# After Doomsday > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/After_Doomsday > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/After_Doomsday.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Doomsday > Source revision: 1354711427 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) 1962 novel by Poul Anderson This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (January 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) After Doomsday Lurid and misleading cover picture from original paperback printing. Author Poul Anderson Cover artist Ralph Brillhart Language English Genre Science fiction Publisher Ballantine Books Publication date 1962 Publication place United States Media type Print (Paperback) Pages 128 *After Doomsday* was serialized in *[Galaxy](/source/Galaxy_Science_Fiction)* as *The Day After Doomsday* in 1961-62. ***After Doomsday*** is a [science fiction](/source/Science_fiction) novel by American writer [Poul Anderson](/source/Poul_Anderson). It was published as a complete novel in 1962, having been serialized as *The Day after Doomsday* in the magazine [*Galaxy*](/source/Galaxy_Science_Fiction), between December 1961 and February 1962. ## Plot introduction The novel explores events after the destruction of Earth, from the point of view of two returning starship crews, one entirely made up of men, the other consisting entirely of women. The story is set in the early 21st century. Even as the [Cold War](/source/Cold_War) dragged on, Earth has been suddenly contacted by the Monwaingi space-faring culture. The technology of interstellar travel is spreading across the galaxy, disrupting one culture after another. Monwaing itself was contacted only a few centuries previously. Another culture, the Vorlak, underwent a transition from a stable planetary society to a warlord culture similar to the Japanese [Shogunate](/source/Shogunate). The nomadic Kandemirian culture became a [hegemonistic](/source/Hegemony) one similar to the [Mongol Empire](/source/Mongol_Empire). Earth found itself on the fringes of a conflict between Kandemir and a coalition led by Vorlak, with Monwaing on the sidelines, actively supporting the anti-Kandemir forces. There is a [lingua franca](/source/Lingua_franca) called *Uru*, which bonds the diverse cultures together. The original speakers of the language may have also initiated the spread of interstellar technology, but the language seems to have outlived, or at least outstripped its originators. In the 20 years since contact, several expeditions have set out, some in borrowed ships, some in ships built on Earth. The ship *USS Benjamin Franklin*, with an all-male crew, set out to visit the core of the [Milky Way](/source/Milky_Way) — actually an unusual quest by the stodgy standards of the typical galactic culture. Another ship has gone as far as the [Magellanic Clouds](/source/Magellanic_Clouds). The pan-European expedition in the ship *Europa*, crewed entirely by women, has roamed far outside the local group of cultures. The star-drive technology allows journeys of tens of thousands of [parsecs](/source/Parsec) in mere months. In spite of this, most cultures are "stay-at-homes" compared to humans, interacting only with the local group of cultures, known as a "cluster". Now the *Franklin* and the *Europa* return to find that Earth has suffered the ultimate disaster. ## Plot summary ### Ragnarok The *USS Benjamin Franklin*, a starship crewed entirely by men returns to Earth, to find the planet consumed by eruptions from within the crust. All life is gone, along with the few outposts of humanity on the Moon and artificial satellites. Missiles lurk throughout the Solar System, ready to destroy returning ships. Unable to leave a message drone because of the missiles, *Franklin* flees to [Tau Ceti](/source/Tau_Ceti). Discipline breaks down, the captain is killed, and a nucleus of a new crew forms behind a man named Carl Donnan. Donnan is an engineer and adventurer who gave up wandering the Earth for a chance to see the galaxy, courtesy of a [Senator](/source/United_States_Senate) who owed him a favor. Now he is leading almost 300 men on a quest for other humans, and for Earth's murderers. Chief suspects are the Kandemirians, especially since the missiles swarming through the Solar System are Kandemirian. Earth is new to [interstellar trade](/source/Space_trade), and a handful of ships have gone out into the wider galactic society. The men realize they have little hope of finding other humans, let alone women. They do have a guide with them, an alien called Ramri from the polycultural society originating on the planet Monwaing. Ramri is a biped descended from feathered, bird-like creatures. Some time afterwards, the ship *Europa* with a crew of 100 women returns, to find Earth destroyed and missiles roaming the Solar System. They are able to disable one missile. A small team boards the missile, including Navigation Officer Sigrid Holmen and her friend Gunnery Officer Alexandra Vukovic. The missile appears to have been manufactured by Kandemirians, although there are symbols in an unknown script scrawled on a [bulkhead](/source/Bulkhead_(partition)) within it. Other missiles approach, and the *Europa* must leave without addressing the central mystery. The officers confer about where to go next. ### The Quests Travelling to Vorlak, Donnan sells the crew's services to the warlord, or *Draga*, *Hlott Luurs*. His proposition is that the