Whatever Happened to Smade's Planet?

[jeff37923]

I received Rim of Fire for Christmas and while looking through it, I noticed that Smade's Planet was missing and that a new corporate colony had settled the planet and called it Demeter. Was this a deliberate change or just a weird error? If deliberate, what happened to the original hundreds of settlers who were on the world?

(I can come up with my own ideas on this one for what happened to the original inhabitants, but I was wondering if there was an official reason.)

[LKW]

Originally Posted by jeff37923

I received Rim of Fire for Christmas and while looking through it, I noticed that Smade's Planet was missing and that a new corporate colony had settled the planet and called it Demeter. Was this a deliberate change or just a weird error?

It was deliberate.

[alduc]

Smade's Planet was a) "borrowed" from a Jack Vance b) a poor fit to the Imperium setting. An entire planet owned and settled by a single family? In the most densely populated sector of the Imperium? And the authorities just let them be?

IMHO retconning it to Demeter in RoF was a good move.

Alain

[Jon F. Zeigler]

Deliberate change.

The original material had a number of Jack Vance "homages," but when Rim of Fire was approaching publication, Steve Jackson decided that "Smade's Planet" went too far for homage. I can see his point - borrowing not just the name, but the details of the story as well? Hence the retcon (with a vague reference to "earlier inhabitants" for people familiar with the original version).

For another SF in-joke, check out the narrative entry for "Barsoom" in the same book.

[jeff37923]

OK, cool. Thanks for the answer. I've never read any Jack Vance and am going to look some up now in the library.

[Dark Lord Skippy]

I think my personal favorite of all the Solomani Rim homages was Remulak.

Consume mass quantities!