The Factory Floor

overactor

6:04 AM

@ivy_lynx So you might spend more time on the answer yet

Wow, it's quiet here

BESW

6:40 AM

Such quiet. Wow.

overactor

Something tells me this scene is not going to come out well:

5

Q: How to write good erotic scene?

OK, I am thinking of have some sub-plot to my story, where we have say Adam and Eve, they do not quite like each other, but one thing leads to another ... and they have sex with each other. After that, Adam thinks if he should do something for Eve and maybe the fact that he slept with her might ...

(pay special attention to the spoilered text)

BESW

Yeeeah, that should get flagged.

You can talk about obscenity without using obscenity.

On a moderately tangential note, I once took a writing class which had a prompt for writing a sex scene. I wrote a vignette about spaceships docking with an orbital station.

overactor

@BESW how was it received?

BESW

Very well.

overactor

could the subtext be detected without teh context in which you wrote it?

BESW

6:46 AM

Most of the other writers got hung up on anatomical descriptions. By turning the anatomy into a metaphor, I was able to focus on the relationship.

It was pretty obvious.

(I did not find that class very helpful; it was too narrowly focused on biographical nonfiction and romance, and was predicated on a strange balance between "everything is right" and "peer review by the equally inexperienced.")

overactor

Sucks being the best student in that class

BESW

I don't think I was the best, but the class wasn't structured to give me any insights or techniques rising from the experience and learning of the instructor, because he was too concerned about authorial integrity to tell us what to do.

(Also he had the notion that rushing through a lot of different styles and genres would be better for us than trying to write and edit one or two pieces into something really solid.)

Liath

7:07 AM

I've never really been taught to write (beyond a few very basic ideas in primary school).

Having said that I'm not sure I'm any good at writing! ;-)

Guess we'll find out when I finish proofing and submit my book to kindle...

BESW

It's really hard to be "good at writing." I'm pretty decent at writing certain kinds of fiction and explanatory short essay.

But MANY other kinds of fiction, and autobiography, and narrative reports? I'm basically shite.

I've got some ability with poetry, if I bend my brain into the right contortion for long enough.

My biggest problem is revision: I tend to revise as I write, which slows me down and blocks the ideas, because once I'm not as good at editing a thing I've already written.

Liath

I vary

I tend to write very quickly and (I like to think) quite well, then I go back and comb for typos/over complicated sentences...

Depending what it's for depends how many times I revise

BESW

Way I see it, there are three keys to writing: Read good authors, write every day, and reflect on your mistakes to learn from them. It's the second one I have trouble with these days.

Everything else is icing on the cake, the how of the three keys.

Liath

I don't read enough - I know that

BESW

And "good" authors doesn't necessarily mean classic authors, or authors with flowery prose.

Reading The Hardy Boys is a great way to learn how to sketch characters quickly and efficiently, how to work within a well-defined narrative structure, and they're really great for solid sentence structure styles.

Tim B

8:07 AM

One thing I found worked quite well....doing a periodical....

I wrote a piece for Eve Tribune, publishing a chapter weekly

did about 30 chapters in all

having to get a chapter out each week really focused you :)

Liath

8:24 AM

Yeah, I tend to plan then write a chapter at a time... small wins, it keeps you focused!

Omen

8:34 AM

I will delete my answer - regarding images

Tim B

were they copyright?

Omen

don't know... found an alternative - planetary society... but just in case

will delete the answer

deleted

won't do that again

Mourdos

Sadness. No new meta posts.

Tim B

9:20 AM

You should undelete your answer

it's good and no longer breaches copyright

Omen

9:31 AM

undeleted

Liath

9:59 AM

Ok, I've decided - I need you all to buy my book so that I can persuade my SO that it's a good use of time and I can write parts 2 and 3... because the stories I'm putting together for them are awesome!

Nothing self serving in that plan at all :p

Tim B

@liath If you want a proof reader/editor then let me know

Liath

I may actually take you up on that, I'm currently up to chapter 20/27 on the second pass...

I have to admit I'm a little nervous about giving it to too many proof readers, I've never written anything on this scale before!

I still quite like it - I'm afraid I'll get defensive if people start criticising ;-)

overactor

@Liath you can only gain from it

rather have proofreaders criticise than readers

although having readers at all seems like a good thing in itself

Liath

True - just be gentle on my ego ok? ;-)

Tim B

pfft, man up :p

Liath

10:11 AM

I know my code is good - it's my unglish I'm not sure about :-p

overactor

unglish?

