Subject: (urth) "Memorare" hardcover

From: Matthew Groves <matthewalangroves at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2007 01:23:48 +0000

Is the List aware of this?:

http://wyrmpublishing.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=12

Does "Memorare" remind anyone else of Niven-esque "hard" sf?  (Will
anyone else admit to having read Niven?)

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From: brunians at brunians.org <brunians at brunians.org>
Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2007 02:39:39 +0000

I've read Niven.

He's a good SF writer, if not the best or second best prose stylist in the
World. Nice guy, too.

.

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From: Adam Thornton <adam at io.com>
Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2007 04:13:52 +0000

> He's a good SF writer, if not the best or second best prose stylist  

I've also read a lot of Niven.

I concur with the above, although I have no reason to know his nice- 
guy-or-notness.

Adam

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From: Recursive Loop <recursive_loop at yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2007 04:35:17 +0000

"(Will anyone else admit to having read Niven?)"

Sure. Tons through the 80's. Known Space was one of my favorite haunts. Around the time of the
third RW novel and a few other things, I lost interest. But I'll go back and visit again someday.

FPK3

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From: Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com>
Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2007 05:09:08 +0000

> anyone else admit to having read Niven?)

Sure thing. But, he's not truly a hard SF writer, though he puts on such 
a good show that most people don't notice he's swept the fossil record 
under the rug, for example.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >

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From: Matthew King <automatthew at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:22:16 +0000

On Dec 6, 2007, at 11:09 PM, Jeff Wilson wrote:

>> (Will

Do you mean the Protector-breeder origin of humans?

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From: Michael Straight <mfstraight at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2007 23:18:14 +0000

Everything I know about Science I had to re-learn after having read
Niven in my teens. :-)

Fun stuff, though.

And yeah, Memorare's plot and setting both have the flavor of a
Niven-era SF short story, if not Niven himself.

Rostrum

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From: Matthew Groves <matthewalangroves at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 08 Dec 2007 06:00:38 +0000

On Dec 7, 2007 12:22 PM, Matthew King <automatthew at gmail.com> wrote:
> > [Niven is] not truly a hard SF writer, though he puts on
> > such

I did have that reaction when I read Protector:  If the breeders where
homo habilis, then why does homo habilis seem to share ancestory with
other Terran species?

However, from what I've read of Niven's, his greatest sin against
scientific plausibility, in my opinion, is "luck breeding."

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From: Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com>
Date: Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:00:32 +0000

> Do you mean the Protector-breeder origin of humans?

That in particular, yes.

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From: Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com>
Date: Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:08:17 +0000

> homo habilis, then why does homo habilis seem to share ancestory with

The shared ancestry among primates is explained by induced mutation, but 
  no explanation is made to connect primates with the rest of earthly life.

> scientific plausibility, in my opinion, is "luck breeding."

To be sure, that part is metafictional one-upmanship rather than an 
integral part of the plot. Psi powers were very popular among genre 
fiction at the time, and it's hard to top the power to control the 
author/editor/publisher.