Urth Net
Cloud Nine
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Wolfe-influenced, if not Wolfe-esque
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.
24 quoted lines · 1–2 deep
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Message: 4
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:01:48 -0500
From: Gwern Branwen <gwern0 at gmail.com>
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Wolfe-influenced, if not Wolfe-esque Message-ID:
<cbf55b100911101701q4b3f6b6cx6d0bbfd58769fa8d at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 1:13 PM, Stephen Case <scase at olivet.edu> 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 ------------------------------