# Cloud Nine *The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 12 Nov 2009* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### David Stockhoff *12 Nov 2009, 02:59* John Crowley's /Engine Summer /may use that concept. There's little to go on, but it's either that or vast amounts of energy spent keeping the angels' city up. And you'd need to warm a city at 15,000 feet anyway. > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:01:48 -0500 > From: Gwern Branwen > To: The Urth Mailing List > Subject: Re: (urth) Wolfe-influenced, if not Wolfe-esque > Message-ID: > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 1:13 PM, Stephen Case wrote: >> I've published a second story that the list may or may not be interested in. ?I link it here simply because I consider myself a writer heavily influenced by Wolfe (and would of course welcome feedback): http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/story.php?s=63 >> >> -Steve > > > I think it's pretty decent, and not too long. The language is > sometimes a bit affected where I suspect Wolf would've been terser. > eg. I feel Wolfe might've written 'But I find I am getting ahead of my > account.' as 'But I overrun my narrative.' > > The story itself is fine. My biggest gripe is that I'm still not sure > how the palace thing worked. Invisible water lifting the palace? > > The entire time I was reading, I kept hoping - Be a Cloud Nine! Be a > Cloud Nine! (See > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_nine_(Tensegrity_sphere) - a > geodesic dome or sphere so large that its diameter is so small in > proportion to its volume that it turns into a hot air balloon, > essentially.) > > That would also be more Wolfean - real (at least, proposed) technology > thought to be magic. But I'll admit I'm biased since I love the idea > of a Cloud Nine and have used them in 2 of my own stories. > > -- gwern ------------------------------ ---