Any notable books with this premise?

[Kurien]

Are there any other good books that meet the following criteria?

• Set in the far future
• On a distant terrestrial planet colonized by humans
• Who have since lost connection with their homeworld (Earth), and
• Have reverted to a more primitive technological level? (Think medieval)

Basically, something along the lines of Trigun. I'm just looking for an interesting series to read for fun.

Please give a brief summary of the flavour, tone of the novel or bovel series.

Thanks!

[Axolotl]

Jack Vance's The Blue World is the first that springs to mind fitting that criteria. It's about the descendants of a ship that crashed on an ocean planet and have adapted to living on large plants that grow on the surface. It's quite good but it's only one fairly short novel.

[Weezer]

The Pern series has this, you'll probably have to pick and choose to find the ones that this fact actually comes up in, it's not a major plot point (or even known about by any characters) in most of the books. Make sure you read the ones that were written first, the quality went way down over time.

The Darkover series by Marrion Zimmer Bradely also is based around this premise, only read the first one and it was pretty good.

[Friv]

The Samaria series, by Sharon Shinn, is about that. The first book is called Archangel, and is basically about a religion created by the early colonists to keep their world peaceful, which is now going awry. Plus there are genetically-engineered angels.

[Remmirath]

Pern and Darkover are the only two that come to mind. Pern I would say tends to have a more high adventure feel, where Darkover tends to have a somewhat darker feel. Darkover has other intelligent species on the planet, Pern doesn't (well, with one exception). I'm not so good at the summary thing.

For the Darkover series, I tend to prefer the ones set in earlier times - but that's because I generally prefer them before contact with other humans is regained. It sounds like you might prefer the later ones, if that's what you're looking for.

I'd also agree that the earlier Pern books were better, or at least more to my liking.

[The Glyphstone]

Are there any other good books that meet the following criteria?

• Set in the far future
• On a distant terrestrial planet colonized by humans
• Who have since lost connection with their homeworld (Earth), and
• Have reverted to a more primitive technological level? (Think medieval)

Basically, something along the lines of Trigun. I'm just looking for an interesting series to read for fun.

Please give a brief summary of the flavour, tone of the novel or bovel series.

Thanks!

Well, that's pretty much word-for-word the concept of David Weber's Safehold novels.

In the future, humanity was all but exterminated by a race of merciless aliens called the Gbaba, except for one small colony fleet that escaped and found a terraformable world to live on. To avoid rediscovery by the aliens, they collectively brainwashed themselves into forgetting the Gbaba ever existed, and instituting a strict planetwide religion that prohibits the development of anything more complicated than muscle-or-water-powered technology.

The focus of the series (four books, five in September), though, is on a war that ensues between the nearly all-powerful Church Kingdoms and another, smaller but incredibly rich kingdom, the latter having an advisor who is actually a disguised android bearing the downloaded personality and memories of a bridge officer from the colony fleet five hundred years ago.

[ric0]

Well, that's pretty much word-for-word the concept of David Weber's Safehold novels.

just what i was going to suggest :)

looking forward to the next book!

[Douglas]

Well, that's pretty much word-for-word the concept of David Weber's Safehold novels.

In the future, humanity was all but exterminated by a race of merciless aliens called the Gbaba, except for one small colony fleet that escaped and found a terraformable world to live on. To avoid rediscovery by the aliens, they collectively brainwashed themselves into forgetting the Gbaba ever existed, and instituting a strict planetwide religion that prohibits the development of anything more complicated than muscle-or-water-powered technology.

The focus of the series (four books, five in September), though, is on a war that ensues between the nearly all-powerful Church Kingdoms and another, smaller but incredibly rich kingdom, the latter having an advisor who is actually a disguised android bearing the downloaded personality and memories of a bridge officer from the colony fleet five hundred years ago.