Omen

@TimB question edited

Liath

@overactor humour... I'm dreading this proofread already! :o

Tim B

@Omen Yeah, that's much better...it still feels quite broad though

you're essentially asking people to extrapolate 100 years of alternate history

maybe focus on the immediately consequences

then choose the route you want and focus on that as a follow on question

overactor

@TimB Agreed, immediate cosequences might be more appropriate

Tim B

10:16 AM

i.e. 1908 means just before the first world war...so how do those events change?

then choose one outcome from that, look at 2nd world war (if it happens) or some other monumental event

and work up like that

Omen

ok..

Tim B

I'd put some context into the question, i.e. "I'm writing an alternate history set in the present day that changed when X. I'm trying to build the new timeline - so what happens in Y and Z"

but make sure the question is reasonably scoped and answerable

Omen

changed

hopefully it is acceptable now

that's my 'thing' - alternate history based worlds

have a VERY bad feeling about this

Tim B

heh

i changed the tag and made a slight tweak to the question, hope you don't mind

Omen

well the qustion is the community's property now

Tim B

10:28 AM

hmm, tried to make it prioritize the alternate history tag over warfare but stack overflow doesn't want to co-operate :(

nice question though, I like it

Omen

we'll see

I have written several alternate histories

(not published - no confidence in that at all)

overactor

10:59 AM

possible topic for a question alert:

Humanity discovers a rogue planet hurling towards our solar system that looks like it'll slingshot earth out of the solar system

It'll hit in less than a year time

Tim B

hmm, it would need to be more than a planet to do that

overactor

@TimB depends on the size and the speed, no?

Tim B

not really

if it's moving fast it has less time to do the slingshot

you need to transfer an incredible amount of kinetic energy to earth to give it solar system escape velocity

overactor

11:14 AM

I did not know that a rogue planet would never be enough to fling earth away from sol

Tim B

well I've not done the math

but I don't see how you could achieve the energy transfer

it would be moving incredibly fast

so even if it passed right next to us

it would be gone in seconds

it could certainly disrupt orbits

and cause trouble

and an impact would be catastrophic

overactor

hmm

what if it does a close pass, alters our orbit

and then heads for the sun

sligshots around it and crosses our path again

Danny Reagan

Does anyone know what criteria SE uses to populate the "Hot Network Questions"?

overactor

and gives us a second ravity assist

@DannyReagan yes

28

Q: How do the "arbitrary hotness points" work on the new Stack Exchange home page?

I really like the new Stack Exchange home page, where certain questions from the Stack Exchange Network are presented, along with a hotness rating that is described as "arbitrary" in its tooltip. How do these arbitrary hotness points work?

support stackexchange.com hot-questions

Danny Reagan

@overactor Ah. Very handy. Thanks!

overactor

11:24 AM

Total answerscore is a determining factor, especially at the start

Danny Reagan

Interesting. I would have called views as being the deciding factor. Good to know

overactor

So if you want to make it to HNQ, motivate early answers and upvote them

and question score of course

Danny Reagan

I noticed that whenever we get a question up there, we get an influx of new community members

overactor

but that's out of your control

Danny Reagan

HNQ is how I found this SE. It seems the best way to get new people in and contributing. (Although I wish they'd read the intro/rules page first)

overactor

11:33 AM

We've gotten 28 clicks from our community promotion ad :)

Danny Reagan

@overactor Cool!

Liath

How can you tell?

Danny Reagan

Glad the community was able to pull together to come up with a nice design for it

overactor

meta.rpg.stackexchange.com/ads/display/3222

@Liath ^

@DannyReagan The design process really was a nice communal effort

We should advertise on Game Dev as well..

Danny Reagan

@overactor Yes, we have an eclectic collection of people and interests here, don't we

overactor

11:55 AM

0

A: Community Promotion Ads - 2014

I posted it over at gamedev.SE

could use some upvotes to get over the threshold

Tim B

Hah, my rep is 4,666

overactor

@TimB it seems that rings not around the equator are not stable and tend towards an orbit around the equator

I'll look for a credible source

Danny Reagan

@overactor Gravity shenanigans that I do not begin to comprehend. Cool stuff, though

overactor

Can a site entirely in comic sans ever be seen as a reliable source?

Danny Reagan

Is the background a nonstandard shade of a nauseating color?

overactor

12:01 PM

you bet it is

Danny Reagan

@overactor Well that's all its credibility out the window right there.

