From: Matthew Malthouse <matthew.malthouse@guardian.co.uk>
Subject: Re: (whorl) more questions
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 19:10:06 

Greg Neyman wrote:

>     Another question ... if chems had personal fusion packs to power
> themselves (when General mint charges in Calde, she swings her azoth, and
> the book describes how it goes through a soldier's fusion core), why did
> things like taluses and floaters still rely on fish oil, presumably for
> internal-combustion engines?

The chems were created before launch and on board before the human cargo
awoke. Presumably their power source was a product of the culture that built
the Whorl.

There _may_ have been some taluses with similar power that we did not see. The
one's that we did see were presumably built by the people of the Whorl - and
we get to see the foundry - and thus limited to the technologies they posess.

There is a gap however: chems can make children if they have the parts, how
those would be powered is open to question.  Maybe it is not the lack of
knowledge but of working parts that limit the taluses to combustion power.

Matthew

*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.
*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.moonmilk.com/whorl/
*To leave the list, send "unsubscribe" to whorl-request@lists.best.com
*If it's Wolfe but not Long Sun, please use the URTH list: urth@lists.best.com