As I recall it's more like 8 or 9 hundred years, and the brainwashing and fabricated religion was done unilaterally by a power-hungry subgroup of the command staff who set themselves up as "archangels" to rule the planet while enjoying exclusive access to the remaining high tech artifacts. The original plan was to preserve the knowledge but refrain from using high tech until after the time (with a large safety margin) it would take a Gbaba search effort to pass them by. Part of the command staff objected to this change of plans, and the ensuing conflict resulted in, among other things, the death of every "archangel" on both sides and the mentioned android being prepped in secret and set on a timer to activate when the original safety margin had passed.

Now the Personality Integrated Cybernetic Avatar (PICA) has to somehow overturn a despotic world-spanning theocracy, convince the highly devout world population to discard the religious ban on certain fundamental underpinnings of advanced technology, foster a new culture of scientific research and innovation, and guide humanity back to space. Resources: herself, a small cache of high tech hidden away for her use, and whatever allies she can find. Restrictions: Cannot simply hand out tech - facing the Gbaba will require new innovation above and beyond what she's got, and for that she has to get people used to discovering on their own; cannot use high tech too visibly without being universally branded demonic; cannot use high tech power generation on a large scale without calling down literal fire from heaven in the form of orbital kinetic bombardment from a system set up by some of the "archangels" to enforce the tech bans; must eventually disable said orbital bombardment system somehow in order to make tech advancement beyond a certain point possible.

[WalkingTarget]

Two somewhat similar things come to mind:

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny - humans colonized a new planet and the ruling class used/uses sufficiently advanced technology to assume the roles of the Hindu pantheon and the general society has reverted a bit, although with some side benefits due to the presence of the "gods" (being really, truly able to get your mind/soul transferred to a new body as "reincarnation" if you're deemed worthy, for example). Not told from the normal, mundane person's perspective much, though.

Steven Brust's books about Dragaera - looks like a straight fantasy setting, but it's revealed (in the first book published, which is not the first one chronologically in the setting) that humans had colonized the world but were then discovered and experimented on by the setting's major boogeyman/eldrich abominations which resulted in the setting's equivalent of elfs and a few kinds of magic.


Neither one really sticks with a straight medieval --> space-faring --> medieval transition, though, so I'm not sure if they really fit with what you were interested in.

[Kurien]

Thanks again everyone, I'll write down these books and hopefully I'll find some of these in the library and local used bookshops. (I lack experience with online purchasing.)

• Dragonriders of Pern *first novel: Dragonflight* by Anne McCaffrey
• Darkover Series * first novel: The Planet Savers* by Marion Zimmer Bradley
• Safeworld Series *first novel: Off Armageddon Reef* by David Weber
• Samaria Series by Sarron Shinn
• The Blue World by Jack Vance (you mean the inventor of Vancian magic? )
• Lords of Light Series? A single novel? by Roger Zelazny
• *author* Steven Brust

[grolim]

Also the Warlock series by Christopher Stasheff. A planet colonized by SCA and Renfair people who had the computer wipe their memories to forget high tech and wanted to form a medieval society.

[Kuma Da]

C.S. Friedman's "When True Night Falls" etc. It's part of a series, and involves lots and lots of monsters. It can get fairly dark in some respects, but it makes up for it by staying interesting and reasonably exciting.

edit: don't be fooled. Shin's "Archangel" is primarily a slow-moving romance with a sci-fi backdrop. If that's your thing, cool. Personally, I struggled through it.

[Jerthanis]

I didn't like it, but C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy starting with Black Sun Rising fits this archetype perfectly.

C.S. Friedman has an annoying habit of making an interesting magic system and then giving us totally uninteresting and unlikable protagonists to meander through a story that doesn't have a strong focus, but of my friends I'm the only one who feels this way, so it's worth a try.

The tone is that of dark fantasy, with themes of gripping with religion and morality in a world where perception and belief has measurable effect on the metaphysical reality of the world. There are things like child sacrifices and suggested rape in it, so it's not exactly lighthearted and fun, but don't let me bah humbug you out of it, it's pretty widely liked to my understanding.

[WalkingTarget]

• Lords of Light Series? A single novel? by Roger Zelazny
• *author* Steven Brust

Lord of Light is a single novel.