@overactor Also: called it

overactor

@TimN, basically, a spinning planet is not perfectly spherical and can therefor not be simplified to a point mass

Danny Reagan

@overactor Is anything actually, perfectly, spherical?

overactor

@DannyReagan must ... resists ... your mum joke

Tim B

actually comic sans + nauseating = scientist in my head so probably credible :)

2

overactor

12:05 PM

@DannyReagan Well, a spinning planet is non spherical to a appreciable degree

Tim B

@DannyReagan Just chickens in a vacuum

Danny Reagan

@TimB I feel like there is a reference here that I'm missing

Tim B

removed my comments

overactor

When you're not above the equator, gravity doesn't pull you directly towards the center

but rather to apoint in between teh center and the equator

Danny Reagan

@overactor Any chance I could get the link to that site? Professional curiosity

overactor

12:06 PM

@DannyReagan that whole post you quoted is a link to it ^^

Danny Reagan

@overactor Holy... That is special, that is

overactor

@TimB I must admit, it did seem counter intuitive to me too

Tim B

►

I'm not entirely convinced by their argument though, you can still get a stable polar orbit, we use them all the time. I think a more likely issue is that everything forms in plane with the planet - including the stuff that gets split up to form rings

and shepherd moons are also in that plane

Spherical Chickens is a specific case of a Spherical Cow: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_cow

overactor

@TimB polar orbits are an unstable equilibrium I believe

Danny Reagan

@TimB Yes. Curiosity just overcame me and I looked it up. That is a uniquely sciency joke

Tim B

12:12 PM

:)

overactor

I also think that the instability of not equatorial orbits are negligible over the course of a few decades/centuries(/millenia?)

If any rings that form will be over the equator in a matter of a few million years, you might as well assume tehy all are above the equator

Also, I can't imagine complex life being around shortly after an event that created rings around a planet

Tim B

nah

Mourdos

Deep cave systems :-)

Tim B

rings are created by a moon inside the roche limit

Mourdos

on the other side of the planet

Tim B

12:15 PM

but it's a mostly astronomical event

Danny Reagan

Ooo, this is cool: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10199_Chariklo

overactor

How did the moon end up inside the roche limit though?

Danny Reagan

That's a minor planet with a ring, right there

overactor

@DannyReagan That is pretty cool

Tim B

indeed

interesting

> There are three ways that thicker planetary rings (the rings around planets) have been proposed to have formed: from material of the protoplanetary disk that was within the Roche limit of the planet and thus could not coalesce to form moons; from the debris of a moon that was disrupted by a large impact; or from the debris of a moon that was disrupted by tidal stresses when it passed within the planet's Roche limit.

overactor

12:19 PM

So no crashes into the planet? ):

Tim B

some debris probably

overactor

but nothing that will wipe out all life

Tim B

well, anything's possible

but there's no reason it should be that drastic

Danny Reagan

The debris is solid plutonium.

overactor

@DannyReagan now we're talking

Danny Reagan

12:21 PM

I have no idea what that would do, but it sounds awesome

From a safe distance, at least

overactor

Are there possible natural disaters that would kill everyone extremely quickly except for people in low orbit space stations?

Tim B

loads

overactor

(Or high orbit ones, if there are any people up there)

Tim B

post the question, I can give you an answer in the 17 minutes remaining of my lunch break :P

overactor

gotcha, start formulating

githubphagocyte

12:23 PM

Sounds like a question worth asking

Tim B

I can think of 3 immediately

make that 4

specify how habitable you want the planet after I'm finished with it :D

3

Danny Reagan

Got to like communities where you have people who can plot the destruction of a world during their lunch break.

3

Tim B

:D

I'm up to 7, definitely place some restrictions :p

githubphagocyte

On other stack exchange sites, questions on malware are discouraged, but on worldbuilding you can get answers on how to destroy the world with a 17 minute turn around time.

8

Danny Reagan

It's not a virus, its a feature.

githubphagocyte

12:29 PM

> Our archaeological team have traced the planet's destruction to a website set up by its own inhabitants.

overactor

0

Q: And everyone except for 3 astronauts died. The end

There are plenty of threats out there that could terminate all life on our little planet in varying amounts of time. (Solar flares, meteors and supernovas to name a few). Are there any disasters that could kill all (intelligent) life on Earth but leave astronouts in low orbit alive and theoretic...

science-based astronomy

Hmm, I'll need some restrictions it seems

Is the astronauts being able to survive long enough to come back to planet that won't kill them enough restriction?

