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Legacy of Herot

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Legacy of Herot
Post by TFLYTSNBN   » Tue Jan 07, 2020 10:56 am

TFLYTSNBN

Since RFC is finishing Jerry Pournelle's sequel in the Tran saga, I suspect he will not object to this post.

While shopping for THE BEST OF JERRY POURNELLE, I noticed that Larry Niven is writing a sequel to the Legacy of Herot series. The synopsis is that a second starship is approaching from Sol system. Given the fact that Earth had gone silent, this might not be a good thing.


I am now rereading the first two books in anticipation.
I forgot how salacious Niven and Pournelle could be. Weber's frequent shower scenes are tame by comparison.

I also forgot how much it bothered me when the doggies get killed. First the German Shepherds get killed by the Grendels. Then the Golden Retrievers get killed by "the Bees.". This reminds me of the remake of I am Legend.
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Re: Legacy of Herot
Post by Daryl   » Wed Jan 08, 2020 6:31 am

Daryl
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There was a hilarious set of illustrations based on Niven's discussion of sex with aliens.
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Re: Legacy of Herot
Post by TFLYTSNBN   » Wed Jan 08, 2020 12:24 pm

TFLYTSNBN

Daryl wrote:There was a hilarious set of illustrations based on Niven's discussion of sex with aliens.



I heard about the illustrations. I never got to see them. RINGWORLD ENGINEERS and RINGWORLD THRONE really got into rhistra. (The reference to interspecies prostitution in District 9 was tame in comparison.) Even Niven became offended by some FanFic regarding sadomasochistic relations with Kzinti. Some of the stories in his Man-Kzin Wars series are accurately described as Xobiological pornography.
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Re: Legacy of Herot
Post by TFLYTSNBN   » Tue Jan 21, 2020 4:15 pm

TFLYTSNBN

The sample at Baen looks interesting.

https://www.baen.com/Chapters/978198212 ... 124489.htm

I think that the Godsons are in for an ass kicking.
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Re: Legacy of Herot
Post by Brigade XO   » Thu Mar 05, 2020 5:59 pm

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God only knows.
What the heck, it could end up as a variation on Forty Thousand in Genenna and with a more modern (they might hope) version of a starship approching from Sol, the Human-Gerndal society is ready to leap out into space.
But what do I know, I just read a lot of SiFi.
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Re: Legacy of Herot
Post by TFLYTSNBN   » Sat Mar 07, 2020 8:25 pm

TFLYTSNBN

Brigade XO wrote:God only knows.
What the heck, it could end up as a variation on Forty Thousand in Genenna and with a more modern (they might hope) version of a starship approching from Sol, the Human-Gerndal society is ready to leap out into space.
But what do I know, I just read a lot of SiFi.


It has always bothered me that most science fiction authors
Presume that colonies with small populations would be able to maintain a technological society. We now live in a partially integrated, global community that enables our current technology level. Israel is extremely advanced but utterly dependant on imports of many manufactured goods. The US and China, and may be Russia and a few other countries might be able to sustain modern technology in isolation. However; it is difficult to imagine a population of less than 100 million sustaining modern technology.

Just look at the US. During WW1 we were still behind the Europeans in a lot of technology. Our battleships used turbo-electric propulsion because we didn't have the technology and industry to manufacture large reduction gears.

A colony ship with 1,000 people might have a population doubling time of every 30 years. They will need three centuries to get to a million people, but with a sharp population pyramid. The cohort of technologically adept people would be less than half a million. Show me a city of half a million people that is world class in electronics, aerospace, heavy manufacturing, pharmacuticals and has a first class university plus all heavy mining industry and farming. It doesn't exist.


The Herot series portrays a colony that was planned to use artificial wombs to massively augment the reproduction rate. However; the combination of the Grendel wars, problems with the bottle baby psychology and ice on their minds caused the humans to reproduce at a much lower rate. The ships computer has been compensating but it is failing. The colony is only a few generations from savagery. They need the new colonists and their shipfull of technology.
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