[nealasher]

Novawasp, actually that was me. I was previously writing stuff in kilometres where my real instinct was to write miles, and I thought this time I'd go imperial. It's odd actually, having received my schooling when both were given equal importance I'm bi-measuremental? ambi-measuremental? or some such. My preference would be to use a combination of metric and imperial. I would use miles for larger distances, because I know what a mile is, but I'd use a mixture of inches, millimetres, centimetres etc where they would best apply e.g. armour and inch thick or paint a millimetre thick. Did you find the use of imperial measurements intrusive?

http://theskinnner.blogspot.com/

[NovaWasp]

Not now that I know what I'm seeing is appropriate. I'm a big F1 fan and used to changing miles to kilometres or Litres to gallons on the fly. Having read the rest with mostly British printings filled with metrics, I wasn't sure if someone over at TOR had pulled out a find replace and hadn't converted the numbers to reflect the new labels, but when I came accross "centre" not "center" I was completely confused.

Throw in the occasional centimetre and milimetre and the reader will know how big a Dragon Sphere is when it's described to him / her / it.

Happy New Year.

[nealasher]

Yeah, I should really just go with my instincts and forget to stick with either metric or imperial. Shuriken's blades are a millimetre thick (better than a sixteenth of an inch) and without them extended the weapon is two inches wide (not five centimetres).

http://theskinner.blogspot.com/

[gaiusbaltar]

i loved the book but i got the impression the a.i.s and cormac must have been on 'stupid pills' to fall into such blatant traps so easily and underprepared (they knew the legate they were chasing had super advanced jaintech - take precautions!! i could almost hear Jerusalem shaking it's etched-atom brain). cormac also seemed a bit passive at times (although quite understandable given a. the scale of events and b. perhaps your hesitance about changing him into the pin-up 'posthuman' too quickly?)

but the canvas you paint of the polity is an awesome one - and quite possible really - and i love the a.i. characters you flesh out - especially jack - as well as the human ones. i do hope the line war won't be the last one in the series..... :-)

BTW your blog is starting to sound like 'grumpy old men' although you are not old, and neither am i - quite scary that i agree with a lot of your comments on british society wholeheartedly.....

[nealasher]

Ah, but the point about the trap is that it made no sense for Erebus to attack like that, and Cormac had to take risks to reveal the enemy. More in Line War...

Oh I'm definitely in the 'grumpty old man' bracket.

[gaiusbaltar]

that is true, but then that is coming from standard or human motivations - with something as 'different' as erebus you cannot ascribe such things - in fact the trap was perfect for a being obsessed with becoming one as a whole (or the other way around) because it was guaranteed to bring more and more polity ships within it's grasp and ascertain their nature/technological development and the probability of more in the future.... man now i can't wait for Line War! :-p

[Ash]

Very enjoyable book with some nice revelations. The polity going into a war production status sounds epic. :D

Im having some trouble visualising the Erebus's battleships. My mind was seeing them as similar to dna strands or virus blocs. Are there any sketches anywhere?