ColumbusGuy

A great tale, Mawgrim, and well paced with a properly suspenseful ending. Okay, I don't generally bring politics into things, but the comments here scream for balance....I don't fear the 'Conservative' nightmare presented here as a probable future, rather I fear the increasingly repressive tactics and policies of the Left as practiced here in the United States at present. They are dismantling the checks and balances of our system and suppressing free speech just as the real Fascists did in Nazi Germany in the 30s. It all starts with name calling of opponents, then advances to controlling the educational system so that only one voice is heard, eliminating the options of a once-free exchange of views in open forums. Racism and violence are just the tools used back then to push the agenda of the Fascists and erode the duly elected government of the Weimar Republic. Foment disunity and pit groups against one another so they can't combine to rally against the party agenda, and bolstered by the media as they are today, then our freedoms are truly lost.... I have to say that Herr Doktor Goebbels would have been proud of our media's cooperation with the Far Left agenda's campaign to eliminate freedom and democracy in our country.

A nice ending for an amazing story set in one of our most favorite worlds...and it ties up many loose ends. I'd have liked to see mention of Kemi in this chapter as she's the only family Jevikel has at the weyr, but guess you can't have everything. One thing that came as a surprise: though I couldn't remember mention of any details about Jevikel's and Kadin's Impressing, when they said the names of their dragons they sounded familiar, so I must not be getting Alzheimers just yet.... As always, eagerly awaiting the next tale, and hope your health recovers quickly with no lingering effects!

I keep having to remind myself that so much of the series events have yet to happen, so the current Benden folk have no experience with truly bad candidates or how to handle problematic Holdbred candidates. Likewise, the Five Weyrs folk have little experience with the new attitudes of Holders as they were all born during the last Pass when Thread was a fact and everyone knew their place, hence D'gar letting Hortaimin stay rather than dismiss him. And yet, with his experiences with F'drun, he should see what Hortaimin will become.... I know it's proper now to be far too lenient with wrongdoers, but there are some who simply will not learn from their actions, expecially if they feel they are right as Hortaimin does. His upbringing is no excuse if he will show no efforts to change himself...his arrogance will prevent him from accepting any blame for his actions. I hope Jevikel at some point will feel safe enough to let D'gar know his Hold--but I guess that won't be likely until after he Impresses....

So many names, and more we haven't heard yet. I hadn't thought of Benden Weyr as having territories along the coast, but of course it must as the easternmost weyr. I remember Menolly's life at Half Circle and would hate the constant smell of fish. A favorite new candidate for me is the one with the injured knee, and so far my least favorite is Illithal with his prejudice toward Kadin and Jevikel...if he doesn't adapt I doubt he'll impress a dragon, though somehow He Who Must Not Be Named managed it....

Back in the 50s there was a movie made with a similar theme of escaping a doomed Earth: When Worlds Collide. It was a natural disaster, and several countries tried building ships, but the movie dealt with only the American one. The book of the same name was better as most are, and it had a sequel called After Worlds Collide which never made it into any movie. There, we see the same mistakes repeated again by most of the survivors, but in the end Good will out after much struggle. The coolest thing about the series was that the new planet once had an advanced civilization that left behind their artifacts and records which could be used to help the humans to prosper--or lead to more evil if used by the wrong people.... I've got the feeling that the Centaurus systems won't have a suitable planet.

One thing I seem to remember from the books--wasn't Lessa's being found rather last minute, hence no time for real preparation? I seem to recall some injuries once she was weyrwoman too, though fewer and less often...you can only do so much in the moment of hatching with dragonets being clumsy and frantic to find their mates and feed. Okay, it sounds like we know what dragons Jevikel and Kadin will get from Gone Ahead, but I can't remember so don't spoil it for me!

I loved Carson too, but stopped watching it once he was gone. Some great guests and funny skits too, like Tea Time Movie and Floyd R. Turbo's comments on issues. Can't forget Karnak and his envelopes either. Ed McMahon was the perfect foil for him, but I could have done without Doc Severinson who seemed not to contribute much. I also liked when he had animals on from the San Diego zoo, and occasionally the Columbus one...and he hosted some great comedians, but one of my favorites was almost unknown: Victor Buono who read poems about large people. I later saw him on the old Batman show as the Pharaoh. Nobody since has even come close to his style and creativity.

