From: m.driussi@genie.com
Subject: (whorl) Generation Ships
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 97 05:15:00 GMT


[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

Reply:  Item #2848746 from WHORL@LISTS.BEST.COM@INET#

vizcacha,

Re: "Starcross," frankly I thought it was better than RENDEZVOUS
WITH RAMA.  Maybe because of the interactive nature?  Here I was
going to mention the whole "floater vector" thing, or "what happens
when an object leaves the surface of a big centerfuge, even if it is
near the axis" which is covered in "Starcross" and had my friends arguing
over the physics.  That was the very best Infocom game, imho--kudos
to you!  (Did you write any other games?)

The van Vogt you are thinking of is "Alpha Centauri," I believe.
(They use a suspended animation drug and a slower than light drive.)

Kiernan Cleary,

Hello and welcome aboard.  Re: Moly, right, it is short for
Molybdenum--this is given in the text and in the lists.  I just
wanted to point out that it is another case where the name has two
meanings.  While we're on the topic of names, do you (or anybody
else, for that matter) have a notion of what animal Jerboa is
thinking of (IV, 172) when he wonders if "Incus" is a egg eating,
tree-dwelling creature?  (For the answer I'm braced and ready for
a very bad pun.)

Re: Flier names, Derek Bell caught most of them.  Of course, if you
and Derek (and anybody else) could find the other odd Flier words, or
determine what the male/female naming conventions are ("Sumaire"
seems quite strange--unless she is an inhumu, of course.  Then it
makes perfect sense! <g>), that would be a handy thing.

alga,

Re: "Black Sheep," it reads like one of the "The Island of Doctor
Death and Other Stories" stories.  Imho.

=mantis=

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