YASID: a group of kids is sitting around a fire on a spaceship...
Lynn McGuire
story that I read 30 or 40 years ago. The story starts out with
a group of kids sitting around a fire on a spaceship ???. At the
center of the fire is an old man teaching them mathematics. It is
very cold in the spaceship and if a kid can answer a question from
the old man correctly, they get to move closer to the fire. I
cannot remember if this is a short story or a novel. Does anyone
know what story this was ?
Thanks,
Lynn
lal_truckee
I'd suggest Aldiss' _Nonstop_ but in the ponics it was too hot, not cold.
Brenda Clough
If nobody kicks up a title, write it.
Brenda
Lynn McGuire
Heh. I can barely write software according to some. Bloated too
according to others.
Lynn
larso...@yahoo.com
I think it was Joan D. Vinge's "The Outcasts Of Heaven Belt" thou the
setting was an astiroid and they were doing calculations as the war
had destroyed a lot of the technology and power systems.
http://www.sfreviews.com/docs/Joan%20D.%20Vinge_1978_The%20Outcasts%20Of%20Heaven%20Belt.htm
Clip from the review; "There is the communist Grand Harmony whose
citizens serve as computing engines in the endless but essential task
of calculating the trajectories of the asteroids of Heaven Belt."
J Larson
Mike Schilling
news:ifgc7m$dfp$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
Then you're a natural for writing mil-sf for Baen.
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
Hey! I can't write software at all!
--
Sea Wasp
/^\
;;;
Website: http://www.grandcentralarena.com Blog:
http://seawasp.livejournal.com
Lynn McGuire
Oh, I've tried. Got three chapters into my great ecological
disaster book (makes _Lucifers_Hammer_ look like a piker, I
take out the entire solar system !). But, I can't write
dialog to save my life. And according to my customers, I
can't write software manuals either.
Oh wait, that was a subtle hit on my current favorite author,
David Weber. Or was it John Ringo ? Or Travis Taylor ? Or
Michael Williamson ? Or Tom Kratman ? Or David Drake ? Or
Eric Flint ?
Lynn
Sean Eric Fagan
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
>> Then you're a natural for writing mil-sf for Baen.
> Hey! I can't write software at all!
So... you're an artificial mil-sf writer for Baen?
Lynn McGuire
Yes, you are correct. My copy is twinned and is called _Heaven_Chronicles_:
http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Chronicles-Questar-Science-Fiction/dp/0446361186/
Thanks !
Lynn
Derek Lyons
Or fantasy for just about anybody.
D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.
http://derekl1963.livejournal.com/
-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL
trag
> Oh wait, that was a subtle hit on my current favorite author,
> David Weber. Or was it John Ringo ? Or Travis Taylor ? Or
> Michael Williamson ? Or Tom Kratman ? Or David Drake ? Or
> Eric Flint ?
"One of these things is not like the others... One of these things
is just not the same."
Well, maybe two.
Brian M. Scott
wrote in
<news:022e940d-eb87-4298...@29g2000prb.googlegroups.com>
in rec.arts.sf.written:
> Well, maybe two.
At least. Assuming that your two are Flint and Drake, I'd
add at least MZW and Weber.
Brian
Butch Malahide
> On Tue, 4 Jan 2011 12:08:50 -0800 (PST), trag <t...@io.com>
So 4 (at least) of the 7 are "not like the others"? I'm confused.
Gene Wirchenko
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
"...just doesn't belong."
Except that I found that I could usually find a second answer.
>Well, maybe two.
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko
Lynn McGuire
Me too. They all write so-called "bloated" mil-sf. It just so
happens that I *like* bloated mil-sf.
Lynn
trag
My one (or two) were Drake and possibly Flint. I would argue that
Weber, oh, so totally belongs on the list.
I defy you to find any bloat or fat of any kind in one of Drake's mil-
sf novels. Excepting the last couple of RCN books, because I
haven't actually read those yet. If anything, Drake is too terse at
times, skipping abruptly from one scene to the next relevant scene to
move the story along at the expense of a sense of continuity.
trag
> On Tue, 4 Jan 2011 12:08:50 -0800 (PST), trag <t...@io.com> wrote:
> >On Dec 29 2010, 6:33 pm, Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com> wrote:
>
> >> Oh wait, that was a subtle hit on my current favorite author,
> >> David Weber. Or was it John Ringo ? Or Travis Taylor ? Or
> >> Michael Williamson ? Or Tom Kratman ? Or David Drake ? Or
> >> Eric Flint ?
>
> >"One of these things is not like the others... One of these things
> >is just not the same."
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> "...just doesn't belong."
>
> Except that I found that I could usually find a second answer.
>
> >Well, maybe two.
Thanks, Gene. I suspected that I wasn't getting the wording
correct. I was never much of a Sesame Street kid and my kid dislikes
television so I never picked it up in the second round.
Wayne Throop
::::: Weber. Or was it John Ringo ? Or Travis Taylor ? Or Michael
::::: Williamson ? Or Tom Kratman ? Or David Drake ? Or Eric Flint ?
:::: "One of these things is not like the others... One of these things
:::: is just not the same." Well, maybe two.
::: At least. Assuming that your two are Flint and Drake, I'd add at
::: least MZW and Weber.
Hm. Seems obvious to me. There are only two that can be a classic
Stan Lee superhero alter ego character name. You know, like Reed Richards,
Bruce Banner, Peter Parker, Stephen Strange, and so forth.
On the other hand, none of them can be secondary characters in the Superman
mythos. You know, Lois Lane, Lana Lang, Lex Luthor...
Now if he'd been listed as Thomas Kratman, the obvious odd author out
would be John Ringo. On the other hand, "Thomas Kratman" seems to be
some other guy.
