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Dahak the massive

Fans of Colin Maclntyre and the great starship Dahak should take a minute to stop in here for discussions about one of David's best-loved series.
Dahak the massive
Post by Colin   » Fri Jan 07, 2011 11:30 pm

Colin
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Just wondering if others have read about other ships as massive as Dahak or his planetoid “friends”?

Obviously, Rama comes to mind. But not even close, of course. About ?10 km in width vs. Dahak's 3500+ km in diameter?!! Not even close. Dahak is basically the size of our moon and he stood in its place for milenia. On top of that he is a mighty fighting machine. Best of the line in his day. For me, this brought the notion of ships in space to another level. It has left me craving for more.

The closest thing I recall (which I read before the Dahak series, but I don't know which came first) is David Brin's uplift series. At some point, I think it's humanity who finds in the “encyclopedia” the location of a vast fleet of ships the size of moons. If memory serves, there were 100s of them. But that's as far as it went and they were described as somewhat obsolete. There was no exploration of these monsters. We never got to see them in action. We never got to live their history and appreciate their might. They were virtually an abstract idea, a treasure people where fighting for.

I'd also enjoy reading from others on how they liked Dahak and his band of planetoids. If you've run into anything like them, pls share ;)
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Re: Dahak the massive
Post by zuluwiz   » Sat Jan 08, 2011 6:49 am

zuluwiz
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In Triplanetary by E.E. (Doc) Smith, Gray Roger had a planetoid. Don't know the size of it.
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Re: Dahak the massive
Post by Michael Everett   » Sat Jan 08, 2011 6:14 pm

Michael Everett
Admiral

Posts: 2619
Joined: Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:54 am
Location: Bristol, England

I heard of an animated series with giant mechs, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann where the mechs used were actually larger than Dahak. And were used to help pilot even larger mechs. And one of the mechs could shoot to hit every point in time and space. simultaneously.

Yeah. I wish I was making this up.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TengenToppaGurrenLagann
See for yourself. And prepare to go "What the...?" every few moments.
~~~~~~

I can't write anywhere near as well as Weber
But I try nonetheless, And even do my own artwork.
(Now on Twitter)and mentioned by RFC!
ACNH Dreams at DA-6594-0940-7995
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Re: Dahak the massive
Post by zuluwiz   » Sat Jan 08, 2011 10:00 pm

zuluwiz
Commander

Posts: 218
Joined: Mon Jun 28, 2010 9:21 pm

Some of the Berserker machines were quite large. Not sure if they'd qualify as planetoids though.
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Re: Dahak the massive
Post by john964   » Tue Jan 25, 2011 1:32 am

john964
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Posts: 933
Joined: Fri Aug 06, 2010 11:09 pm

Colin wrote:Just wondering if others have read about other ships as massive as Dahak or his planetoid “friends”?

Obviously, Rama comes to mind. But not even close, of course. About ?10 km in width vs. Dahak's 3500+ km in diameter?!! Not even close. Dahak is basically the size of our moon and he stood in its place for milenia. On top of that he is a mighty fighting machine. Best of the line in his day. For me, this brought the notion of ships in space to another level. It has left me craving for more.

The closest thing I recall (which I read before the Dahak series, but I don't know which came first) is David Brin's uplift series. At some point, I think it's humanity who finds in the “encyclopedia” the location of a vast fleet of ships the size of moons. If memory serves, there were 100s of them. But that's as far as it went and they were described as somewhat obsolete. There was no exploration of these monsters. We never got to see them in action. We never got to live their history and appreciate their might. They were virtually an abstract idea, a treasure people where fighting for.

I'd also enjoy reading from others on how they liked Dahak and his band of planetoids. If you've run into anything like them, pls share ;)

Uuhum one word Deathstar
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Re: Dahak the massive
Post by Grashtel   » Fri Jan 28, 2011 5:18 pm

Grashtel
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john964 wrote:Uuhum one word Deathstar

Three words "Not. Even. Close." see this size comparison for just how big Dahak (version 1) is compared to them (the Deathstars are 7th and 8th from the bottom, Dahak is the background picture). There are alternative views that say the Deathstars were much bigger than shown there but even so the largest estimate is only about 900km in diameter, not much more than a quarter of Dahak's ~3,400km diameter.

ETA: The rest of the size comparisons on http://www.merzo.net/ are well worth checking out as well
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Re: Dahak the massive
Post by Bohica   » Tue Mar 01, 2011 10:40 pm

Bohica
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Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2011 2:27 am

The only thing that comes to mind is Larry Niven's Ringworld, although I don't know if that counts as a "ship." even though is is an artificial construct.
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Re: Dahak the massive
Post by Howard T. Map-addict   » Thu Mar 03, 2011 12:32 pm

Howard T. Map-addict
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Then Doc Smith made BIG ships!
In Skylark of Valeron an Skylark DuQuesne,
he used "ships" as large as he could imagine moving.
Had he lived longer, he no doubt would have
stretched his imagination further.
He was already using planets as missiles.

HTM

zuluwiz wrote:In Triplanetary by E.E. (Doc) Smith,
Gray Roger had a planetoid. Don't know the size of it.
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Re: Dahak the massive
Post by Howard T. Map-addict   » Thu Mar 03, 2011 12:34 pm

Howard T. Map-addict
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The Ringworld is not a ship,
it is a fixed-position artifact,
but remember that the Puppeteers were migration
on five moving planets!

HTM

Bohica wrote:The only thing that comes to mind is Larry Niven's Ringworld, although I don't know if that counts as a "ship." even though is is an artificial construct.
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Re: Dahak the massive
Post by Michael Everett   » Thu Mar 03, 2011 4:58 pm

Michael Everett
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Posts: 2619
Joined: Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:54 am
Location: Bristol, England

Howard T. Map-addict wrote:The Ringworld is not a ship, it is a fixed-position artifact, but remember that the Puppeteers were migration on five moving planets!

HTM

IIRC, in the Lensman series, one planet (I think it was called Medon) was re-purposed AS a starship with the usage of specialised drives and it made an intergalactic voyage.

So, a planet starship. Not a planet-sized starship, but a planet that WAS a starship.

Nowhere near the Ringworld in size, but it fits the mobility critereon AND appears directly (IE not a mere background reference) in story.

Did the Puppeteer planets appear actually in-story, or were they just referenced?

Awaiting comments.
~~~~~~

I can't write anywhere near as well as Weber
But I try nonetheless, And even do my own artwork.
(Now on Twitter)and mentioned by RFC!
ACNH Dreams at DA-6594-0940-7995
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