The first book (by publication date) for the Brust books is Jhereg (available currently as part of a reprint of the first three books in The Book of Jhereg). The main sequence has 13 books, currently (out of a projected 19). They tend to get longer as the series has progressed, but none of them are very long, read easily in an evening or two. There is a kind of overall character arc for the central protagonist (Vlad Taltos), but it's not a self-important epic and the books can, in theory, be read out of order up to a point. The phrase "first person smartass" was coined to describe these books.

There's a secondary story set in a historical period of the Vlad books that is patterned after Alexandre Dumas' books about the musketeers. They are a blast to read and are in a much different narrative voice than the others, but they should probably be read in order and, preferably, after you've read at least some of the Vlad books to get some context. This sequence is pretty much tied up at this point (although, the most recent Vlad book, Tiassa, is probably better if you've read these first since there's cross-over between the series at this point).

There's also an odd outrigger book, Brokedown Palace which is... sort of a combination of this established fantasy setting, traditional fairy-tales, socialist allegory, and Grateful Dead/Hungarian language in-jokes. It's loosely tied to the other books (and there are theories on how it might, in fact, be much more important if Brust gets around to it again) but so far isn't strictly necessary.

[Mx.Silver]

I didn't like it, but C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy starting with Black Sun Rising fits this archetype perfectly.

C.S. Friedman has an annoying habit of making an interesting magic system and then giving us totally uninteresting and unlikable protagonists to meander through a story that doesn't have a strong focus, but of my friends I'm the only one who feels this way, so it's worth a try.

I'd largely agree with that assessment as well, for what it's worth.

[The Glyphstone]

As I recall it's more like 8 or 9 hundred years, and the brainwashing and fabricated religion was done unilaterally by a power-hungry subgroup of the command staff who set themselves up as "archangels" to rule the planet while enjoying exclusive access to the remaining high tech artifacts. The original plan was to preserve the knowledge but refrain from using high tech until after the time (with a large safety margin) it would take a Gbaba search effort to pass them by. Part of the command staff objected to this change of plans, and the ensuing conflict resulted in, among other things, the death of every "archangel" on both sides and the mentioned android being prepped in secret and set on a timer to activate when the original safety margin had passed.

Now the Personality Integrated Cybernetic Avatar (PICA) has to somehow overturn a despotic world-spanning theocracy, convince the highly devout world population to discard the religious ban on certain fundamental underpinnings of advanced technology, foster a new culture of scientific research and innovation, and guide humanity back to space. Resources: herself, a small cache of high tech hidden away for her use, and whatever allies she can find. Restrictions: Cannot simply hand out tech - facing the Gbaba will require new innovation above and beyond what she's got, and for that she has to get people used to discovering on their own; cannot use high tech too visibly without being universally branded demonic; cannot use high tech power generation on a large scale without calling down literal fire from heaven in the form of orbital kinetic bombardment from a system set up by some of the "archangels" to enforce the tech bans; must eventually disable said orbital bombardment system somehow in order to make tech advancement beyond a certain point possible.

Well, I was condensing it a bit, but yeah. That's a pretty good summary. Though you left out the bit where the 'her' is, after about 50-odd pages onward, a 'him'.


BTW: It's "Safehold", not "Safeworld" - don't want you to end up looking in the wrong place. Any decent-sized commercial bookstore will have them, though it'll take a bit of luck to find them in a used shop.

[GloatingSwine]

The Pern series has this, you'll probably have to pick and choose to find the ones that this fact actually comes up in, it's not a major plot point (or even known about by any characters) in most of the books. Make sure you read the ones that were written first, the quality went way down over time.

Simple, don't read anything Anne McCaffrey wrote after about 1990. That was when the suck started to set in.

