Wednesday 6 April 2016

Vocabulary And Violence

"She...deployed her diriscope..." (The Man-Kzin Wars, p. 154)

I could not find "diriscope" by googling.

"...the fulvous crescent." (p. 163)

This is a color.

"...in the course of gigayears..." (ibid.)

Of course a gigayear is a long time but how long?

"...they'd banked gametes..." (p. 166)

Again, we know the general meaning but I did not know most of those details in the Wiki article.

"...buckminsterfullerene." (p. 168)

"'...a small astrobleme...'" (ibid.)

"...the metal-poor rock is friable..." (ibid.)

"Sixty carbons around one lanthanum..." (ibid.)

Meanwhile, the violence is excellent. When kzinti land to take prisoners, their boat is toppled by explosives and each kzin is shot. Next, Dorcas hijacks the tug, empties it of its contents, then uses it to haul those former contents onto a collision course with the kzinti warship. Last, the tug itself is launched at the kzinti base. Anderson's characters get the job done with minimum effort.

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