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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=severiansola@hotmail.com
href="mailto:severiansola@hotmail.com">Lee Berman</A> </DIV>
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The Shadow Children in the second part of 5HOC are an interesting inversion
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of the trope, since they are the devolved descendants of humans, and the
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viewpoint characters are the aliens.<BR> <BR></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">I
think I remember this disagreement. I tend to agree with James that
the<BR></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Shadow
Children are shapeshifting shadowy natives to the planet who <BR></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">approximate
humans partially as Shadow Children and more fully as abos. Both<BR></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">explanations
are given in the text and even The Old Wise One is confused about<BR></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">his/their
real origin. I guess each reader may choose the explanation they
prefer.</DIV></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">The
only time it might be considered to be suggested in the text that the Shadow
Children are natives is when the Old Wise One is confused. And he is
confused for a very clearly stated reason: there is only one Shadow Child left
in the vicinity and the Old Wise One is now 50% derived from Sandwalker.
So when he says “Once we were long and lived in holes under trees” he is
describing Sandwalker’s ancestors. Previous to this, when there were more
Shadow Children, he is perfectly clear.</DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">The
Neighbors were formerly highly civilized and industrial etc. They were also
war-like<BR></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">and
genocidal (perhaps due to Inhumi influence). Anyway, I get the impression they
have<BR></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">moved
beyond all that by the time Horn meets them. They don't seem like
futuristic,<BR></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">technologically
advanced aliens at all. They are campfire types, show no use of
technology<BR></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">and
have a certain nobility to them.</DIV></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">I’m
not sure how you deduce that they were warlike and genocidal (though I should
imagine they would have liked to wipe out the inhumi). I thought we knew
very little of their history.</DIV></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">As
for the campfires, remember that all the Neighbours we see are on holiday, on a
planet or plane where they cannot easily manipulate matter. They certainly
have some technology: they are capable of millinery at least, and they use some
sort of neural probe on Horn’s forehead when he is trapped in the pit. If
they abandoned their space technology it cannot have been more than a few
decades ago, and they speak knowledgeably of asteroids etc. </DIV>
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<DIV>- Gerry Quinn<BR> <BR></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>