Glad you're back with us again, SAW. Gotta admit I missed writing this though I had only a vague idea of what should be in this chapter until the week before I published it. About 400 words sat around for more than six months with no additions at all, then a few bits, and finally it just came out in a few nights. Tales of Three Worlds was easier as those chapters are shorter and it's sci-fi rather than reworkings of my high school years. The past night or two I've had images in my dreams involving the boys from 'Sole Mates', so perhaps they want to come out for a visit? I've had an empty folder with that chapter on my desktop for over a year now and it just mocks me. Working on the next efforts, so lets hope it will be along soon!

Thanks for reminding me of the names of the stars from the movies, and the scenario in Vegas was a hoot. I'm also reminded of a Canadian series I didn't find on dvd until about fifteen years ago called 'Starlost', that was cancelled before it ended. An 'ark' of various domed habitats was off course and had lost the idea of finding a new home, so each habitat developed its own culture...what there is of it was interesting but got axed over budgetary concerns I think. I read parts of a Logan's Run book, but I think it was based on the movie as I don't recall any others, and no mention of a space station...it had the famous poster scene as the cover. Now I'd have to find online versions if you can give me an author or titles?

Love the new Robbie and yet was sad to see the smaller one get recycled. I had a model of the Lost In Space robot as a kid in the late 60s, but have to admit that I liked Robbie more despite him being scarier. Built ones of the Enterprise and a Klingon ship too, and the Seaview submarine. Okay, the Ark II tv series was cheesy, but better than the Logan's Run one and just slightly worse than the Planet of The Apes tv show that can still be found on some cable stations. I won't mention the animated shows that were often made from sci-fi shows as I disliked all of them. I also liked a trilogy of movies set a couple centuries in the future where a man was revived to live in the new world and had some adventures with a group called Pax. Planet Earth, Genesis II and I think Strange New World...the hero had a bad 70s moustache, and one movie had the actor who played Lurch from the Addams Family as an agent for the Pax group. A lot of good movies then, one being Earth II about an orbiting space station that declared independence and managed to fend off trouble.

An exhilarating chapter, and didn't seem long at all with the flights as a great bonus. I hope Kadin asked questions on his flights too as he is curious by nature. I could see both getting browns, and maybe a bronze for Jevikel, but I think he'd prefer something with a bit less complicated life: can't see him wanting to mate with a woman if a queen rose. D'gar is proving his worth already as the Weyrlingmaster, and this group of candidates seem okay though I'm having doubts about Nursheldur...with luck he won't meet any volcanoes in his future. Not sure how many chapters are left, but if this ends on the sands, then a lot of ground needs to be covered. I'll be truly frustrated if we wind up at the end just before the eggs begin to hatch.

A great start, R. Eric! I love Robbie, but he was also in the movie 'The Invisible Boy', and several tv shows, among them the Addams Family... I too must use a narrator program, since my vision problems due to diabetes and cataract surgery and retina surgery in 2016--my program and pc were set up by a friend who does programming and engineering electronics. He also had much experience with visually impaired people and even blind ones who use devices and echo location to get around, even riding bikes. Anyhow, the program he set me up with is NVDA which is free and downloadable online from their website; I hate female voices too, and all of Microsoft's are too synthetic sounding to me, so he got me a package from a place called Code Factory which is installed with NVDA, and now I have more than a dozen choices for various types and regions of English. I use one that is British English and has a pleasant male voice...I tended not to like the American ones, so chose a British one though I believe there are also other regions there, as well as South African English and Indian anf Far Eastern versions? You can install the language pack on up to three machines, and delete an installation if you need to redo it on the same one, so you can basically use it on that one as long as the machine lasts. Eager for the next chapter.

I'm glad Jevikel has had a glimpse at D'gar's true personality, and he is going to let others know when he can I'm sure. Hmm, contracting names...I hadn't thought of that much, but Kadin will be easy, but Jevikel--any one would be far too close to his father's name, and I don't think he'd like that at all.

A great ending to a universally entertaining mystery, my dear Geron! I can't wait for 'our' elves to meet those of this alternate world, and had to laugh at the idea of the two Maxes exploding if that happened. Lets hope Casper and Keerby can fix the Indexer so we can get glimpses of other places to see that could give the elves a chance to rest too. Don't worry about getting them finished on the holiday--just starting on that day would be enough for your fan club.

I'm curious and puzzled by the divergence point for the two worlds, the Great Library was significant, but if that was the one, then surely Soldier Field, Chicago and even the Bard would not have come into being? I can assume that they read Shakespeare once they got to our world, but the rest.... I pity the boojums now as they've made this a personal matter with the abduction of Ricky...

