Search found 2415 matches
- 2016-01-06 02:05pm
- Forum: User Fiction
- Topic: Hull 721, plot arc the second
- Replies: 892
- Views: 347559
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
It lives, and so do I- barely. There will be more, but at what speed I can't swear to. Thank you for convincing me that I should have got back to this months ago. Shouldn't be as long, anyway.
- 2016-01-04 08:49am
- Forum: User Fiction
- Topic: Phantis
- Replies: 18
- Views: 12744
Re: Phantis
Oh, yes, new bit as well. Phantis VII There was nothing else to do but admit it. 'I came here looking for a way out.' He said. 'Too many explosions, too many wastings, too many frakups waved away, too much who cares, they're only people. I'm a coward. Should have faked my own death, should have gone...
- 2016-01-04 08:45am
- Forum: User Fiction
- Topic: Hull 721, plot arc the second
- Replies: 892
- Views: 347559
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
You know, I almost left this board. Mostly have, really- politics, ideology, all that jazz. But I still have stories to finish. Hull 721 arc 2 ch. 35b Oh, now, this is just. getting tiresome, Lennart thought. The roles do not reverse that neatly, and the reason he is capable of believing that they d...
- 2015-07-30 08:10pm
- Forum: User Fiction
- Topic: Phantis
- Replies: 18
- Views: 12744
Re: Phantis
Yes, the stakes are that high, yes, the empire holds life that cheaply, (more people than it knows what to do with, of far more kinds and types and needs and wants and self- identifications and subgroups and peer- groups than it can keep track of), but to quote Larry Niven, sometimes it's easier to ...
- 2015-07-29 03:04pm
- Forum: User Fiction
- Topic: Phantis
- Replies: 18
- Views: 12744
Re: Phantis
Part six; Phantis Six Now, Arkos thought. We, is there a we? Are surrounded by killdroids, that she doesn't actually believe she has control of- she thinks they're bluffing. She is therefore also bluffing, or trying to see how together I am. (The medical back door is unavoidable unless you choose to...
- 2015-06-23 03:41pm
- Forum: User Fiction
- Topic: Phantis
- Replies: 18
- Views: 12744
Re: Phantis
Phantis V Arkos was not, by nature, a sneak. Stealth was a learned skill, not an innate gift. Misdirection he could just about do, that was even fun and challenging. Escape and evasion, catching escapers and evaders, he was good at all of that. Even tried not to be a complete git from time to time. ...
- 2015-06-10 03:18am
- Forum: User Fiction
- Topic: Hull 721, plot arc the second
- Replies: 892
- Views: 347559
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Right; Thrawn is a little too cold blooded to be really upset by bad things happening to anyone but himself- he always seemed to me to take professional detachment just a shade too far. Granted, different species, his gut reactions are therefore not going to be exactly the same as most of the people...
- 2015-05-28 04:35pm
- Forum: Science Fiction
- Topic: What Is Being Read
- Replies: 136
- Views: 23061
Re: What Is Being Read
Ancillary, to me, is a perfect illustration of Sturgeon's second law; "Science fiction writers don't try to predict the future. They're usually too busy trying to prevent it." Interesting social aspects, well, yes, but the price of gender- blindness seems to be dictatorship; it's a civilis...
- 2015-05-28 03:58pm
- Forum: User Fiction
- Topic: Hull 721, plot arc the second
- Replies: 892
- Views: 347559
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
At a time that now seemed very long ago, there had been five line destroyers in the attacking force. Four of them had been if not exactly expendable then at least their survival was not mission critical. If I have done one thing definitely wrong, Perad Olghaan was wasting time thinking, it is in not...
- 2015-05-22 01:30am
- Forum: User Fiction
- Topic: Phantis
- Replies: 18
- Views: 12744
Re: Phantis
My mental model is more industrial than that; formal law is the infrastructure of civilization- and a shared sense of what civilization ought to be, a shared common-law, is the foundation and raw materials of that. A logical, sensible law that you need before you can describe crime as essentially by...
- 2015-05-21 03:36pm
- Forum: User Fiction
- Topic: Phantis
- Replies: 18
- Views: 12744
Re: Phantis
How could I not? Murray Leinster is classic, but it is worth bearing in mind that he is also very optimistic. Sometimes you need that, but I do wonder what society would be like if, for instance, what was written in the book within a book of the chapter headings- Fitzgerald on Human Probability as I...
- 2015-05-15 09:10am
- Forum: User Fiction
- Topic: Phantis
- Replies: 18
- Views: 12744
Re: Phantis
Phantis 3 Arkos was not a stealthy being, by nature. That had been something that he had had to learn, a talent acquired in the field- to a degree; more so in the hundred kilometre wide maze, palace, government offices, pleasure dome, death camp of the imperial palace. What he had been good at, ever...
- 2015-04-24 05:37pm
- Forum: User Fiction
- Topic: Phantis
- Replies: 18
- Views: 12744
Re: Phantis
That, at any rate, is the excuse of the empire. How much truth and how much spin there is in it... Locke is, at this point, a major in the Imperial army- part of what she thinks on the subject is rationalisation, part lying to herself, part more or less correct. The problem is that empire tends to b...
