Beta Colony

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Beta Colony is an important planet (although rarely the setting) in Lois McMaster Bujold's science fiction series the Vorkosigan Saga. The planet's biome is almost entirely desert, described as "screaming hot", [1] and the colony itself exists primarily underground. [2] Beta Colony's chief industries are weapons R&D and sex tourism.

Lois McMaster Bujold American author

Lois McMaster Bujold is an American speculative fiction writer. She is one of the most acclaimed writers in her field, having won the Hugo Award for best novel four times, matching Robert A. Heinlein's record. Her novella "The Mountains of Mourning" won both the Hugo Award and Nebula Award. In the fantasy genre, The Curse of Chalion won the Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature and was nominated for the 2002 World Fantasy Award for best novel, and both her fourth Hugo Award and second Nebula Award were for Paladin of Souls. In 2011 she was awarded the Skylark Award. In 2013 she was awarded the Forry Award for Lifetime Achievement, named for Forrest J. Ackerman, by the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society. She has won two Hugo Awards for Best Series, in 2017 for the Vorkosigan Saga and in 2018 for the Chalion series.

Vorkosigan Saga book series by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Vorkosigan Saga is a series of science fiction novels and short stories set in a common fictional universe by American author Lois McMaster Bujold. The first of these was published in 1986 and the most recent in May 2018. Works in the series have received numerous awards and nominations, including five Hugo award wins including one for Best Series.

Biome Distinct biological communities that have formed in response to a shared physical climate

A biome is a community of plants and animals that have common characteristics for the environment they exist in. They can be found over a range of continents. Biomes are distinct biological communities that have formed in response to a shared physical climate. Biome is a broader term than habitat; any biome can comprise a variety of habitats.

Contents

The concept of Beta Colony was first created and introduced in "Dreamweaver's Dilemma". [3] The idea was later expanded upon in Shards of Honor when Bujold needed a homeworld for Cordelia Naismith.

Culture

Beta Colony is noted for being a remarkably egalitarian state. Betan culture is also well known for its tolerance and liberal attitude towards all varieties of sexuality; a number of practices considered immoral on many other worlds, such as prostitution (in the form of paid sex therapy) and recreational drug use, are legal and accepted on Beta Colony. Beta Colony is also highly advanced, relative to most other planets, in many areas of technology and medicine. Many innovations mentioned in the Vorkosigan Saga originated on Beta Colony. For this reason, Betan dollars are considered one of the most stable and valuable currencies.

Toleration the practice of allowing or permitting a thing, person, or idea of which one disapproves

Toleration is the allowing, permitting, or acceptance of an action, idea, object, or person which one dislikes or disagrees with. Random House Dictionary defines tolerance as "a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, beliefs, practices, racial or ethnic origins, etc., differ from one's own". Toleration may signify "no more than forbearance and the permission given by the adherents of a dominant religion for other religions to exist, even though the latter are looked on with disapproval as inferior, mistaken, or harmful."

Prostitution Engaging in sexual relations in exchange for payment

Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. Prostitution is sometimes described as sexual services, commercial sex or, colloquially, hooking. It is sometimes referred to euphemistically as "the world's oldest profession" in the English-speaking world. A person who works in this field is called a prostitute and is a type of sex worker.

Recreational drug use Use of a drug with the primary intention to alter the state of consciousness

Recreational drug use is the use of a psychoactive drug to induce an altered state of consciousness for pleasure, by modifying the perceptions, feelings, and emotions of the user. When a psychoactive drug enters the user's body, it induces an intoxicating effect. Generally, recreational drugs are in three categories: depressants ; stimulants ; and hallucinogens. Many people also use prescribed and illegal opioids along with opiates and benzodiazepines. In popular practice, recreational drug use generally is a tolerated social behaviour, rather than perceived as the serious medical condition of self-medication. However, heavy use of some drugs is socially stigmatized.

Due to its restricted habitats, reproduction is tightly regulated. After a girl has her first menstrual cycle, she receives a contraceptive implant, has her hymen cut, and has her ears pierced; it's considered a coming of age ceremony and a signal of young adulthood. [4] In order to have children, the two prospective "co-parents" must take a course together and pass a number of physical, psychological and economic tests before being issued parents' licenses. [2] Very few families are authorized to have more than two children. Three-fourths of all Betan children are gestated in artificial wombs, [5] although co-parents who prefer to have their children through old-fashioned pregnancy are free to do so. Genetically engineered Hermaphrodites form a significant minority of the Betan population.

