duntemann.wbst@XEROX.ARPA (07/03/84)
No, no! You got it wrong! When I spoke of "constructed worlds" I meant more than just "built systematically in the head of a writer." I meant a planet or planet-sized thingie which was put together out of whole cloth or reworked wholesale (a la Riverworld) for some purpose. L5 tincan worlds like Rosinante and Bova's Colony are small change. I mean BIIIIG. Ringworld. Cuckoo. Riverworld. Gaea. Artifacts or complete crustal reconstructions. Did I miss any? And Tom Godwin is, of course, famous for "The Cold Equations," a story I never bought anyway. It's been 20 years since I read it, but it seems as though they could have unbolted a chair and thrown in out the door instead of the girl. What we in the trade call "idiot plot." There was a Hal Clement story I didn't see on that list: "Seasoning," which was part of a rather silly series of "shared world" stories surrounding a planet which Harlan Ellison designed (not built.) It was in IASFM about four years ago, and involved baloon creatures and a supercomputer named Black Diamond (chummily referred to as "Beedee.") Definitely minor Clement, but if you're a completist... By the way, did that anthology (called MEDEA: Harlan's World) ever hit print? None of the stories fit in with any of the others; some made the baloon things intelligent and some did not; one writer gave them the ability to move about at will like dirigibles without saying how; stuff like that. A mess, like most anything Harlan gets his fingers into. Illigitimati non carborundum, you latin hacks-- --Jeff Duntemann The Carbon Filament Rat duntemann.wbst@xerox
cas@cvl.UUCP (Cliff Shaffer) (07/13/84)
Farmer did another series of 5 (short) books, collectivly called "The Tierworld Series" (or some slight variant on that). Worlds in this universe are quite definately constructed. It is a little like Riverworld, but not so pretentious. I think they are the best books he has done (but then, I don't care much for most of Farmer's work). There is, of course, The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy... Cliff Shaffer ...!rlgvax!cvl!cas
kcarroll@utzoo.UUCP (Kieran A. Carroll) (07/19/84)
* Then of course, there's always Zelazny's series of universes, as expounded in the Nine Princes in Amber series. As I recall, these universes were constructed, although I won't say by whom, as that'd be a SPOILER. -Kieran A. Carroll ...decvax!utzoo!kcarroll
mwm@ea.UUCP (07/19/84)
#R:sri-arpa:-154200:ea:11700019:000:860 ea!mwm Jul 18 17:02:00 1984 He wants built worlds, let's give him a few: The largest built world story (the world is big, not the story) is Terry Pratchett's "Strata". It makes Farmer's _World of Tiers_ books (previously mentioned on the net) look small time. ************** MILD SPOILER **************** In "Strata", we have 1) A race that creates Hydrogen out of ????. 2) A race that creates stars out of free Hydrogen. 3) A race that builds worlds around world-less stars. 4) A race that lays down crusts on worlds (with "strata machines", of course). 5) (The biggy) A race that builds universes, complete with evidence that 1-4 exist. The only world we get to see in any detail is a *flat* world (Pratchett likes those - his first novel dealt with one, too) that looks like the medieval version of earth, complete with angels, devils (or deveels :-) and magic. <mike