History Literature / CaptainFrenchOrTheQuestForParadise

Captain Graham French is the first human to ever reach another star, being a NASA test pilot back in the 21st century. He was sent to fly the first starship to Alpha Centauri equipped with the Ramsden relativistic drive, where he discovers a habitable planet. Instead of going back, he chose to to continue to other stars and explore them. By the time he got back, nearly 100 years have passed on Earth. His wife and daughter have long been dead. Celebrated as a hero, he retired and lived the life of luxury, watching as government space programs were shut down as private enterprises began building ships to settle other worlds. When he found out that his ship would be handed over to a museum (or a bank, or a spice company), he stole it (giving up his Earthly, literally, possessions in favor of the museum/bank/spice company) and took off for one of the already-established extrasolar colonies. Instead of arresting French, as the lightspeed message from Earth demanded, the colonists chose to sign a deal with French, which is how he got his start as the first space trader. Thousands of years later, French visits the planet Murphy only to find out that it has suffered a comet strike since the last time he was there. After a period of anarchy and cannibalism, a religious order called the Holy Archonate has taken over, claiming that the "Lord's Hammer" has cleansed the world of sinners. While on Murphy, he spends time with Archon Joffrey, telling the priest about his adventures, before the Archon offers French a wife from among those the Archonate considers "undesirable" (i.e. those who refuse their rules and don't wish to be re-educated). From among them, French chooses a redhead named [[Creator/AnneMcCaffrey Killashandra]] who is one of the most stubborn of the "undesirables". Killashandra agrees to join French, and they depart Murphy. They spend the next several years traveling the stars, stopping at various worlds to trade. Eventually, though, Killashandra tells French that she wants a baby. While French initially explains to her the various problems of giving birth and raising a baby aboard a ship. Eventually, Killashandra comes up with a solution. She wants French to leave her on a good colony for 70 years, during which she will raise their child. Then the child will marry and start a family, while she returns to the ship. In the end, French agrees and leaves her on Corinth, where local customs mean that a woman from another world can't find a husband there.

* TimeAbyss: Anyone dealing with French for a long time will get this feeling after hearing a few of his stories. Both Archon Joffrey and Killashandra are shocked when they hear him casually mention dealing with their ancestors 10,000 years ago. French himself frequently mentions [[TheBible Methuselah]] when describing this reaction.

** Trantor and Aurora - planets in IsaacAsimov's ''{{Foundation}}'' series.

* LovePotion: The people of Solaris have developed an aphrodisiac that can be applied like perfume. At a social event in his honor, French is approached by an attractive woman in revealing clothing who starts an argument with him about feminism. Meanwhile, French finds himself more and more thinking about what it would be like to remove her clothing, despite the fact that his wife is in the next room. He finally realizes that she is trying to seduce him using the aphrodisiac and manages to keep her away with his cigar. However, her attempts affected him [[SomethingElseAlsoRises in a certain way]], so he takes Killashandra back to their room and has mad sex with her to relieve the "pressure". In the morning, she half-jokingly calls him an animal. He's later told that, for a woman of her status, it's shameful for the "feminist" to use an aphrodisiac to seduce a man, as it signals to others that she can't do it normally.

* FermatsLastTheorem: French mentions that one of the 20 or so interstellar transmissions he intercepted in his millennia of flying the galaxy was the proof for this. He admits that it's probably a big accomplishment for a mathematician but is utteraly useless to someone in French's line of work.

* MagicPlasticSurgery: Biosculpture is the logical extreme of plastic surgery. Anyone with sufficient funds (although, it's implied not to be very expensive) can have their appearance altered to a desired one. Of course, this results in an effect of the YouAllLookFamiliar variety, especially with women, since standards of beauty haven't changed much.

The novel takes place about 20,000 years in the future. While humans have made it to the stars, settling thousands of worlds, CasualInterstellarTravel is averted ''hard''. FasterThanLightTravel is impossible. The only means of going to other stars involves using a relativistic drive system that appears to be instantaneous to anyone aboard but takes decades or even centuries for the outside universe. As such, very few ships go between worlds, being limited to occasional colony ships heading for newly-discovered habitable worlds, occasional religious fanatics seeking to spread their faith, or space traders (of which there are only a few hundred). Building a starship is also extremely expensive, meaning only the richest colonies can afford to do that in order to relieve population pressure. Aging has been eliminated on most worlds thanks to a miracle procedure known as Cellular Regeneration (or CR) that stops the aging process in its tracks. Most choose to undergo the procedure in their early 20s, although some have known to wait until 30 to look "more mature". WeWillHavePerfectHealthInTheFuture is also largely true, as advanced medical technology (frequently employing {{Autodoc}}s) can cure any known disease. All this has resulted in PopulationControl being imposed on most worlds, with child licenses being given out as people die from unnatural causes. Birth control is not a problem, as sterilization is easy and reversible.