Wayne Throop thr...@sheol.org http://sheol.org/throopw
Brian M. Scott
wrote in
<news:70a3518f-d31e-4298...@z17g2000prz.googlegroups.com>
in rec.arts.sf.written:
> On Jan 5, 11:32 am, Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com> wrote:
>> On 1/4/2011 3:52 PM, Butch Malahide wrote:
>>> On Jan 4, 3:22 pm, "Brian M. Scott"<b.sc...@csuohio.edu> wrote:
>>>> On Tue, 4 Jan 2011 12:08:50 -0800 (PST), trag<t...@io.com>
>>>> wrote in
>>>> <news:022e940d-eb87-4298...@29g2000prb.googlegroups.com>
>>>> in rec.arts.sf.written:
>>>>> On Dec 29 2010, 6:33 pm, Lynn McGuire<l...@winsim.com> wrote:
>>>>>> Oh wait, that was a subtle hit on my current favorite author,
>>>>>> David Weber. Or was it John Ringo ? Or Travis Taylor ? Or
>>>>>> Michael Williamson ? Or Tom Kratman ? Or David Drake ? Or
>>>>>> Eric Flint ?
>>>>> "One of these things is not like the others... One
>>>>> of these things is just not the same." Well, maybe
>>>>> two.
>>>> At least. Assuming that your two are Flint and Drake, I'd
>>>> add at least MZW and Weber.
>>> So 4 (at least) of the 7 are "not like the others"? I'm confused.
>> Me too. They all write so-called "bloated" mil-sf. It just so
>> happens that I *like* bloated mil-sf.
> My one (or two) were Drake and possibly Flint. I would
> argue that Weber, oh, so totally belongs on the list.
I don't really consider Flint a writer of milSF in the first
place. MZW hasn't much of what you see as bloat. And Weber
is very different from all the rest (except possibly Flint)
in tone. So's Drake, for that matter.
I actually did realize that you were talking about perceived
bloat, but I don't consider that a very useful basis in the
first place, and even on that basis I thought the list
poorly chosen.
[...]
Brian
Howard Brazee
>I defy you to find any bloat or fat of any kind in one of Drake's mil-
>sf novels. Excepting the last couple of RCN books, because I
>haven't actually read those yet. If anything, Drake is too terse at
>times, skipping abruptly from one scene to the next relevant scene to
>move the story along at the expense of a sense of continuity.
The latest of the RCN books has a chapter where they crash a car on an
island (someone tried to kill them). That chapter seems to be there
for the sole purpose of allowing the book to have a dragon on the
cover.
And dragons on covers sell books.
--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."
- James Madison
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
> On Wed, 5 Jan 2011 10:03:48 -0800 (PST), trag<tr...@io.com> wrote:
>
>> I defy you to find any bloat or fat of any kind in one of Drake's mil-
>> sf novels. Excepting the last couple of RCN books, because I
>> haven't actually read those yet. If anything, Drake is too terse at
>> times, skipping abruptly from one scene to the next relevant scene to
>> move the story along at the expense of a sense of continuity.
>
> The latest of the RCN books has a chapter where they crash a car on an
> island (someone tried to kill them). That chapter seems to be there
> for the sole purpose of allowing the book to have a dragon on the
> cover.
>
> And dragons on covers sell books.
>
So, neither bloat nor fat, but direct writing to the purpose, then.
Robert A. Woodward
Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net> wrote:
> On Wed, 5 Jan 2011 10:03:48 -0800 (PST), trag <tr...@io.com> wrote:
>
> >I defy you to find any bloat or fat of any kind in one of Drake's mil-
> >sf novels. Excepting the last couple of RCN books, because I
> >haven't actually read those yet. If anything, Drake is too terse at
> >times, skipping abruptly from one scene to the next relevant scene to
> >move the story along at the expense of a sense of continuity.
>
> The latest of the RCN books has a chapter where they crash a car on an
> island (someone tried to kill them). That chapter seems to be there
> for the sole purpose of allowing the book to have a dragon on the
> cover.
>
It was also a quick way to identify the traitor.
> And dragons on covers sell books.
--
Robert Woodward <robe...@drizzle.com>
<http://www.drizzle.com/~robertaw>
Keith F. Lynch
> And dragons on covers sell books.
Not to me. I'm a science fiction fan, not a fantasy fan. If the
cover implies to me that a book is fantasy, especially a fantasy with
something as tiresome and overdone as dragons, mages, or vapires, I'm
much less likely to buy it.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.
Lawrence Watt-Evans
<k...@KeithLynch.net> wrote:
>Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net> wrote:
>> And dragons on covers sell books.
>
>Not to me. I'm a science fiction fan, not a fantasy fan. If the
>cover implies to me that a book is fantasy, especially a fantasy with
>something as tiresome and overdone as dragons, mages, or vapires, I'm
>much less likely to buy it.
Yes; so what? You're about as atypical as a human being can be.
Dragons do sell books.
--
My webpage is at http://www.watt-evans.com
I'm serializing a novel at http://www.ethshar.com/TheFinalCalling01.html
Robert Carnegie
> On Fri, 21 Jan 2011 02:25:09 +0000 (UTC), "Keith F. Lynch"
>
> <k...@KeithLynch.net> wrote:
> >Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net> wrote:
> >> And dragons on covers sell books.
>
> >Not to me. I'm a science fiction fan, not a fantasy fan. If the
> >cover implies to me that a book is fantasy, especially a fantasy with
> >something as tiresome and overdone as dragons, mages, or vapires, I'm
> >much less likely to buy it.
>
> Yes; so what? You're about as atypical as a human being can be.
For instance, you read science fiction.
> Dragons do sell books.
As anyone who tries to shoplift from Barnes & Fafnir finds out pretty
quick.