Mourdos

I would define the time. Say a maximum of a year?

Bear in mind muscle degradation :-)

overactor

@Mourdos I'd like to research that a bit

@Mourdos good point

Mourdos

That website in comic sans? I just edited its inline CSS to Ariel.

:-)

Oh god, I just changed the font in this chat to comic sans. Turning it back now!

overactor

I'm allowing teh astronauts to stay up there for 8-ish months max

ivy_lynx

12:42 PM

2 men and a woman or 2 women and a man? Also, 3 astronauts is too little considering we usually have more in orbit just on the ISS (which has 6 people, I think 1 or 2 are women atm, but I haven't checked)

githubphagocyte

@overactor Is the 8 months officially part of the question (to be edited in) or just guidance that people don't necessarily need to stick to?

overactor

@githubphagocyte I shoudl likely add it to teh question

Tim B

there you go, 6 to get you going

githubphagocyte

@overactor If you do I'll delete my comment to tidy up

Tim B

threw in a bonus 7th for giggles

githubphagocyte

12:47 PM

> I would personally even prefer more than 3 members of the human species to survive
-overactor

overactor

@githubphagocyte Good idea, it has been added.

@githubphagocyte What can I say, I'm sentimental like that.

githubphagocyte

@overactor that last comment made me laugh :)

@overactor I'm assuming from the context that our food species need to survive whatever event happens?

(plants at the very least)

overactor

@githubphagocyte that's open for discussion

They need to be able to come back and not actively be killed

Tim B

right, there you go

some commentary based on your narrowing down

githubphagocyte

Well so far all of @TimB's suggestions are compatible with enough plants surviving to feed the surviving humans (including Ragnarok...)

Tim B

12:53 PM

Never forget Ragnarok

Mourdos

Exterminatus :P

Danny Reagan

If Fenrir devours the sun, wouldn't that rather shut down the ISS's solar panels?

Among other things

Tim B

Yep

Mourdos

@ivy_lynx A monkey, a dog and a rat.

Tim B

Hence why I said:

overactor

12:53 PM

@TimB Will a volcanic winter kill all of humanity within 8 months though?

Tim B

The astronauts will be fine until Fenrir devours the sun.

and: The Nuclear War, Volcanic Winter, Rogue AI and Ragnarok are all unlikely to be over in 8 months so we can rule them out.

Danny Reagan

So how long can the ISS go without solar energy? And how long into Ragnarok does Fenrir traditionally eat the sun?

4

overactor

@DannyReagan I never thought I'd see those two questions together on one line.

Danny Reagan

@overactor Here to help. :D

Tim B

and how long after he's eaten the sun until it comes out again?

@DannyReagan Everyone should star this, we need it in the bar to the right for ever :p

@overactor It's unlikely, that's why I ruled it out in the conclusions section

8 months is actually a very short timescale

overactor

1:00 PM

@TimB That's the problem

I feel like many disasters that don't directly kill the astronauts might leave the astronauts in a worse position than the people below.

Tim B

if you really want 100% casualty rates on earth 8 months isn't really long enough

overactor

@TimB I've heard those things stay in your digestive system for 7 years!

Danny Reagan

@TimB I am proud of this community's ability to spontaneously generate particularly awesome quotes.

I mean, just look at our sidebar, there.

overactor

It does seem like this is one of the most fun communities on SE

which might be worrying

Danny Reagan

Perhaps we should just rename ourselves the Apocalypse SE and be done with it. :P

overactor

1:10 PM

Is anyone still working on inbreeding by the way?

Danny Reagan

I think that an interesting question would be: "What would happen if the sun vanished, and then spontaneously re-appeared some time later?"

overactor

@DannyReagan How much later?

Danny Reagan

@overactor That is a good question

@overactor The Ragnarok mythos is not forthcoming

Vulcronos

The earths orbit would be thrown off for sure

Danny Reagan

@overactor I would assume that, for dramatic effect, it would be at least a few days.

This is norse mythology after all.

Tim B

1:12 PM

all the planets would fly apart

overactor

@DannyReagan Does the gravitational pull disappear as well?