Captain Graham French is the first human to ever reach another star, being a NASA test pilot back in the 21st century. He was sent to fly the first starship to Alpha Centauri equipped with the Ramsden relativistic drive, where he discovers a habitable planet. Instead of going back, he chose to to continue to other stars and explore them. By the time he got back, nearly 100 years have passed on Earth. His wife and daughter have long been dead. Celebrated as a hero, he retired and lived the life of luxury, watching as government space programs were shut down as private enterprises began building ships to settle other worlds. When he found out that his ship would be handed over to a museum (or a bank, or a spice company), he stole it and took off for one of the already-established extrasolar colonies. Instead of arresting French, as the lightspeed message from Earth demanded, the colonists chose to sign a deal with French, which is how he got his start as the first space trader. Thousands of years later, French visits the planet Murphy only to find out that it has suffered a comet strike since the last time he was there. After a period of anarchy and cannibalism, a religious order called the Holy Archonate has taken over, claiming that the "Lord's Hammer" has cleansed the world of sinners. While on Murphy, he spends time with Archon Joffrey, telling the priest about his adventures, before the Archon offers French a wife from among those the Archonate considers "undesirable" (i.e. those who refuse their rules and don't wish to be re-educated). From among them, French chooses a redhead named [[Creator/AnneMcCaffrey Killashandra]] who is one of the most stubborn of the "undesirables". Killashandra agrees to join French, and they depart Murphy. They spend the next several years traveling the stars, stopping at various worlds to trade. Eventually, though, Killashandra tells French that she wants a baby. While French initially explains to her the various problems of giving birth and raising a baby aboard a ship. Eventually, Killashandra comes up with a solution. She wants French to leave her on a good colony for 70 years, during which she will raise their child. Then the child will marry and start a family, while she returns to the ship. In the end, French agrees and leaves her on Corinth, where local customs mean that a woman from another world can't find a husband there.

Captain Graham French is the first human to ever reach another star, being a NASA test pilot back in the 21st century. He was sent to fly the first starship to Alpha Centauri equipped with the equipped with the Ramsden relativistic drive, where he discovers a habitable planet. Instead of going back, he chose to to continue to other stars and explore them. By the time he got back, nearly 100 years have passed on Earth. His wife and daughter have long been dead. Celebrated as a hero, he retired and lived the life of luxury, watching as government space programs were shut down as private enterprises began building ships to settle other worlds. When he found out that his ship would be handed over to a museum (or a bank, or a spice company), he stole it and took off for one of the already-established extrasolar colonies. Instead of arresting French, as the lightspeed message from Earth demanded, the colonists chose to sign a deal with French, which is how he got his start as the first space trader. Thousands of years later, French visits the planet Murphy only to find out that it has suffered a comet strike since the last time he was there. After a period of anarchy and cannibalism, a religious order called the Holy Archonate has taken over, claiming that the "Lord's Hammer" has cleansed the world of sinners. While on Murphy, he spends time with Archon Joffrey, telling the priest about his adventures, before the Archon offers French a wife from among those the Archonate considers "undesirable" (i.e. those who refuse their rules and don't wish to be re-educated). From among them, French chooses a redhead named [[Creator/AnneMcCaffrey Killashandra]] who is one of the most stubborn of the "undesirables". Killashandra agrees to join French, and they depart Murphy. They spend the next several years traveling the stars, stopping at various worlds to trade. Eventually, though, Killashandra tells French that she wants a baby. While French initially explains to her the various problems of giving birth and raising a baby aboard a ship. Eventually, Killashandra comes up with a solution. She wants French to leave her on a good colony for 70 years, during which she will raise their child. Then the child will marry and start a family, while she returns to the ship. In the end, French agrees and leaves her on Corinth, where local customs mean that a woman from another world can't find a husband there.

* FutureSlang: The curse word "massaraksh" gets thrown around a lot, claiming to come from Barsoom. In fact, the word is a ShotOut to the StrugatskyBrothers novel ''Literature/PrisonersOfPower''.

** French tells this story to Killashandra as they're going to the ballet based on the event called ''The Revenge of Captain Rego''.

* AbsentAliens: Intentionally invoked by the authors, as the presence of aliens would naturally shift the focus away from the main theme of the novel. Humans have settled thousands of worlds and discovered tens of thousands more in three spiral arms of the galaxy.

* AbsentAliens: Intentionally invoked by the authors, as the presence of aliens would naturally shift the focus away from the main theme of the novel.