S.M. Stirling Message Board
posts on 8/24/2006 8:28:45 AM
I have read the "Island in the Sea of Time" trilogy and the first two "Dies the Fire" books. So are we ever going to find out what caused the storm that sent Nantucket into the past and changed the nature of physics in the world left behind? I'm sincerely hoping for an answer in the upcoming "A Meeting at Corvallis."
posts on 8/14/2006 7:22:59 AM
Hi, do you have an address to write to Mr. Stirling directly?
posts on 8/3/2006 3:56:08 PM
Are there any plans for any more books in the "nantucket" universe?
posts on 7/21/2006 4:42:42 PM
Stirling has already indicated that the Change affects electrical conductivity through metal and heat transfer/gas behavior, in comments made by Ken in tPW and the first posted chapters of aMaC. The range of this effect is quite narrow and overlaps almost precisely with the range of indutrial applications. Thus, electricl activity in your neurons falls below the Change threshold, and lightning falls above it. But anything that revolves a magnet in a wire coil does not push electrons (make electricity flow) because of the Change. This indicates that the Change is either deliberate, or some sort of cosmic industrial accident. If it last for 10,000 years, as Stirling has suggested in an interview somewhere, then maybe it takes that long for Someone Out There to notice and fix it.
posts on 7/21/2006 12:47:28 PM
As to the human nervous system...it is pretty obvious by now that whatever is inhibiting technology is purposeful, at least that's how I see it after the second book combined with the Island trilogy. Why, who knows. So, being able to neurons transmitting is allowed, but steam power is not. One question would come to mind, though, what about lightning? If there's lightning, surely a hydroelectric system could be worked up.
As to the east coast, during one of the passages about the Brits, it was mentioned something along the lines of "of the United States, only bones". It gave me the impression that the fledgeling British sailing navy had made a couple of trips to our east coast and seen nothing but death.
posts on 7/21/2006 12:02:19 AM
I apologize if this has come up before (I just found this site), but I think I found a major hole in the premise of Dies the Fire. If electricity doesn't work, how do humans--or any beings with a nervous system--stay alive?
posts on 7/20/2006 12:30:50 PM
I would also like some short stories to flesh out the Dtf series also. Like what happened to the east coast? There had to be pockets of survival and what happened to the President and the military. Couldn't some of them made a stand at Camp David? How about the Midwest farm belt with all it's stock piled food and the Rocky Mountains New Desert that was hinted about in Tpw. There must be hundred of new forms of government and Confederations springing up all over the old US. Also I would like to learn that some US military base in Europe or Asia or the Middle east had survived and is starting something new in that part of the world.
Just a thought.
posts on 7/20/2006 12:13:58 PM
I would love to see short stories from other areas of Dtf. Like what Lackey has done with her Valdemar series.
posts on 7/16/2006 8:32:02 PM
I've just finished reading the Pehawar Lancers-FINALLY a pro-british AH! I'm fed up of all the anti-British Turtledove AH that tPL was a refreshing change!
posts on 7/9/2006 7:53:02 AM
First off, being a new reader of Stephen's works, let me thank you for some excellent stories! I found DtF first, then read all of the Nantucket books, and then tPW. I read Conquestador when it came out, as well. Now, I am trying to backtrack and read everything I can find. I look forward to reading the older stories and the new ones as they come out!
Okay, I have read through all of the comments I have been able to access on this forum and have been doing a LOT of head-shaking. I'm going to comment in separate posts by the topics.
First was the religious innuendo. I think someone said it best when they mentioned that Stephen had used the least flakey examples of Wiccans. I have many friends that are Wiccan and have run into some real fruitcakes. And just so you know, it's not Wiccanism... it's just Wicca and the practitioners of the art/religion are called Wiccans. Having been raised Catholic and studying it very in-depth, having once wanted to go to monestary and become a priest, moving on to Southern Baptist, dabblings in the Methodist, Rock Church, some Eastern religions as well as Wicca, I really think that Stephen handled it quite well. Yes, he stresses a lot about the religion and faith. Who wouldn't turn to their religion of choice when in trying times? Maybe some would not be able to find the answer in the structured teachings of the bible and find the unstructured teachings of Wicca to be more telling?
The fact that the MacKenzies have been successful I tend to think goes along the lines of them being a bit more in tune to growing things and finding homeopathic remedies. The fact that many of the things that seemed to just fall into Juniper and Friends laps seems to attract more people and they tend to find their "faith" in what seems to be working. I'm sure that is how MOST religions find their converts or lack there-of. In fact, Christianity won most of it's converts by incorporating the beliefs of the peoples it was trying to convert. They would go in, tear down the worship areas of the old religion, put their own cathedral or church in the exact same place and invite the people back. Those people would have a belief that they didn't want to get rid of? That's okay, we'll just make it a part of the religion.
I didn't see anything wrong with the handling of Christianity in the books. Yeah, he had a bad example of the Reverand in DtF but made up for it with the stronger characters in the monasteries. Maybe if someone wants to write a similar story based in their areas on what Catholics, Baptists, Buddhists, or even the Hara Krishna handle the same situation, maybe Mr. Stirling would be willing to read through it and agree to allow you to use his intelectual property to bring your own story out.
Now, my own idea on the subject... what if fairy is back? What if, at some point in history, the world was a more magical place? Technology wouldn't work because magic was real. What if that time was 2500 BC? What if Nantucket disappeared but Atlantis and Avalon have come over? Nantucket disappears and takes technology with it. Then, again, what stories have come down about magic in the 2.5 centuries prior to Christ's birth relating to magic? Who knows? Maybe over the years, those stories weren't acceptable to the newer religion (Christianity) and were made taboo to talk about? Why doesn't Stephen bring up that fact that suddenly magic isn't working for the natives of 2500 BC?
Another take on it is that this isn't the first time that technology has gone the way of the dodo. Maybe the reason we can't explain the pyramids and such is that they had reached a technological level that was farther advanced than we figured and then FLASH, it's all gone? Or maybe there wasn't enough of a level of technology to take away that anyone would notice that it had disappeared? All I know is that it was a great story, it was well-written and well handled on many different levels. My hats off to ya!
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