humans will develop new technology allowing a ship to detect the drives of other ships far beyond the usual range. Donnan's friend Arnold Goldspring is a mathematician who has a host of new ideas for the technology. The detector is just the first one. To prove its worth, Donnan bargains for a Vorlak ship which they will use on a [stealth](/source/Stealth_technology) raid on a Kandemirian outpost. The raid is a disaster, and they are captured by Kandemirians. Interrogated by the head of the Kandemirian forces, Tarkamat, Donnan is told that if he refuses to re-create the technology for Kandemir, his crew will die horribly, one by one. He has no choice but to comply. The crew of the *Europa* travel far beyond the boundaries of the local cluster to one with a vibrant capitalist economy. At Sigrid Holmen's suggestion, they set themselves up as "Terran Traders Inc." and proceed to amass wealth, hoping to be able to buy or charter ships to search for survivors of Earth. Sigrid is kidnapped by representatives of a rival trader culture, the Forsi, who resemble heavyset [gnomes](/source/Gnome). The Forsi want to take her away to study, determined to discover why "Terran Traders Inc." is able to be so successful. She is in the process of attempting escape from them when Alexandra Vukovic, a former urban guerrilla, tracks her down and uses her skills to eliminate Sigrid's captors. ### Earth's suicide? Donnan's crew, laboring on one of the Kandemirians' subject planets, are being carefully monitored to make sure they only work on the drive detection device. However, the monitoring of the material making up the chassis of the device is less stringent, and they are able to create a dummy copy of a common soldier's rifle from seemingly unrelated parts. With this they bluff their way out of confinement, capture real weapons, and eventually steal a starship. The price of this escape is the loss of a suicide squad who hold off the local troops long enough for Donnan, Goldspring, Ramri and the rest to take off. Ramri takes them to his homeworld, Katkinu. Like many Monwaing worlds, this has different and apparently incompatible cultures living side by side. The official Representative of the homeworld on Katkinu is from the *Laothaung* culture. Unlike Ramri's culture, this one uses biotechnology efficiently and ruthlessly. Specialized lifeforms, designed to have just enough intelligence to do work, and subservient to the rulers, carry out all labor. There are even altered types of Monwaingi being used as slaves. In the Representative's office they are shown a recording of an interrogation of an agent of the merchant culture of *Xo*. It indicates that Earth was destroyed by bombs sold to two of the minor national powers, and set up as a suicide weapon, to be detonated if either power was attacked with nuclear weapons. ### The Battle of Brandobar The men are shocked, but are still determined to fight on against the Kandemirians. Returning to Vorlak, Donnan bluffs his way past *Hlott Luurs*, who is still angry over the loss of a ship and his kinsman aboard it. Goldspring has designed more weapons using the stardrive technology. The basis of the drive is that space is a [standing wave](/source/Standing_wave) pattern. Where [interference fringes](/source/Interference_fringe) occur, there is in effect no space and no distance. A ship may jump from fringe to fringe and travel from star to star in a short time. The new devices manufacture artificial fringes. With this they are able to distort space-time inside enemy ships, disabling missiles, inducing small thermonuclear explosions, and producing coherent sound waves. This last weapon lets them administer the *[coup de grâce](/source/Coup_de_gr%C3%A2ce)* to the Kandemirian fleet, broadcasting a message which demoralizes the crews, at the same time encouraging the subject races in the Empire to revolt. After the victory, the news, in the form of a carefully crafted minstrel song, spreads around the galaxy. The song, in Uru, has the title "The Battle of Brandobar", and describes the final battle in a series of [quatrains](/source/Quatrain). A chapter of the novel is dedicated to a scholarly analysis of the song, teasing out both the story of the song and the calculated structure of the verses, designed to resist alteration as the song spreads from one singer to another along the trade routes. It is through this song that the crew of the *Europa*, via their trade connections, learn where the *USS Benjamin Franklin* went. ### Reunion — and the awful truth Once the two crews are united, apart from the obvious considerations, they must decide who destroyed the Earth. The men still believe it was the Kandemirians, with the trader story being [disinformation](/source/Disinformation). When they decode the symbols the women found, they realize the truth. It is a base 12 to 6 conversion table to help technicians reprogram the weapons. The missiles are Kandemirian, but the script is Monwaingi. One of the many different Monwaingi societies, possibly the ruthless biotech *Laothaung* culture, wanted the Earth and saw fit to cleanse it before colonizing with their own [biota](/source/Biota_(ecology)). Ramri leaves for his home planet, determined to purge the culture that committed the crime, but aware that his own world might well be destroyed in the process. Carl Donnan and Sigrid Holmen can only look at each other and say "What have we done?" ## Characters - Carl Donnan - Ramri, a 