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And The Title Of The Next Book Is...
Topic Started: Jun 29 2014, 03:41 PM (2,438 Views)
Neco the Nightwraith
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I think The Foreigner Universe is separate from Alliance Union. Although it would have been kind of cool if there were connected. So it explains why the technology is quite different. :)
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BlueCatShip
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The consensus seems to be that the Foreigner books are entirely separate from the Alliance/Union and Chanur/Compact books. The jump drive and human needs during jump are different for the Phoenix and crew.

The atevi and other species on their homeworld have some sort of alkaloid tolerance or preference, and aren't quite primates, like mahendo'sat.

IMHO, the atevi seem like a combination of carnivores like hani, but not quite cats, more general, a tendency towards a more nocturnal cycle, together with something primate-ish, not qute mahen, and maybe a little kifish (the strange thought processes and slight nocturnal bit), all mixed together. I don't see much that's stsho-like in them. CJC has had other carnivore/predatory intelligent races in other books that would also lend themselves to the atevi. To me, it's as if she took several of the best, most intriguing or alien, bits of previous air-breathing species she had created, then added features like the height difference and a twist on atevi language and psychology, to create the atevi. They're unique, even though their design pedigree shows signs that she borrowed from her earlier thinking.

One thing I ran across (somewhere) was that CJC had started with a new publisher or contract for the Foreigner books, and thus, she had the chance (or the necessity) to start something new, different, separate, from what she'd done before. Therefore, this would have been a chance to rethink things and come up with something new, based on prior experience.

* However, I would always love to see another Chanur/Compact or Alliance/Union book! Oh, very much so! For that matter, I'd enjoy something brand new.

(Oh, who am I kidding? If it's a book by CJC, I know I'm going to like it. She's uniquely talented, and one of those authors whose books I know I'll buy, because I know I'll be in for a good story and fresh ideas done well.)
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Neco the Nightwraith
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Has anyone read Cuckoo's Egg? The creatures in that book reminded me a little of how the Assassin's Guild and atevi worked. Or at least, it did when I read it the first time years ago. I just pulled it off the shelf. Looks like I might have to settle in for a reread, especially as it's attached to Serpent's Reach, another favorite of mine. :)
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BlueCatShip
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Cuckoo's Egg is a great read, on my list to reread soon. Yes, that, and their space program, reminiscent of the atevi, though a little more cat-like, more overtly carnivora.
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Kroyd
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Neco, this one attempted to record the reading at Soonercon last year on a smartphone. Unfortunately, the audio is unintelligible in places, and I lack the ability to enhance it. My apologies for not posting this information earlier. :baji

This one's opinion on Phoenix being unable to find its Earth: Time stayed folded excessively in that first jump. It is unknown what factor of dilation ensued relative to the normal timeflow in that universe, to the point that stellar objects may have progressed significantly in their sequences. (hope that makes sense)
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Xheralt
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Kroyd,Dec 11 2014
09:39 PM
Neco, this one attempted to record the reading at Soonercon last year on a smartphone. Unfortunately, the audio is unintelligible in places, and I lack the ability to enhance it. My apologies for not posting this information earlier.  :baji

This one's opinion on Phoenix being unable to find its Earth: Time stayed folded excessively in that first jump. It is unknown what factor of dilation ensued relative to the normal timeflow in that universe, to the point that stellar objects may have progressed significantly in their sequences. (hope that makes sense)

If the only thing Phoenix's crew didn't find was known constellations, I could believe that. But they tried (according to Ch. 1 of Foreigner) looking for single guideposts, pulsars, quasars, etc. Things that have had observable, regular periods for as long as astronomy has existed...so if it is time displacement, it is millenia if not eons. Which I find unlikely...it's too comic-book-y for our :cherryh. Maybe they have ended up in a parallel universe that is neither their native one or A/U/C, but the kyo stardrive doesn't seem to be markedly different (at least, not that anyone on Phoenix's bridge commented on), so that argues that they are still in their own "universe". The only other thought I had, from a programmer's standpoint, is that the data tables that tell them where the stars are were destroyed/corrupted/sabotaged. I was joking in a thread long ago that tghe nav charts had been overwritten by a rabid Bieber fan who felt the universe at large needed to be exposed to the music, but it may have auto-deleted, either because the ship thought it had been captured (due to the combined systems failures "Quadruple failure? You can't have a quadruple failure. It's got to be telemetry, Flight, let me get back to you." / "They're talking about bangs and shimmies up there, I don't think it's just telemetry..."), or (more sinisterly) pre-programmed by Earth's colonial authority as a "burning ship" move, like Cortes in the New World, to prevent direct return.

Accessing the library computer is almost a lost art, if even captains have to explore on their own (as a rite of passage), who would even be able to tell if the old star charts are valid or not? Maybe the captain who knew (in those first, bad, weeks) kept it to himself and was killed before the knowledge could be shared?
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