Tim B

when the sun comes back there would be no solar system

overactor

@TimB That seems like a hasty conclusion

Danny Reagan

@TimB How far could the planets go in two days? Assuming that the Sun popped back into existence where it should be considering the rate the sun was travelling through the galaxy

overactor

@DannyReagan exactly

Danny Reagan

1:14 PM

Okay. Going to actually ask this now

Tim B

You're magicking a lot of potential energy into and out of existence

overactor

@TimB Let him magic if he wants to magic!

Mourdos

The main point is that the orbits of the planets would have shifted.

overactor

Mercury would move a bit less than 30 million kilometer in a week

Mourdos

The question might be better phrased as "What happens if the sun went dark for two days"

Unless you want people to get into the effects of the movement of the planets

overactor

1:18 PM

@Mourdos I think that's partially the point, no?

Mourdos

@overactor Can you simulate the shift on that orbit site?

Also Tides. Hmm

overactor

@Mourdos Not entirely sure

Solar tides are not too bad though

damnit, i interpreted a decimal point as a seperator for large numbers again

ah no, I didn't

Earth could cover a distance of roughly 18 million km

on a side note: vote people, vote, it's for the good of our community

Mourdos

Make a community wiki answer for a meta post about which sites the ads have been submitted to

so we can keep it updated

Danny Reagan

0

Q: What happens if the sun disappears and then reappears some days later?

In the Norse prophesy of Ragnarok, Fenrir eats the sun. Considering the Earth is not immediately consumed by a supernova, it must be assumed that he swallows it whole and it just ceases to exist on the material plane. (Taking its gravity and solar energy with it) From the Wikipedia page: In ...

physics fantasy-based religion solar-system

Mourdos

The fact that you have the religion and the physics tag is making me think too broad

overactor

1:29 PM

0

A: Community Promotion Ad

I'm happy to announce that we made it past the threshold on all three sites now: Physics.SE RPG.SE Sicfi.SE I have also posted it at: GameDev.SE

Mourdos

It might be better to split the question into narrower questions. One to do with the effects on the orbits of the celestial bodies, and then another on the inhabitants of planets.

overactor

The orbits of celestial bodies will be very disappointing

Mourdos

Site: stack-exchange-dynamic-ads.herokuapp.com/…

Its makes a good self ad :-)

overactor

earth might go about 200k km out of orbit

Tim B

I'm the only one placing bounties tho

Mourdos

1:59 PM

@overactor is it possible that that might cause it to be uninhabitable?

due to a new eliptical or unstable orbit?

0.2 million km, the total distance to the sun is 149.6 million km

0.0013% to 4 dp

overactor

our orbit already varies between 148 and 153 million km

Liath

@TimB I put a few out, not recently though

Mourdos

@overactor fair enough

overactor

2:23 PM

@Mourdos I've posted an answer with some calculations

0

A: What happens if the sun disappears and then reappears some days later?

I'll start with Earth Earth is hurling through space at a speed of approximately 29.78 km/s If the sun were to disappear, the Earth would move in a straight line until the sun reappears. Since there are 259,200 seconds in one day that gives Earth the time to travel 29.78 km/s * 259,200 s = 7,718...

Danny Reagan

@overactor I gotta say, not as apocalyptic as I expected.

We need an expert on norse mythology who can tell us just how long the sun is missing

Tim B

lol

did mythology stack exchange ever happen?

overactor

@DannyReagan The absense of the sun's heat is probably a bigger problem

Tim B

not over only 3 days

Danny Reagan

@overactor Most likely, but the only people who are really supposed to survive Ragnarok are the Vikings. And what do Vikings care about a little cold

Tim B

2:27 PM

basically 3 days is nothing in astronomical terms

overactor

@TimB even to Mercury it's not that much

Danny Reagan

@TimB Chalk one up for the Vikings, then

They apparently knew what they could get away with, astronomically speaking

overactor

Funny how I have two answers on my question and one starts with: "plenty" and the other one with "I would say none"

@githubphagocyte, how do I get started with MathJax?

githubphagocyte

@overactor you can read the specification I suppose but I just use mathurl.com and the automatic generation of markup it produces. Once you learn from that you'll be able to write it from scratch straight into SE, and in the meantime it saves you the trouble of looking everything up. Chime in if anyone has alternatives...

You can also look at the examples from the meta question, as many of them have now been updated to use MathJax. If you press edit but don't actually save an edit, you can see the markdown and how it fits into the answer.

overactor

2:44 PM

mathURL is awesome

githubphagocyte

@overactor indeed it is. I'm still glad we have MathJax directly through worldbuilding now though - feels more permanent and is less fiddly than amending image links.