[Killer Angel]

• Set in the far future
• On a distant terrestrial planet colonized by humans
• Who have since lost connection with their homeworld (Earth), and
• Have reverted to a more primitive technological level? (Think medieval)

If you don't mind a not medieval tech level, but decisely primitive, then you should try The forgotten planet, by Murray Leinster.
The "forgotten" planet had been seeded for life, first with microbes and later with plants and insects. A third expedition, intended to complete the seeding with animals, never occurred. Over the millennia the insects and plants grew to gigantic sizes. The action of the novel describes the fight for survival by descendants of a crashed spaceship as they battle wolf-sized ants, flies the size of chickens, and gigantic flying wasps.

It's a single novel, written in 1953. It's still valid, and it's the "father" of many similar things.

[Remmirath]

Simple, don't read anything Anne McCaffrey wrote after about 1990. That was when the suck started to set in.

I'd say (if you end up liking the series, of course) read all the way up to All the Weyrs of Pern, and then if you actually like that one keep reading - it's the one I'd define as the turning point, and also where I think it would've made more sense to just end the series.

There are also a few I'm really not fond of before that, but I think that's more a matter of personal taste.

[Kurien]

Well, I was condensing it a bit, but yeah. That's a pretty good summary. Though you left out the bit where the 'her' is, after about 50-odd pages onward, a 'him'.

BTW: It's "Safehold", not "Safeworld" - don't want you to end up looking in the wrong place. Any decent-sized commercial bookstore will have them, though it'll take a bit of luck to find them in a used shop.

Right, I gots it.

C.S. Friedman's "When True Night Falls" etc. It's part of a series, and involves lots and lots of monsters. It can get fairly dark in some respects, but it makes up for it by staying interesting and reasonably exciting.

edit: don't be fooled. Shin's "Archangel" is primarily a slow-moving romance with a sci-fi backdrop. If that's your thing, cool. Personally, I struggled through it.

I might take a pass at Archangel then, but you never know.

I didn't like it, but C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy starting with Black Sun Rising fits this archetype perfectly.

C.S. Friedman has an annoying habit of making an interesting magic system and then giving us totally uninteresting and unlikable protagonists to meander through a story that doesn't have a strong focus, but of my friends I'm the only one who feels this way, so it's worth a try.

The tone is that of dark fantasy, with themes of gripping with religion and morality in a world where perception and belief has measurable effect on the metaphysical reality of the world. There are things like child sacrifices and suggested rape in it, so it's not exactly lighthearted and fun, but don't let me bah humbug you out of it, it's pretty widely liked to my understanding.

Two mentions of this C.S Friedman? Sounds worth checking out.

If you don't mind a not medieval tech level, but decisely primitive, then you should try The forgotten planet, by Murray Leinster.
The "forgotten" planet had been seeded for life, first with microbes and later with plants and insects. A third expedition, intended to complete the seeding with animals, never occurred. Over the millennia the insects and plants grew to gigantic sizes. The action of the novel describes the fight for survival by descendants of a crashed spaceship as they battle wolf-sized ants, flies the size of chickens, and gigantic flying wasps.

It's a single novel, written in 1953. It's still valid, and it's the "father" of many similar things.

This sounds amazing, although I haven't had great experiences with older works.

Also the Warlock series by Christopher Stasheff. A planet colonized by SCA and Renfair people who had the computer wipe their memories to forget high tech and wanted to form a medieval society.

This I've heard about, but haven't read. I have read the Rogue Wizard Series by the same, though.

[Prime32]

Are there any other good books that meet the following criteria?

• Set in the far future
• On a distant terrestrial planet colonized by humans
• Who have since lost connection with their homeworld (Earth), and
• Have reverted to a more primitive technological level? (Think medieval)

Basically, something along the lines of Trigun. I'm just looking for an interesting series to read for fun.

Please give a brief summary of the flavour, tone of the novel or bovel series.

Thanks!

The Darksword Trilogy (Forging The Darksword/Doom of the Darksword/Triumph of the Darksword) is sort of like this, except that the world is very high-magic and actually views technology as evil. Seriously, it's at the point where they use magic and life as synonyms, and would view a Muggle as a walking corpse and try to destroy it.

On another note, I've heard Gun X Sword (anime) is pretty similar to Trigun.

