Serpent's Reach - Timeline Issues

Timeline Issues

Placing the book within Cherryh's overall Alliance-Union timeline is somewhat challenging because the dates cited in Serpent's Reach (published in 1980) contradict those given in a timeline Cherryh later presented in Angel With the Sword (published in 1985). Specifically, Serpent's Reach indicates that first contact with the Majat occurs in 2223. Angel With the Sword, however, provides a date of 2623 for first contact, 400 years later.

It is very probable that the Angel With the Sword reference is correct and the earlier Serpent's Reach date is incorrect, because:

1. The citation in Serpent's Reach that provides the earlier date is from an Alliance government document, but the validity of this citation is highly dubious:
   • The document itself is dated 2301. But the Merchanter's Alliance was not created until after 2353, so a document referencing "Alliance citizens", "Alliance law", and so forth could not exist in 2301.
   • The document refers to "several centuries" of combined human/Majat government of the Hydri stars, which directly contradicts the document's own citation of first contact only 77 years before.
2. Union first contact and subsequent colonization does not make sense beginning in 2223, but does fit well with Cherryh's timeline in 2623:
   • Faster-than-light space travel is not invented in Cherryh's timeline until 2234, making colonization of the remote Hydri reach by anyone unlikely prior to that date.
   • In the Alliance-Union timeline, Union itself was not formed until 2300, so it is not possible for Union to have begun colonizing the Hydri stars some 70 years before.
   • Union began an aggressive colonization drive after the erosion of the Gehenna Doctrine in 2600, so a 2623 date is quite sensible for a Union first contact with the Majat.
3. The Alliance-Union timeline on Cherryh's official Web site, which covers the period of 2005 - 2300, makes no reference of the 2223 contact, and in fact no reference at all to the Majat or the Hydri stars.

The reason for the discrepancy is unclear. It is possible that the publisher mis-transcribed the dates from Cherryh's manuscript for Serpent's Reach. It is perhaps more likely that after having the opportunity to more fully develop her future history for the universe, Cherryh simply revised the dates in 1985 as a retcon.

In any case, assuming the Angel With the Sword reference is correct (and that Serpent's Reach therefore dates itself inaccurately), the events in the novel begin in the year 3141, some 400 years after the conclusion of the Mri Wars, and 518 years after first contact with the Majat.