Re: Dies the Fire - where'd the Fire go? (Spoiler?)


<Mark_Reichert@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1132689500.912224.213540@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> This may not be of much interest given how many are disenchanted with
> Stirling's work lately, but after reading The Protector's War, I can't
> help wondering if the tiny hints of magic in the book are a red herring
> or foreshadowing and that the Change wasn't as arbitrary as it first
> appeared. I have no idea if any of my speculations match up to any of
> Stirling's plans, but I just thought I'd share them.
>
> Work in that world has produced Stirling's hand waving explanation,
> that some very specific physical laws have been rolled back. A
> Stirling engine (yeah, I know) can't be used to turn heat into
> mechanical work, but it can be used to have mechanical work remove
> heat. Hydraulics work just fine, but the same things involving gas run
> into the Change. Energy is being removed at very specific physical
> boundaries, and I wonder if the removed energy is going to be tappable
> in future books. If Julian May can have operants mentally manipulate
> physics operating outside our normal perception, it wouldn't be
> unreasonable for certain people to be able to do in this world if the
> energy is available, particularly those born after the Change.
>
> If this is the case, it would answer a question I've always wanted
> answered (and may have in books I haven't read): why fantasy worlds so
> much like our pre-Industrial Earth never have an Industrial Revolution.
> Perhaps because the magic is being fueled by physical restrictions
> precluding higher tech.
>
> And why does this Change occur when it kills billions of people?
> Because for some reason it has to happen virtually at the same time as
> Nantucket is being sent back to the Bronze Age to create the highest
> tech society possible. If year 1800 Nantucket had been sent back,
> would it create a world much different than our own, except for doing
> it sooner? A 1998 Nantucket can work to avoid some of the mistakes.
>
> BTW, in case Mr. Stirling is reading, I don't expect any answers on
> this right now, but I would like to know:
>
> Was Nigel Loring's name derived from character in an Arthur Conan Doyle
> story and what is his status after The Protector's War?
>

For a Fantasy World with an Industrial Revolution read Barbara Hambly's
_Silent Tower_ and its sequels _Silicon Mage_, _Dog Wizard_, and _Stranger
At The Wedding_.

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Paul Howard
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