Star Gate - gateway to the stars
Star Gate - Tor zu den Sternen is a German science fiction novel series that was developed in 1986 by the authors WK Giesa , Wilfried A. Hary , Uwe Anton and Frank Rehfeld . Its origins are well before the well-known American series Stargate - Kommando SG-1 .
The series later split into two independent series.
History of the plot
The earth in 2063 is ruled by corporations; Nations and states have lost their meaning, human rights no longer seem to exist. One of these corporations, Mechanics Inc., based in Detroit, is busy putting a stargate into operation. The competitor Flibo is hard on their heels. But Mechanics Inc. is one step ahead of its competitors. The technology group sends a team of seven through the gate on earth - but then the unbelievable happens: The team disappears. The sister gate on the moon never matters. Professor Bryan Holmes, head of the project, immediately flies to the moon to examine the Star Gate there and find the fault.
Meanwhile, the team steps out of the Stargate - on a strange planet. Slowly they realize that they have accidentally broken into an existing stargate network. The concept originally consists in letting teams travel many worlds where they will always find new friends and new enemies.
Series history
Kiosk counter
In 1986, the newly founded Merkur publishing house started a SF novel series. At the first editorial conference it was decided to create a series story about matter transmitters and star streets. The name Star Gate - Gate to the Stars was chosen.
The series ran 11 volumes and then disappeared from the kiosk due to economic difficulties due to poor distribution. Since 2005, the original series has been published under the title Star Gate - Das Original again completely by Hary-Production and will be continued there. The series published by Hary-Verlag again ignores the subscription series except for volume 12. This was already printed when it was discontinued, but was only delivered with the subscription series.
Continuation as a subscription series
About a year after the end of the original series, the former publisher Volker Krämer wrote again to Werner K. Giesa to continue the series in a different form, but with the same name. So there was a new editorial conference at which in addition to Werner K. Giesa and his wife Heike, who did the editing, Volker Krämer and Werner Wilbert were also present. There a concept for a continuation of initially 12 issues was worked out. The original planning, which went up to volume 20, was completely discarded and a concept based more on spaceships was developed, for which there was a time jump between volume twelve (which was still delivered in this way) and thirteen.
The operators of the gate network that people accidentally penetrated are conquering the earth and extorting huge reparations payments for illegal use of the gate network.
The novels that were already finished and started for the original series were not taken into account. The distribution should run as a subscription via the SF fandom . The series now appeared monthly with a circulation of 1000 copies. However, the 800 books necessary for black numbers could not be sold.
Book editions
Blitz part 1
In 1997 Blitz-Verlag came into contact with Werner K. Giesa and was made aware of Star-Gate by him. The publisher reissued the series as a paperback, each with several of the old issues in one book. The subscription series was initially reprinted after Volume 11. Subsequently, the three novels that Giesa had already written but no longer published for the subscription series (not the one for the original series) were published. After that the series was discontinued.
Wilbert
In the meantime, one of the former publishers, Werner Wilbert, had re-established a publishing house. He had the other former publisher Volker Krämer write exposees for a sequel. Here, the lost team succeeds in driving the conquerors off the earth again by finding extraterrestrial technology. In doing so, they trigger an intergalactic war between gate network operators and Earth.
Two books by Margret Schwekendiek and Horst Hoffmann are published . Then the series was discontinued again.
Blitz part 2
Star Gate returned to the Blitz publishing house. Here four more books appeared as a sequel, after which the series was discontinued.
Dramatis Personae
- Kenneth "Ken" Randall - Survival Specialist at Mechanics Inc.
- Tanya Genada - Survival Specialist at Mechanics Inc.
- Bryan Holmes - Lead Scientist, Star Gate Project at Mechanics Inc.
- Clint Fisher - Head of Safety at Mechanics Inc.
- Lino Frascati - Executive Vice President Mechanics Inc.
- Jerry Bernstein - reporter
- Haiko Chan - Survival Specialist in the service of Mechanics Inc. of Mongolian descent
- Eberhard von Wylbert - Senior Scientist at Flibo
- Dr. Janni van Velt - scientist
- Dr. Dimitrij Wassilow - scientist
- Dr. Yörg Maister - scientist
- Mario Servantes - scientist
- Juan da Costa - scientist
- Herbert Nelles - scientist
- Pieto - a Bulowa
- Xybrass - an alien
The world of the series
The world in which the series takes place is blatantly different from ours. Big corporations have taken power, states and nationalities have degenerated into insignificance. The UN pretends to watch over the weal and woe of mankind, but resembles a toothless tiger that the corporations only laugh at.
The people who work for the corporations have to put up with restrictive contracts that encroach on their most intimate spheres. People who have violated their employment contracts are brought to a penal colony on Venus, where they have to toil in the cobalt mines under inhumane conditions. The corporations generously ignore the UN's human rights clauses.
Even in this virtually unlawful area, market and demand flourish. Technological development is driven forward in order to generate profits. Strong security forces protect the corporations from industrial espionage and sabotage. But every now and then an agent manages to break the safety belt.
With the conquest of the earth, all corporations are smashed and the earth's economy is mercilessly plundered. After the liberation, the corporations fail to regain their former power.
See also
swell
- www.wk-giesa.de (offline)
- Verlag-Wilbert
- Blitz publishing house