Psychology is the science of behavior and mind. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, as well as feeling and thought. It is an academic discipline of immense scope. Psychologists seek an understanding of the emergent properties of brains, and all the variety of phenomena linked to those emergent properties, joining this way the broader neuroscientific group of researchers. As a social science it aims to understand individuals and groups by establishing general principles and researching specific cases.

Economics Social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services

Economics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.

Gestation is the period of development during the carrying of an embryo or fetus inside viviparous animals. It is typical for mammals, but also occurs for some non-mammals. Mammals during pregnancy can have one or more gestations at the same time, for example in a multiple birth.

As another ramification of Beta Colony's inhospitable climate and underground development, Betans do not have any noteworthy works of architecture, but are very proud of feats of grand interior design and enclosed public spaces, and consider natural materials such as wood to be almost ludicrously extravagant. Cordelia Naismith is astounded that Barrayarans would use an intricate, antique parquet wooden floor as a dance-floor; on Beta, it would have been preserved and safeguarded as a great work of art. [6]


Cordelia Naismith is the name of two fictional characters by American writer Lois McMaster Bujold. One is from the science fiction series the Vorkosigan Saga. The other is the title character of the Victorian era Sherlock Holmes short story "The Adventure of the Lady on the Embankment" included in her anthology Dreamweaver's Dilemma.

<i>Barrayar</i> novel by Lois McMaster Bujold

Barrayar is a science fiction novel by American writer Lois McMaster Bujold. It was first published as four installments in Analog in July–October 1991, and then published in book form by Baen Books in October 1991. Barrayar won both the Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 1992. It is a part of the Vorkosigan Saga, and is the seventh full-length novel of the series, in publication order. Barrayar is a direct sequel to Bujold's first novel, Shards of Honor (1986), and the two are paired in the 1996 omnibus Cordelia's Honor.

Parquetry ornate wooden floor design

Parquet is a geometric mosaic of wood pieces used for decorative effect in flooring.

Beta Colony does not have a large military, but what it does have is one of the most technologically advanced in the nexus. Beta Colony is a major arms supplier for other worlds, but they usually only sell weapons that have been made obsolete by their own most recent developments. The civilian Betan Astronomical Survey, which serves a largely exploratory and scientific purpose, also acts as a reserve military force.

Many place names on Beta Colony are derived from geological substances and phenomena, such as the city of Silica and its attendant university. Another notable settlement is the largely hermaphrodite town of Quartz. [7]

Famous Betans

Background

According to the author, Beta Colony was one of the first two colonies founded by Earth, both by American efforts; the other, Alpha Colony, vanished in a manner likened to Roanoke. [8] Shortly thereafter, a world war destroyed much of America and effectively ended their space program, among others. As a result, Beta Colony, with its emphasis on personal freedom and tolerance, technological innovation, economic stability and influence, and racial and cultural diversity, came to hold a place in the political landscape reminiscent of an idealized version of America, specifically California. [2] [9]

Notes

  1. Bujold, Lois McMaster (1996). "Chapter 5". Memory (paperback). Baen. p. 66. ISBN   0-671-87845-X.
  2. 1 2 3 Carl 2008 , pp. 285–286, Beta Colony description in "An Old Earther's Guide to the Vorkosigan Universe" by Denise Little.
  3. Bujold 1995, p. 75, 203, "Dreamweaver's Dilemma".
  4. Bujold 1996, p. 328, Chapter 10 of "Barrayar".
  5. Bujold 1996, p. 241, Chapter 3 of "Barrayar".
  6. Bujold 1996, p. 272, Chapter 5 of "Barrayar".
  7. Carl 2008 , pp. 341–630, "The Vorkosigan Saga Concordance" by Kerrie Hughes, John Helfers, and Ed Burkhead.
  8. Bujold 1995, p. 222, "Answers".
  9. Carl 2008, p. 36, "Putting it Together: Live, the Vorkosiverse, and Everything" by Lois McMaster Bujold.

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