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ATP_Power posted:The Belter identity is rooted in living entirely in space. Why have and raise a child on Ganymede on even worse on Pallas or a ship on the float when you could have one on a planet with at least 1 G and a magnetosphere. The argument for devoting the kind of resources humanity did to the belt and similar projects pre-gates falls apart for a long time when there's thousands of new worlds to just land on. The mining operations that created the Belters as a people are going to become obsolete because the demands for the resources they provided are basically going to go away. Some of this changes with the nature of the universe post Nemesis Games, but in the long term deep space is going to end up being a place where settlements like Ceres, Eros, Pallas and the rest wont be as needed, and wont need to be crewed as permanently. The post-ring world would have deep space be most about transit - not settlement. and when the Belters become economically and politically marginal - they will die outside major intervention because the materials they need to survive will become too expensive for them to afford. The existence of the Epstein drive in this setting changes a lot of the economics of space, going up and down a gravity well isn't a costly thing in this setting compared to the real world, especially when you're discovering exoplanets that have been re-engineered into material depots out there.
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Dec 12, 2016 22:41
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ZombieLenin posted:The only analogy here to the Second World War is this: the belt, not the Earth, is Japan. You're the small power now facing 4/5th (when you add Mars) of the productive capacity of the solar system, and since you've set the genocidal tone for the conflict, you have to hope that when they come with irresistible force (and they will come), the sane government that buys norms like human rights has weathered the storm you caused is leading the charge.
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Dec 21, 2016 03:24
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Given the cost associated with securing berth on a colony ship, and the ridiculous attrition rate of ships dying to Free Navy or not successfully making their jumps (not counting colony destruction by other means while they make planetfall), I'd question how Mars could depopulate itself through emigration that quickly.
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Jan 6, 2017 04:51
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On the other hand, we can see what can be accomplished by naval gunners trained to the level of proficiency that Bobbie, a Martian marine, has. And she basically accomplishes trick shots with naval guns. Belters would also be less able to withstand the severe, frequent, and sudden accelerations related to being on a spaceship taking evasive action, like Marco's flagship dancing around to dodge railgun rounds.
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Jan 10, 2017 05:10
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Rereading bits of Caliban's War thanks to the season finale. drat, the prose for Avarsala and Bobbie's points of view are really well written. Following Avarsala as she Does Her Thing is sublime.
Mars4523 fucked around with this message at 08:39 on Apr 20, 2017 |
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Apr 20, 2017 08:35
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Number Ten Cocks posted:Doing the same, and this is true. There's actually a trope for Sci fi writers screwing up units of measurement. The writers are generally pretty good with those details, so I'm guessing those bits just slipped by editing.
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Apr 27, 2017 20:11
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One thing that really annoyed me about the latest book was how every character was feeling the wear and tear from so many decades of rough living. The human lifespan has been essentially doubled and there exist magic anti g-force meds, but nobody has figured out how to rejuvenate synovial joints or heal scar tissue?
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Apr 4, 2018 07:29
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