5-foot-tall (1.5 m) bird-descended biped with brilliant blue feathers. He is a product of the high-technology *Tantha* culture who believe in trade with other cultures. As a Monwaingi representative on Earth, he is enraptured by human culture and its arts. He is particularly taken by human music, especially [Beethoven](/source/Ludwig_van_Beethoven). Despite his size and a somewhat delicate appearance, he is a willing fighter, and wields talons on his clawed feet. - Arnold Goldspring, the Detector Officer on the *USS Benjamin Franklin*. A mathematician, he is able to re-invent the "paragravitic standing wave" technology behind interstellar travel to create new and revolutionary weapons. - Sigrid Holmen, the Navigation Officer on the *Europa*. Tall, blonde, and Swedish, she is a stoic figure who has to control her grief over the loss of her beloved country, its forests, waters and people, and keep going forward in the hope that humanity might continue. - Alexandra Vukovic, the Gunnery Officer on the *Europa* and Sigrid's best friend. She is a [Serb](/source/Serbia) and a graduate of "the Soviet incursion of 1995". This event turned her into a guerilla, a staunch friend, and a habitual rebel. - Hlott Luurs, a *Draga* or warlord of the Vorlak, a race of bipeds of about the same size as humans, but resembling otters in the head shape and in the possession of a coat of fur. Hlott Luurs is the head of the Draga Council by virtue of support from a coalition of other Draga. Like the other Draga he is pugnacious, proud, quick to take offense, but bound by a code of honor, which Donnan uses to his advantage. - Tarkamat of Kandemir, the military leader for the entire campaign against the Vorlak-led forces. After Donnan and his raiders are captured, he personally interrogates Donnan in his luxurious quarters. Like all Kandemirians, Tarkamat is well over 2 meters tall, handsome by human standards, a broad-shouldered and narrow-waisted biped with a ruff of hair framing the face. His officers and other soldiers are also members of his [clan](/source/Clan), a typical Kandmirian arrangement. ## External links - [*After Doomsday*](https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?5340) title listing at the [Internet Speculative Fiction Database](/source/Internet_Speculative_Fiction_Database) v t e Works by Poul Anderson Hoka (with Gordon R. Dickson) Earthman's Burden Star Prince Charlie Hoka! Hoka! Hoka! Hoka! The Psychotechnic League Star Ways The Snows of Ganymede Virgin Planet The Psychotechnic League Cold Victory Starship Technic History Polesotechnic League period of Nicholas van Rijn War of the Wing-Men Trader to the Stars The Trouble Twisters Satan's World The Earth Book of Stormgate Mirkheim The People of the Wind Terran Empire period of Dominic Flandry Ensign Flandry A Circus of Hells The Rebel Worlds The Day of Their Return Agent of the Terran Empire Flandry of Terra A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows A Stone in Heaven The Game of Empire The Long Night Let the Spacemen Beware History of Rustum Orbit Unlimited New America Maurai Maurai and Kith Orion Shall Rise Other science fiction novels Flight to Forever Vault of the Ages Brain Wave Question and Answer No World of Their Own The Long Way Home Perish by the Sword War of Two Worlds The Enemy Stars The High Crusade Murder in Black Letter Twilight World After Doomsday The Makeshift Rocket Murder Bound Shield Three Worlds to Conquer The Corridors of Time The Star Fox The Fox, the Dog and the Griffin: A Folk Tale Adapted from the Danish of C. Molbeck World Without Stars Tau Zero The Byworlder The Dancer from Atlantis There Will Be Time Fire Time Inheritors of Earth The Winter of the World The Avatar The Demnon of Scattery The Devil's Game The Boat of a Million Years The Longest Voyage War of the Gods Starfarers Genesis Mother of Kings For Love and Glory Collections Strangers from Earth Un-Man and Other Novellas Time and Stars The Horn of Time Beyond the Beyond Seven Conquest Tales of the Flying Mountains The Queen of Air and Darkness and Other Stories The Worlds of Poul Anderson The Many Worlds of Poul Anderson Homeward and Beyond The Best of Poul Anderson Homebrew Winners The Night Face & Other Stories The Dark Between the Stars Explorations Fantasy Cold Victory The Gods Laughed Starship The Winter of the World / The Queen of Air and Darkness Conflict The Long Night Past Times The Unicorn Trade Dialogue With Darkness Space Folk Alight in the Void The Armies of Elfland Inconstant Star Kinship With the Stars All One Universe Going for Infinity Swordsmen from the Stars Operation Otherworld Operation Chaos Operation Luna Other fantasy novels Three Hearts and Three Lions The Broken Sword Hrolf Kraki's Saga A Midsummer Tempest The Merman's Children Conan the Rebel War of the Gods Historical novels The Golden Slave Rogue Sword Mother of Kings Novellas and short stories "Brake" "Call Me Joe" "Delenda Est" "Entity" "Eutopia" "Goat Song" "The Light" "The Longest Voyage" "The Man Who Came Early" "Marius" "Memory" "Night Piece" "No Truce with Kings" "The Pirate" "The Queen of Air and Darkness" "Quest" "Sam Hall" "The Saturn Game" "The Sensitive Man" "The Sharing of Flesh" "Un-Man" --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [After Doomsday](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Doomsday) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Doomsday?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.