(urth) Ships

[Gerry Quinn]

> From: "Andrew Mason" <andrew.mason53 at googlemail.com>
> > Gerry Quinn wrote:

> > > If he had interstellar ships (which would have to
> >> be faster-than-light, I think, to get between the stars in times that
> >> would enable him actually to run an empire) it becomes puzzling what
> >> was the significance of his launching the Whorl - which Wolfe has said
> >> was intended to 'return humanity to the stars'.
> >
> > Maybe they were just nearly as fast as light, i.e. good enough to escape 
> > to
> > the stars. We don;t know much - or anything, really - about the politics
> > of his empire.
>
> If they were just nearly as fast as light, they would have taken four
> years to reach the nearest star. (Actually, of course, the stars
> should have moved, but Wolfe seems to be ignoring that.) Can you
> really be said to rule a land it takes four years to get to? You can
> if you have FTL communication even without FTL travel, a la Ursula K.
> Le Guin or Orson Scott Card, but I see no hint of that in Wolfe. Yes,
> perhaps he was sending expedtions to the nearer stars, but I still
> think he's exaggerating when he said he ruled them.

We have FTL communication, via the mirrors.  But you may well be right - we 
know next to nothing about Typhon's supposed interstellar empire; all we are 
certain of is that he was Emperor on Urth.

> > I conclude that it was
> > Jonas's ship, or one just like it - at it seems more elegant that it be 
> > the
> > same vessel..
> >
> > Perhaps some of the ship's crew stayed aboard and were interned there
> > pending resolution of their cases, and it later became used for other
>>  individuals.

> But does this not conflict with the idea that originally it actually
> was an antechamber? Only gradually did it develop into a prison. So if
> Kim Lee Soong had been in it from the start, he would have got out. I
> think it must have been in operation for some time when he entered it.

But he was supposed to be the most distant ancestor of the current 
occupants!  The story is not terribly consistent by either interpretation! 
Perhaps over time the details became confused...

- Gerry Quinn