From: Aaron Teske <ateske@H...>
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 22:35:52 -0500
Subject: Butterfly & Hellflower (was RE: The GZG Digest V2 #1010)
> At 03:17 PM 3/19/02 +0000, Adam wrote: Well... if the Empire knew Butterfly St.Cyr (or, to use her full name, Saint Butterflies-are-free Peace Sincere) had Paladin (the Library), they would want her dead. Of course, since she's not supposed to be off her planet in the first place, her life is forfeit anyway. For those not in the know (which I imagine is many, unfortunately), the books in question are the "Butterfly and Hellflower" trilogy by Eluki bes Shahar, whose "only" (to the best of my knowledge) other writings are some children's literature and a couple of *very* nice stories for Dragon Magazine. (Read 'em if you're got the CDs!) She developed a very colorful universe and, being a librarian herself, with an interest in languages, based it around a sentient Library and some commentary on how language (and the evolution/devolution of language) reflects society... among other things. Awesome books, with lots of fun tech toys, too -- I mean, how can you not like Imperial Hoplite Armor, the stuff so dangerous it had to be decommisioned because the troopers were tearing up their starships by accident? (If you're facing it, that's when you don't like it....) Okay, I'll stop now. But they are fun books, very enjoyable though you have to get into the different... dialects, I guess, she uses. So, Brian Bilderback, I think the above books are my pick for you to read. ^_- And, come to think of it, the universe could be an interesting one to run some SG or FMA scenarios in -- I don't think they ever game enough detail to run FT, and besides some of the ships (the Jagranathas) run into the planetoid scale. (They actually came out about the same time as Weber's Mutineer's Moon, too, though she had some short story sections out in the early 80s. I guess 1991 was a banner year for giant, moon-sized starships. ^_- ) We also never see enough troops to cover a DS2 action, nor even tanks (IIRC) though I am sure they exist. But troops... hmm... hafta think on this one a bit. ^_^