For some series involving an alternate history where Rome kept on, see Kirk Mitchell's Procurator series, and for a more satirical one, Somtow Sucharitkul's Aquiliad novels which also include aliens.... Perhaps I'm wrong here, but I see parallels between Hendrik's reality's situation and that of present day America--the breakdown of tradition and order, the focus on division rather than cooperation...alas, we have no group of heroes with skwish to save us.

The game is afoot... Does this tale give a whole new dimension to the term 'corporate raiders'?

Geron is certainly a master of misdirection, so I won't speculate...yet. Reading the comments so far, all are good, but the way my mind works, one stuck out for me: 'it's like shooting through a door before asking who's there...'--probably of no relevance, but I was hit by a quote from the 60s Addams Family series when someone rings their doorbell, and Gomez says someone's at the door, and Morticia says 'It may not be a 'who', but rather a 'what'.', and Gomez gets a hopeful look and says 'Optimist!' Now that I've said that, it occurs to me that with our dear author, it could definitely be a 'What'!

While I've read this series for years, I seldom comment because I come in late so it's a chore to get through with my narration software...but now I'm early. Like all series, some books are better than others, but that is more likely due to personal likes than anything else. I've always liked Will, and now I'm glad to see John asserting himself in the face of his parents' pre-concieved notions. Keep up the good work.

Okay, you had me hooked from the start, but tossing in the reference to Esperanto sealed the deal. Back in the 70s in high school I used to buy pocket sized phrase books for various languages because I had no interest in French or Spanish which were my school's only options. I took four years of German, one of ancient Greek and one of Latin in college...but among those above mentioned books was one on Esperanto, and I wrote to the Esperanto society for more information. I admit the mention of the Espero origins being around 1944 was a shock, and I jumped to a conclusion that is likely wrong if the word is tied to 'Hope'...unless the group's hidden agenda is actually evil. Luckily so far the skwish-o-meter says 'NO' to that....

Gary, I wish you'd send this into a newspaper or something as it deserves far greater renown as it captures so much of our genuine sentiment rather than the lip service rendered by those in positions of power. Once more despite lofty words, we get only the same thing as in previous situations: finger-pointing, dodging the real issues to repeat the same tired slogans from both sides...at least now we have yet another bill that will cost money that will wind up steered to other things or politicians pockets rather than solving the issues of restoring public civility and enforcing existing laws we've had for years. Sorry, but being old only heightens the sense of loss for those who remember the days when kids' only worry at school was what horrors would come out of the cafeteria, or if we'd miss the bus and have to walk home. My 4th Grade had two teachers, two classrooms separated by two smaller rooms--one had games and crafts, the other had books we could read if we were done with homework. I had the friendlier teacher who fave us limited decision making opportunities. I still remember standing before a map of the U.S. that showed state outlines and we had to memorize each one's name and capital. I imagine they don't bother with things like that now, just indoctrination classes... Of course in the mid to late 60s we began the day with the Pledge of Allegiance and learned to respect my teachers and fellow students as a matter of course thanks to some bookish friends like Dick, Jane, Peter and Spot. I wonder if Peter was the beginning for my attraction to blonds?

Sigh...yet more evidence that nothing came from Southern but trouble. L'cal could use a dip in a nice fiery place, but I think the only close volcanoes are off the eastern coast some days sail at best. Hmm, wonder if Kadin might become an assistant to D'gar since I don't recall him being able to sing or play an instrument which ought to be part of a weyrling's training with the Teaching Ballads....

Oh yes, CK, Harman's genome will be showing up again soon, and I have some plans for it at various points, some set in my head's 'scene room', others still being pondered for use. Now I just have to figure out how Harman is 'related' to the Daedalus crowd....do things like second cousins twice removed mean anything if you aren't born in the natural way? What the heck does that 'removed' mean anyway? I could never figure it out!

Hugs G-Man--fun is the word for this story which is why it stymied me for a decade because I was trying to treat it as harder sci-fi than I like reading or writing. Some hard stuff is good, and even in the less rigorous style, I like the background to at least be plausible and work in its own rules set out in the premise. Okay, lots of early influences here: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Leigh Brackett, Lin Carter...but particularly Jack Vance for his wonderful scenes and use of language. Can't leave out cheesy serials like Flash Gordon or Rocky Jones either.

Hey Geron...don't know about lightspeed, but mayhap faster than a shuttle. What, something building up in DC? Would I do that to my readers....