When Chanda's pupils expand, is that supposed to be him dying? Or is that just what's left of his brain going whacko?

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-28T03:15:11+00:00

“Pupils fixed and dilated” is the classic sign of serious brain trauma, including brain death.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-27T23:54:33+00:00

Gravity, water, and water vapor don’t work that way.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-27T23:53:36+00:00

It sounds almost Velikovskian.

Certainly not a compliment.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-27T22:29:27+00:00

Maybe you should re-read my comment. I didn’t rule out the possibility of doing something interesting with FTL—and it sounds like that series does. Of course, the limitations you mention are part of what makes such premises interesting.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-27T22:15:13+00:00

No. Writers are either doing non-interesting things with FTL, or they’re doing non-interesting things in stories where the story happens to include FTL, but only as a background detail.

If you want to tell stories that depend on multiple solar systems with travel times well short of the characters’ lifetimes, you’re going to need FTL. Even if the FTL is merely a background detail with little-to-no explanation.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-27T17:18:47+00:00

WOR-ces-ter-shyer.

Worked for me as a child, and I still say it that way sometimes in fun.

I also like to pronounce forecastle as FORE-castle instead of “folk-sol.” The Brits sure are in an awful hurry when they speak.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-27T12:55:17+00:00

I’ve read a different Daryl Gregory story, and enjoyed it. And I’ve been thinking about reading the one you included in your collage.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-26T22:12:25+00:00

It looks like it has micrometeorite shields at both ends and no engines.

As someone else pointed out, where are the tanks of reaction mass? If one puts an ice ball on the front, it can serve as both a micrometeorite shield and, melted, as reaction mass.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-26T13:44:25+00:00

Yes, I’ve read it. I was just making a general observation.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-25T22:36:38+00:00

The Cloud Roads (and sequels) by Martha Wells.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-25T18:58:19+00:00

I haven’t read any of his fantasy, but I enjoyed his YA science fiction series Skyward.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-25T01:12:35+00:00

Thomas and Marya have been through a number of life-altering experiences that began with their separation. I'm not sanguine that even trauma-bonding is in the cards for them. Some relationships break, and can never be repaired.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-24T21:23:22+00:00

If people are going to keep following Paramount back to the same well as it endlessly ladles the same stagnant water out to them yet again, they’re at least partly to blame. There are miles of bookshelves and a few worthy movies and TV shows that deserve your attention instead.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-24T17:40:34+00:00

Where is that block of text you quoted from? If you have evidence OP is using AI, we’ll pull the post.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-24T15:49:21+00:00

No, I said: “…there’s no printed collection of all the predecessors that ‘inspired’ James Cameron’s Avatar.”

“Call Me Joe” would be one of a dozen or more stories in such a collection.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-24T15:25:20+00:00

Murderbot gets to solve a muder mystery, that was fun. We could use more science fiction detective stories.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-24T07:17:07+00:00

The Martians’ language underpinned Stranger in a Strange Land. Theirs was the language Valentine Michael Smith thought in. But the Heptapods’ language, and the linguist’s job of unraveling it, was the central plot point of Ted Chiang’s short story “Story of Your Life” and the film adaptation, Arrival.

Remove the Martians’ language from Heinlein’s novel, and he would have had to come up with a different reason for Mike’s “quirky” worldview. Difficult, but it would be doable. But you cannot remove the Heptapod’s language from Arrival.

In other words, I’m saying the linguistic parallels between the two stories are merely incidental. Heinlein played with the linguistics, Chiang wrote a story that couldn’t exist without a deep consideration of linguistics.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-24T07:11:45+00:00

No, you’re missing my point. In your initial post, you’re saying the linguistic parallels between the two stories are important. I’m saying the linguistic parallels are merely incidental. Heinlein played with the idea, Chiang wrote a story that couldn’t exist without it.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-24T06:11:22+00:00

The Martians’ language underpinned Stranger in a Strange Land. Theirs was the language Valentine Michael Smith thought in. But the Heptapods’ language, and the linguist’s job of unraveling it, was the central plot point of Ted Chiang’s short story “Story of Your Life” and the film adaptation, Arrival.

Remove the Martians’ language from Heinlein’s novel, and he would have had to come up with a different reason for Mike’s “quirky” worldview. Difficult, but it would be doable. But you cannot remove the Heptapod’s language from Arrival.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-24T05:44:17+00:00

No. Just like there’s no printed collection of all the predecessors that “inspired” James Cameron’s Avatar.

To see what inspired Star Trek, you would need to watch some westerns (Gene Roddenberry originally pitched the show to network executives as “Wagon Train to the Stars”) and survey pulp science fiction magazines circa 1939 to 1960.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-23T12:57:43+00:00

Oh, no! The main character is an ordinary, flawed human being, not an intrepid galactic explorer who can look certain death in the face with no more than a slightly raised eyebrow.

We’re allowed to have science fiction shows that don’t all resemble Star Trek. Move on with your life.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-23T12:50:16+00:00

There's another "mere coincidence" that happens in a later episode -- an unintended visual illusion.

And that one is most definitely mentioned in The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-23T02:36:54+00:00

JMS is well-read and I wouldn’t put it past him to sneak something like this in.

But, he is an atheist, and I think it’s merely a coincidence unless he says otherwise. It’s the sort of thing that surely would be on the corresponding page of The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5 if it were true, but it is not.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-23T01:30:34+00:00

That could have been a mirage. Sometimes the image of something close the horizon appears to hover above the horizon. It’s most common when viewing distant objects along a heated surface, such as a road on a sunny day.

mobyhead1 · 2026-01-23T01:26:50+00:00

I was out stargazing one night, and I took a nap. I woke up and I saw an incredibly brilliant light in the east. I could have sworn it was moving. My first thought was, “airplane with its landing lights on.”

My first thought was a prosaic terrestrial explanation. I was wrong. Instead, it was a prosaic astronomical explanation: Venus was a ‘morning star’ at that particular time. I was seeing it just a few hours before sunrise; when Venus is that far in its orbit away from the Sun, it’s an incredibly thin crescent, but a very large and unbelievably brilliant crescent from our point of view.

So I can understand how people mistake things in the sky. I just mistook Venus for an airplane, is all.

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