SciFy AU?

[dasmims]

For years now I've been thinking in vague terms about Hornblower in Space. That's mostly born out of a discussion about Hornblower influences on scify media like Star Trek and Honour Harrington, my personal feeling that scify usually doesn't have the vibe I love about age of sail and for some reason the abandoned fic The (unexpected) Return - I don't know if I have a point here. But I'm very curious if anyone else has some thoughts on this?

Comments

[sanguinity]

Vorkosigan Saga also has Hornblower influences. (And the rice ship shows up explicitly -- but in spaaaaaaaace!)

I think you have an unfinished sentence there: The (unexpected) Return what? Does or doesn't have the vibe? (And are you reccing it?)

Does Treasure Planet have the vibe for you? I did have strong Captain/Loyal-Second feelings about their Smollett and Arrow for a hot second there.

And while Firefly has more Wild West vibes than Age-of-Sail vibes, I did have Captain/Loyal-Second feelings about Mal and Zoe, too.

Neither of those, though, have the "stiff formality, pretending they're not besties" part of it, though.

Have you seen the tumblr art series for Hornblower space AUs? There are at least two artists who have done them. Chiropteracupola and... I don't remember the other, I'll have to do some digging when I have time.

[dasmims]

Looks like I'll have to check out this Vorkosigan Saga, especially for the rice ship, it's one of my favourite Hornblower episodes after all.

That's not an unfinished sentence, it's just a poorly phrased list. The interest in Hornblower in space comes from: 1. discussion about Hornblower influences on scify media 2. my personal feeling that scify usually doesn't have the vibe I love about age of sail 3. the abandoned fic The (unexpected) Return, I don't know why this makes me think about Hornblower in Space, but it does - 'tis a mystery

I haven't seen Treasure Planet since I was 12/13, so, it's been ~15 years. But from what I remember it probably comes closest to what I mean, yes.

Firefly is also good candidate! I didn't even think about that one at first, probably cause the Wild West vibes are so strong. But except for the lack of water and strict, multilevel hierarchies Wild West and Age of Sail are pretty similar in many regards.

I haven't been on tumblr in ages, but I vaguely remember fanart of Bush with a futuristic prothesis, which I adored. With the old google search function I'd probably able to find it again, but with the current one I have no luck.

[sanguinity]

Vorkosigan Saga: the rice ship has only a glancing mention, barely a paragraph! I was more amused to note that it's part of the saga's canon. That said, Miles and Bothari in Warrior's Apprentice might give you some of the vibes you enjoy? (And that's where the rice ship appears, anyway.) If that works for you, there's additional Bothari-and-Vorkosigan feelings in the novels about Miles's parents: Shards of Honor and Barrayar (collected in the Cordelia's Honor omnibus).

chiropteracupola's Hornblower Space AU: one, two, three. I'm still looking for the other artist I'm thinking of.

ETA: janirah ! Sci-fi Hornblower AU

[dasmims]

The to be read list is growing longer and longer. Maybe I should keep an actual list somewhere.

janirah.'s art was the one I was thinking of! I really like Bush with the undercut, it suits him.

But chiropteracupola.'s also looks great. I love the mix of age of sail uniforms and futuristic technology.

[dragoness_e]

Well-known scifi series that I'm familiar with and were attempts to do Hornblower in Space with the serial numbers only lightly sanded off:

1. David Drake's Lt Leary series.
   
2. David Feintuch's Seafort Saga. He's the only author I know of who made his hero as angsty and self-doubting as Hornblower. I personally think he went a bit overboard with it, as he piled on tragedies and took the angst well beyond Hornblower levels to "Jeez, let the poor guy catch a break!"
   
3. The above-mentioned Honor Harrington series was intended to be "Hornblower in Space", but it rapidly diverged into "WW2 in Space".
   

[dasmims]

Lt. Leary got a spot on the tbr. Which is ever growing apparently.

How is it possible to make someone even more angsty than Hornblower? Is Seafort even a functional human being? I'm intrigued. (This is not looking good for the tbr)

When I listened to the audiobook of the first Honor Harrington book and got the impression that it would move in that direction i.e. WW2 in Space. I wasn't in the mood for that at the time, so I stopped the series there and I think I'm still not in the mood for that. Even though I thought Honor is an interesting character and I like the cat companion.

[dragoness_e]

Well, it's been a while, and I don't remember all the tragedies piled on Nicholas Seafort, but he starts with being raised by an abusive, hyper-Calvinist father who convinced the kid that if he disobeyed his father, he was damned to hell. When he ran off to join the Navy, he was disobeying his father, and he's still privately sure he's damned and all the tragedies that come his way are God's punishment. He's functional enough as an officer, because he has a really strong sense of Duty, but as a human being? Not so much.

In Honor Harrington, in various story arcs we also get the French Revolution/Reign of Terror, and the collapse of the Roman Empire with the serial numbers scrubbed off. Also a side series fighting a star nation of asshole slavers starring some of my favorite Gary Stus in sci-fi.

[dasmims]

Seafort sounds like he's a functioning cog in the machine that forgot that he's also human. The poor guy.

Honor Harrington, from my very limited experience, felt very similar to the few Warhammer 40k novels I've read. Those also just sift through history, pick some of the worst events and paint them in new colours. Which, don't get me wrong, can work and can make a for an interesting story, but drawing those connections can make it hard to read/listen to.

[yourlibrarian]

I would love to read a fic about Hornblower in space. It could even be a fusion with other well known space sagas. I remember reading a Merlin fic set in the Star Wars verse that worked very well because it was its own story but just using the conventions of that verse. I could see Hornblower working for the old Republic.

[dasmims]

Crossover fanfiction can be great!

My Star Wars knowledge is very limited, so I don't know what that would look like. But I think the Star Wars Universe would be a better fit than say Star Trek (even though I love Star Trek). Horatio does need a good reason to be anxious and the Federation is generally pretty relaxed - unless we are considering the Mirror Universe or making him an augment. Now there is food for thought.

Or how about a crossover with Andromeda? Or Bernice Summerfield?