Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 07:30:17 -0800
From: Michael Andre-Driussi 
Subject: (urth) Free Live Free, the unnamed city

Roy wrote:
>But I think you're looking in the
>wrong place for the city. It's not in the Midwest, if it exists at all; it's
>on the East Coast. I have only the Tor paperback, so I don't know the HC
>page number, but on the second page of chapter 59 Free looks out the window
>of the cockpit and sees the "tossing waters of the Atlantic".

Good catch!  That does narrow things down quite a bit.

>The _High Country_ doesn't stray from protected US airspace--that's why it
>was built. It seems to circle, more or less; at least it doesn't seem to
>ever be out of a short-range flight of the shuttle B-17, and the B-17 takes
>off and lands from the old military base near the modern airport.

I agree, but rather than "circle" I think it more kind of hovers.  (For the
time travel from High Country 1942 to High Country 1952, I think it really
has to be as "in place" as a building on the ground.  It is in a
"geo-synchronous orbit" while still being within the atmosphere.)  There is
that talk of the atmospheric winds blowing from west to east, and gliding.

> And the
>Flying Carpet is near the airport. The flask and the matches point to New
>York City. I don't think that is the city, but the city is probably close to
>NYC. The television commentator said it was a major US city. It's definitely
>not Philadelphia. It's far enough north to get cold and have snow. If the
>shuttle used in 1942 operated under the same conditions as in 1982-3 (never
>too far from _High Country_), then that plane landed at Langley Field,
>Virginia. The high and mighty aboard the _High Country_ probably wanted to
>stay close to the center of government power in Washington DC. The city, if
>it exists, should be between there and NYC, as I see it.

That narrows it down dramatically!  There are not that many major cities
between DC and NYC, and tending toward the coast: Baltimore, Wilmington
(major?), Philadelphia, Atlantic City (major?), and Trenton (major?).

=mantis=



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