[Lord Loss]

Spoilers about the series that comes to mind below:

Spoiler

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Orson Scott Card's Pathfinder Series. Like that, but with Quantum Magic.

[Sholos]

Also the Warlock series by Christopher Stasheff. A planet colonized by SCA and Renfair people who had the computer wipe their memories to forget high tech and wanted to form a medieval society.

It's an interesting series, but it can get a bit .... preachy at times. Also, I found some of the things that happened to be almost plot-device-like.

[The Warlock series] I've heard about, but haven't read. I have read the Rogue Wizard Series by the same, though.

Though, if you've read Her Majesty's Wizard, it's actually very similar in feel. So if you liked that one, you'll probably like the Warlock series.

[SaintRidley]

Dune fits this, except the last part where it's sort of like that in terms of the political situation but not so much for the technology level.

Asimov's Foundation is pretty much this, with the twist of trying to prevent your final point from happening.

[Killer Angel]

This sounds amazing, although I haven't had great experiences with older works.

Me neither, but I've read it for the first time a couple of years ago, and still found it enjoyable, despite its age.
edit: I think it's also one of the first examples (if not the first) of terraforming.

[dehro]

+1 for darkover..

if I remember correctly, the "trillium series" experiment contained a lot of hints and plot points revolving around previous "tecnologically minded" civilisations in an inherently magical setting.
the first book was written by Zimmer Bradley, Julian May and Andre Norton.. the sequels were written by each author separately.

I must say the devolved-tech-people-from-outer-space is precisely something I'm not a big fan of, so I've kinda removed the whole thing from my usually sharper memory... but it seems worth taking a peek.

[The_Snark]

Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan books are a kind of variation on this; the main character's homeworld is a colony that lost contact with the rest of humanity when a wormhole collapsed, reverted to a technologically primitive feudal state over centuries of isolation, and then was found again about a century before the series begins. The re-integration of this planet into galactic society is a recurring background theme throughout the series.

I'll also second Lord of Light, though I think it loses something if you're not at least passingly familiar with Hinduism. I remember reading it when I was young (right after finishing with the Amber books) and being rather baffled. I enjoyed it much more when I revisited it later.

Also, Gene Wolfe is fond of this sort of thing, though it's often difficult to tell whether one of his stories is science fiction set on a distant colony, or fantasy in another world entirely, or what-have-you. He doesn't like to lay things out straightforwardly; I get the feeling he enjoys leaving little puzzles for the reader to piece together. May not be what you're looking for, but he is an interesting author.

[The Succubus]

Edmund Cooper's "A Far Sunset" was a favourite book of mine as a teenager, all though it is rather old and difficult to find now. It follows the story of a spaceship's psychologist who is forced to adapt to a more primative society, a society which has a nasty secret about its origins.....

[Serpentine]

Pern is the one that came to my mind, certainly. In the far distant future, a ship of colonists from a dying Earth go out to a new planet. Several centuries later, and the people have forgotten their history and a lot of their technology. They fly on dragons -

Spoiler

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genetically engineered from smaller... dragonlings or something? Forget what they're called.

and have a largely feudal society. As mentioned, a lot - maybe most - don't refer to the fact that they're from Earth at all. In fact, it's a bit of a revelation several books in. There's one book, as well, that describes the arrival and first few decades of the new colonists. Forget what it's called, too... Dragonsdawn?
It's been ages since I read them, but I read a lot, and I can't think of any I didn't like - that includes The Dolphins of Pern and The White Dragon.

[Thane of Fife]

I found quite a bit of Vance's stuff - his short stories at least - to be like this.

Pern is also a good suggestion, as is starting with Dragonflight and being careful how far you go.

Moira J Moore's Heroes series (starting with Resenting the Hero) meet all of your criteria, and are pretty good, but the ancients come up very rarely and are not particularly important, so you might not be interested.

Finally, My Lord Barbarian is a pretty good book which precisely meets your criteria. It can be a bit old-fashioned, though, in the style of Conan or similar. It's a pretty old book, though, so you'd probably have to buy it used.