Evolution: Appendix N

Continuing on the Evolution-project, this time I'll try to compile a list of reference literature. These books all have elements of what I see fitting in the new age of Argos. Again, this is mostly for my own benefit, as a way of gathering my thoughts, but I can recommend each of the titles listed below.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is set in the Europe of the Napoleonic Wars. It's world is one where magic exists, but plays a minor role. Up until Jonathan Strange is employed as the General Wellesley's war-magician during the Iberian Campaigns. It's been a while since I read this one, so I may try to revisit it. The reason I'm putting this one on the list is because it takes place in an era similar to the one I may try to emulate in the new age.

1632 is the beginning of a series telling the unlikely tale of a North-American town mysteriously transported back in time, to Germany during the Thirty Years War. The relevance here is the impact the knowledge and technology the futurists bring into the world they now must live in. Due to the involvement of the Outsiders, Argos has some similar concerns. I've read a few of these books, and I'll make a point of reading some more over the next months.

The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society & the Birth of the Modern World is not only the finest non-fiction I've read so far this year, it also deals with several of the issues I am contemplating at the moment. Chief of these are how the people who stood at the watershed between the old and the new world thought, and how were the new ideas received by society. I am still reading this one, but I have already gotten several ideas, not to mention that it is providing me with a very interesting view of the birth of science.

The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the beauty and Terror of Science covers the age after the The Clockwork Universe, and while I found it somewhat drier than Clockwork, it still deals with some of what I am working with. Both addresses the opening of new paradigms, but this one brushes up on the world preceding the Industrial Revolution. I am still not sure how far, and how fast, I will advance the Erian civilizations, but this book covers what I see as the furthest possible point.

A Brief History of the English Civil War is another book that covers an era of relevance. It is perhaps more relevant for the last couple of decades of Aragonian history, but I think there are elements that applies also to the next generation.

The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy covers what may be one of the worst wars in our history. Civilization virtually collapsed in large parts of central Europe, and Argos' War of Enlightenment is inspired by this war. This is a book I intend to read as soon as I can find an opening.

Geist: The Sin-Eaters is on this list because I'm thinking about including these supernaturals in the Fourth Age. With the god of death gone, and with the Underworld razed by war, the dead are more or less left to fend for themselves. I've not yet read this book, but what I've seen so far intrigues me. I definitely see a niche for the Geists, if not as a playable character-type, then as new additions to the metaphysics. Of all these titles, this is the only one I do not own as of yet.

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