- 2015-04-23 04:56pm
- Forum: User Fiction
- Topic: Phantis
- Replies: 18
- Views: 12744
Re: Phantis
I'm not sure there is much source material, as such; the serial numbers could be field off this one fairly easily. On the other hand what there is is good foundation for the sort of story I feel in the mood for. Phantis Ch II The garrison was based in what had probably once been a planetary defence ...
- 2015-04-21 02:28pm
- Forum: Science Fiction
- Topic: What Is Being Read
- Replies: 136
- Views: 23061
Re: What Is Being Read
Hm, not much happening recently; on with the show anyway. That thing Stas was on about a while ago, Three Body Problem, Liu Cixin? Half way through and not actually enjoying it much. It is based on the premise, what If everything is uncertain? Everything you know is not necessarily wrong, but defini...
- 2015-04-14 02:43pm
- Forum: User Fiction
- Topic: Phantis
- Replies: 18
- Views: 12744
Re: Phantis
Partly; also because it seems very likely that anything as big as an interstellar empire will contain a very huge amount of complexity- we're vastly better at that than we are at moving in straight lines; consider how many different tendencies, factions and loyalties of human exist on earth- if we s...
- 2015-04-14 01:24pm
- Forum: User Fiction
- Topic: Phantis
- Replies: 18
- Views: 12744
Phantis
Yes, it is fanfiction, another block- undermining story, based oddly on an ancient 8-bit side scrolling computer game whose only real distinction was it's pornographic cover art. I have certainly read far more into it than was actually there, and starting well before the events of the game. At least...
- 2015-04-12 05:11pm
- Forum: Science Fiction
- Topic: Deflector shields and visible light
- Replies: 18
- Views: 4225
Re: Deflector shields and visible light
What I want to know is how a gravity field intense enough to do that, when stellar masses only manage to bend light by fractions of a degree, can be, a), generated, and b), not destroy the ship they're supposed to be protecting with tidal spaghettification? Inquiring minds need to know... Frankly be...
- 2015-03-24 03:35pm
- Forum: Science Fiction
- Topic: What Is Being Read
- Replies: 136
- Views: 23061
Re: What Is Being Read
Much of what I have been reading of late is simply not science fiction, and is in fact only tangentially related; most interesting bit has been Gordon Corrigan's book on the Indian Army in France, and the original book written by Gen. James Willcocks, commander of the Corps, that he draws heavily on...
- 2015-03-24 03:26pm
- Forum: Science Fiction
- Topic: Poll: What's Your favorite ship type?
- Replies: 27
- Views: 4351
Re: Poll: What's Your favorite ship type?
Spheres are a dangerously poor shape for a spaceship all the way up through plausible mid- into far future; it's only in the far far far future you get to do things like find alternative solutions to the second law of thermodynamics. The basic reason for this is that a sphere will have lots of stuff...
- 2015-03-21 11:28am
- Forum: Gaming, Electronics and Computers
- Topic: Homebrew system thread II, section 3
- Replies: 247
- Views: 33155
Re: Homebrew system thread II, section 3
That can be done; this would have been a good point for any fresh blood, by the way, but, hm. So, after a couple of hours of rest, enough to get some energy back at least, and carrying a fairly detailed rock, it's about a twelve mile, four hour with burden, walk back to Qulan. There will be the usua...
- 2015-03-18 07:06pm
- Forum: Gaming, Electronics and Computers
- Topic: Homebrew system thread II, section 3
- Replies: 247
- Views: 33155
Re: Homebrew system thread II, section 3
Things may be functional again, although they got extremely bad tempered for a while- I had to do things like make enquiries with another phone company and mention the consumer protection act before BT bothered to turn it on, and now that they have I'm wondering whether or not to follow through with...
- 2015-03-15 07:26am
- Forum: Gaming, Electronics and Computers
- Topic: Homebrew system thread II, section 3
- Replies: 247
- Views: 33155
Re: Homebrew system thread II, section 3
BT has now let me down so badly that I no longer believe they either can or will give me home internet, and I may have to seek legal advice. Anyway, short version- once communication is established, this lot turn out to be the city cousins of a farmer of these parts, fled Auvaine itself for a place ...
- 2015-03-10 11:26am
- Forum: Gaming, Electronics and Computers
- Topic: Homebrew system thread II, section 3
- Replies: 247
- Views: 33155
Re: Homebrew system thread II, section 3
KlavoHunter? Smeg knows. Haven't heard from him at all- no reply to PM. My internet has gone u/s again, BT really are not impressing me as a service provider at all, so things might be intermittent and heavily dependent on library computers for a while again. Logically, yes, Dale should be there, bu...
- 2015-03-08 07:19pm
- Forum: Gaming, Electronics and Computers
- Topic: Homebrew system thread II, section 3
- Replies: 247
- Views: 33155
Re: Homebrew system thread II, section 3
Oh, good. I never meant for this to go away, you know, it just seemed like a particularly chaotic time all round and not the sort of thing to be pushing about at that particular moment. Or moments. You had two choices as you approached, the tower (which you found the rock, formerly priest of Valdemi...