I'll still be using mathurl.com for my rough drafts though :)

Danny Reagan

3:15 PM

Oooo, science debate going on in the Ragnarok Question. This is why we're here, folks!

0

A: What happens if the sun disappears and then reappears some days later?

If we're lucky and very inventive, we might survive...but probably not. 3 Days would have horrible effects on the weather, plant life, human life, etc...but it's not long enough to produce an iceball planet, we don't shed heat to space quickly enough for that. No, the problem comes from the loss...

overactor

@DannyReagan "science" debate ^^

Danny Reagan

@overactor For certain values of "science"

Mad science

Mourdos

3:43 PM

> If Fernir eats the sun, there are more important things to worry about than where the planets will be in 3 days, when Fernir needs to go to the bathroom.

Best Conclusion ever

Tim B

Yeah, I don't think the , is the right punctuation there though

Maybe: If Fernir eats the sun there is a far more important thing to worry about than where the planets will be in 3 days; when Fernir needs to go to the bathroom.

better but still doesn't feel right

Feeds 1352

4:32 PM

0

Q: When to use in-universe point of view?

Assistance to fight off a silicon-based lifeform was asked from an in-universe point of view, and another user added a comment to the question that suggested making the in-universe approach "the required way to ask questions on this website". I thought about it for a while and realized that the ...

discussion questions

githubphagocyte

@TimB "more important things" is plural, so a singular more important thing sounds out of place. I would say "like when Fernir" rather than just "when Fernir" (in case you want to change it @overactor...)

@TimB your shortening of "things" to singular makes it technically correct, but there still seems to be too little separation. It's probably just that it's an uncommon usage (or maybe it's just unfamiliar to me - probably best to get a second opinion...).

Omen

6:27 PM

@TimB heh, the next post after mine posted similar images you told me off about... without attribution...

Feeds 1352

7:10 PM

0

Q: How is this question on topic?

After Mars and Luna, which is the most viable place for colonization within our solar system? I get that this is a fun question that allows people to contribute and that is why it gets so many votes. But that question feels like it is totally against the whole spirit of this site. It is not ab...

discussion specific-question

Tim B

8:03 PM

@Omen Then ask the same question :)

Always phrase it as a question though

Omen

@TimB did, do not understand Robert's answer... does not matter, his answer is better - permanently got rid of my answer

Omen

9:13 PM

I can see his attribution, but.don't his answer to my question... oh well.. bye

Monica Cellio

9:28 PM

This question could attract provocative, argumentative, or otherwise-explosive (in the non-WB sense) answers and comments. Let's try to keep an eye on it.

Vincent

I was wondering if the question was appropriate. The question might be OK but not the answers. Do we have a policy for that kind of question?

Monica Cellio

I don't think the question is obviously close-worthy. Most sites will get controversial questions at times. Some of the answers and comments, though...

We don't have mods, but SE employees can handle flags. Do flag anything that looks problematic, anywhere on the site.

"Is it possible" is a weak question IMO; I'd rather see a question ask about the circumstances that would encourage or discourage a particular outcome. But that's just my opinion.

I'm going to have to drop off before too much longer, but @Vincent or anybody else, please feel free to start a meta discussion.

Gilles

10:07 PM

@MonicaCellio Regarding shipping lanes in space, you really should have said whether you had FTL or not

If you have FTL, you can postulate how it works. You want shipping lanes, you pick an FTL method with shipping lanes.

Without FTL, you're limited to physically possible tech. I recommend reading Charles Stross's android stories, I think they get it right: interplanetary travel is very slow and very expensive

Saturn's Children (novel)

Saturn's Children is a 2008 science fiction novel by British author Charles Stross. Stross has said that it is "a space opera and late-period [Robert A.] Heinlein tribute" (specifically Heinlein's Friday). It was nominated for the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and was a finalist for the 2009 Prometheus Award. Saturn's Children is the earliest known work of fiction to include the dwarf planet Eris as a setting. Since its publication, other novels have mentioned Eris. == Plot == The novel describes the travels and perils of Freya Nakamichi-47, a gynoid in the distant future. Humanity is extinct...

and in the sequel Neptune's Brood, there's interstellar travel, which is many orders of magnitude slower and more expensive

Monica Cellio

@Gilles I hadn't realized it would be important (see also here). Thanks for the pointers!

(Gotta run now; TTYL.)

Omen

10:51 PM

Well, this has been disappointing...

Transcript for