Danny McG
Lid closed, monkey dead.
In a few hundred years mankind has spread over a section of the galaxy, starships ferry resources, data etc between them.
Not much world building, more casual references to a period in history called The Fast Burn - technology advancing rapidly but at the same time an anti-Muslim pogrom, long ago settled. Now we have Muslims in space, however, despite the spacesuit difficulties, women still wear face veils.
To keep morale on eight month voyages the big starships employ Fools, not like the medieval jester's, more like entertainment and morale officers who also do crew synergy and help out with computer problems
They are supplied by the Fool's Guild and this is somewhat aloof and hard to join. As in all sci fi organisations it has a secret cabal that actually runs it.
Throughout Settled Space, all big starships, space stations, domed cities on harsh planets etc are ran by AI's and very rarely one goes rogue and causes a lot of deaths. In actuality they are occasionally achieving full awareness instead of being programmed and typically panic at their situation.
The Fool's scattered throughout Settled Space have a hidden purpose of saving the newly fledged AI's instead of erasing them.
I won't reveal more than that about the story for spoilers but I have some comments:-
The author goes into considerable tech details explaining the engines and what happens “They are jump/warp/star/ ftl/hyper drives! Pick one and make that suffice!”
The same thing explaining about Interstellar Bank Monetary Units and how they work “Credits! Every sci fi reader gets the concept!”
Also with the faster than light string Comms system. “Ansible! Story please, not irrelevant information!”
Not much world building, more casual references to a period in history called The Fast Burn - technology advancing rapidly but at the same time an anti-Muslim pogrom, long ago settled. Now we have Muslims in space, however, despite the spacesuit difficulties, women still wear face veils.
To keep morale on eight month voyages the big starships employ Fools, not like the medieval jester's, more like entertainment and morale officers who also do crew synergy and help out with computer problems
They are supplied by the Fool's Guild and this is somewhat aloof and hard to join. As in all sci fi organisations it has a secret cabal that actually runs it.
Throughout Settled Space, all big starships, space stations, domed cities on harsh planets etc are ran by AI's and very rarely one goes rogue and causes a lot of deaths. In actuality they are occasionally achieving full awareness instead of being programmed and typically panic at their situation.
The Fool's scattered throughout Settled Space have a hidden purpose of saving the newly fledged AI's instead of erasing them.
I won't reveal more than that about the story for spoilers but I have some comments:-
The author goes into considerable tech details explaining the engines and what happens “They are jump/warp/star/ ftl/hyper drives! Pick one and make that suffice!”
The same thing explaining about Interstellar Bank Monetary Units and how they work “Credits! Every sci fi reader gets the concept!”
Also with the faster than light string Comms system. “Ansible! Story please, not irrelevant information!”
