. The planet Lethe, mentioned in the entry for Lethean Campaign, originally appeared in his PROSE: The Parliament of Rats. He stated that he'd had no involvement in Michael Brookhaven's filmography.[4]
- Ian McIntire introduced Carmen Yeh in his unlicensed short story Schrodinger's Botanist for the charity anthology Perfect Timing. His entries were co-written with the uncredited Mad Norwegian Press CEO Lars Pearson.[1]
- Mags L. Halliday used Cousin Octavia in PROSE: Warring States and presumably wrote about Anastasia and the Thirteen-Day Republic for The Book of the War.
- Philip Purser-Hallard wrote the articles concerning the City of the Saved, which was later featured in his novel PROSE: Of the City of the Saved... and Obverse Books' City of the Saved anthology series.[5] He also wrote the entry for House Mirraflex,[6] though Miles thoroughly overhauled it in editing. Purser-Hallard commented that he had not written the articles on Wallachia, Michael Brookhaven, Grigori Rasputin, or the Spiral Politic.[5]
- Kelly Hale, who herself is part Native American, wrote the entries concerning Cousin Belial and the Faction's Remote experiments on the Native American warrior tribes.
- Jonathan Dennis created Faction Hollywood, but at least three other writers contributed to those entries.[7] He would later reuse Faction Hollywood in his story PROSE: Remake/Remodel and co-write PROSE: The Brakespeare Voyage with Bucher-Jones.
- Mark Clapham and Bucher-Jones explored the Celestis in their cowritten Eighth Doctor novel PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5.
- Lawrence Miles' "The Faction Paradox Family" was originally published on the Faction Paradox website.[8] "Design Specs for Advanced Users", purporting to reveal the "secret pathway running through the whole volume", were also published on said website, and they form a basis for the organisation of the entries on this page. The Specs specified that its listing contained "almost certainly at least one mistake", as well as "a single entry which isn't connected to anything else".[9] The mistake was the listing of the nonexistent "Scarratt's Group" entry under "The A-Z of the War", and the single unconnected entry was "Parablox" (here placed under "The End").
Continuity
- The Shift was a liquid life-form before it was transformed into a shift; it then received the Mark of Indenture and was enslaved to the Celestis. (PROSE: Alien Bodies)
- An interventionist member of the Great Houses was believed to have died as the fighting began on Dronid. (PROSE: Alien Bodies)
- Homeworld weapons like babels and casts were used on the planet Lethe. (PROSE: The Parliament of Rats)
- Chris Cwej was recruited as an agent of the Great Houses. (PROSE: Dead Romance)
- A Homeworld colony was located on Simia KK98. (PROSE: Alien Bodies, Dead Romance)
- The Faction Paradox created the Remote on Ordifica. They reproduce through Remembrance Tanks. (PROSE: Interference)
- Grandfather Paradox was imprisoned on the Great Houses' prison. (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet, Interference)
- House Mirraflex was an illustrious Great House. (AUDIO: The Conscript)
- Investigator One was the Celestis' head field agent. (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5)
- Compassion was the first and only 102-form timeship. (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon)
- The Homeworld is ruled by Great Houses. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible)
- House Lolita is an up-and-coming force in the War. (PROSE: Toy Story)
- The Mal'akh are connected to humanity's noosphere. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)
- Multiple Homeworlds were constructed during the War. (PROSE: Alien Bodies, The Taking of Planet 5, The Shadows of Avalon)
- The leader of the Homeworld during the War used the title War King. (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon)
- The Star Chamber ran secret operations in Great Britain and around the world. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)
- The Yssgaroth fought a war with the Great Houses at the beginning of history. (PROSE: The Pit, TV: State of Decay)
References
External links
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