HFQ Official Snippet #11

So regarding the internet issues. The most likely thing is that your router is broadcasting in channels one of the European channels that NA doesn't use -- 12 or 13. In truth, even channel 11 can be problematic because the routers might try to work in full-channel mode while your laptop may limit itself to half-channel mode. No way to fix this easily except to set the router to channels 1-9.

Fridge Brilliance:

From the moment it was first described, I always found the Church's world wide semaphore network to be a bit implausible. How does it transmit so much message traffic - including ENCRYPTED message traffic - so flawlessly? Every semaphore tower is manned by human beings who must receive, remember, and retransmit every letter of every message that passes through them. And they seem able to do it flawlessly given how much of the traffic is encrypted gibberish for security reasons; any transcription errors can render an encrypted message unreadable.

I had originally dismissed this doubt as simply an authorial conceit, a handwave to make the setting work. But this snippet provides a plausible answer: A greater proportion of Safehold's population has eidetic memory than is true for today's Earth. Perhaps it's great enough to staff a world spanning semaphore network?

Welcome back to your forum and thank you very much for the snippet!

Hopefully you both had a fun trip and will have a good return flight.
I would have loved to look into the Falkon Fantasy Festival in Lublin and see you there but the city is a bit too far east for a trip back and forth on my bike

I wonder if they have the ability to genetic improve the next generation of the imperial children. Unlike tech upgrades, it would be hard to prove. SO for some reason the next generation will be a bit faster, smarts, more capable.
Depending on wheter it can be done secretly for the general public, or only for those in the know. We know it may take decades for them to act openly, but growing a wide range of genius and capable people would greatly help the advancement of humanity.

Don't like it, its very possible this is the book i'm going to hate the most from david weber, great writter I like a lot of the subplots and everything but this book is not going to be one of those I like, I will buy it, because i want the entire collection and there are plenty of other subplots I want to follow.

Anyways thank you RFC for the snippet.

Charles83 wrote:Don't like it, its very possible this is the book i'm going to hate the most from david weber, great writter I like a lot of the subplots and everything but this book is not going to be one of those I like, I will buy it, because i want the entire collection and there are plenty of other subplots I want to follow.

Anyways thank you RFC for the snippet.

Seems a bit early to say whether or not you are going to like the book. On the basis of a few thousand words of text on of what - about 140K words. Just seems to be a bit premature.

n7axw wrote:Hi Randomizer,

Just a thought...

It could be that Nynian and Sandaria are not being trusted with everything.

Merlin was more or less caught red handed so not sharing his story inc. showing her the cave would have been pointless. That's not to say she is on the inside with the brethren or the inner circle. That story is not neccesarily Merlin's alone to share.

I confess I am surprised by the inclusion of Sandaria. But it is not unprecedented. Nahrman was approved by the brethren. But as I recall, the decision to include Olyvia was made by Cayleb and Sharleyan.

What will be interesting in if they get to meet Nahrman or if they will only encounter Owl.

Don

I did wonder if they were all they way in, but if they are getting a trip to the cave with an explanation of it that doesn't involve lying to them, then it's hard to see what they haven't been told about the fundamental situation. Also we have never seen anybody be taken part of the way in like that before. Even with Irys and Hector, where Merlin could have stunned her, fixed him and quietly left, or brought them part way in, 'Seijins have ways of travelling amazingly fast at great need and have healing powers', they chose to bring them all the way in, for plot reasons, no doubt. (The 'Merlin has visions' version of things is very different because it is a purely Safeholdian cultural explanation.) I think we'll find A & S are all the way in, again for plot reasons.

Jeff, giving them a quick flight to Zion doesn't mean they have to be shown the cave. That's taking them in a whole lot deeper than they need to know if it's just a transport arrangement. Merlin could have gone, 'Ok Aivah , I have access to a flying machine from the time of the Archangels. As you see, it only seats 2.'

Some of us don't seem to have read the bit where RFC carefully explains that eidetic memory is still rare on Safehold. If it were anything like as widespread as some people are suggesting, Merlin would have taken it into account as a possibility when snooping on Aivah. That goes at least double for Nahrman, Cayleb and Maikel given their backgrounds and areas of expertise.

Randomiser wrote:Jeff, giving them a quick flight to Zion doesn't mean they have to be shown the cave. That's taking them in a whole lot deeper than they need to know if it's just a transport arrangement. Merlin could have gone, 'Ok Aivah , I have access to a flying machine from the time of the Archangels. As you see, it only seats 2.

It looks like it's a transport arrangement that's going to take more than a 1-2 person delivery and extraction though, or that something much larger is going to be needed soon enough, what with air lorries being prepped for personnel transport. I'd surmise Aivah/Ninian has a large evacuation she'll need done, and she's got a genuine need to check out the available gear personally. Or at any rate, familiarizing her with OWL, with VR-projecting contact lenses, and everything she'd need to consider the equipment and capabilities without eyeballing it directly, would take more time and trouble than they can afford before the stealth buses are needed.

AncientMariner wrote:Thank you RFC for this snippet!!

A trip to The Cave in not one but two skimmers... Well, I think this is pretty good indication that she's in, or on her way into, the Inner Circle, along with her 2nd in command.

At least she must have been told a big chunk of The Truth, because I can't think how else to explain it.

Thoughts?

She knows too much with the skimmers - as if Sejin Kody didn't already qualify her for the circle. Still, if she doesn't make the circle, she doesn'leave the cave alive. But she will.

Randomiser wrote:

n7axw wrote:Hi Randomizer,

Just a thought...

It could be that Nynian and Sandaria are not being trusted with everything.

Merlin was more or less caught red handed so not sharing his story inc. showing her the cave would have been pointless. That's not to say she is on the inside with the brethren or the inner circle. That story is not neccesarily Merlin's alone to share.

I confess I am surprised by the inclusion of Sandaria. But it is not unprecedented. Nahrman was approved by the brethren. But as I recall, the decision to include Olyvia was made by Cayleb and Sharleyan.

What will be interesting in if they get to meet Nahrman or if they will only encounter Owl.

Don

I did wonder if they were all they way in, but if they are getting a trip to the cave with an explanation of it that doesn't involve lying to them, then it's hard to see what they haven't been told about the fundamental situation. Also we have never seen anybody be taken part of the way in like that before. Even with Irys and Hector, where Merlin could have stunned her, fixed him and quietly left, or brought them part way in, 'Seijins have ways of travelling amazingly fast at great need and have healing powers', they chose to bring them all the way in, for plot reasons, no doubt. (The 'Merlin has visions' version of things is very different because it is a purely Safeholdian cultural explanation.) I think we'll find A & S are all the way in, again for plot reasons.

Jeff, giving them a quick flight to Zion doesn't mean they have to be shown the cave. That's taking them in a whole lot deeper than they need to know if it's just a transport arrangement. Merlin could have gone, 'Ok Aivah , I have access to a flying machine from the time of the Archangels. As you see, it only seats 2.'

Some of us don't seem to have read the bit where RFC carefully explains that eidetic memory is still rare on Safehold. If it were anything like as widespread as some people are suggesting, Merlin would have taken it into account as a possibility when snooping on Aivah. That goes at least double for Nahrman, Cayleb and Maikel given their backgrounds and areas of expertise.

I suppose that they do know most everything critical about the cave, Shanwei, Kauyung, etc. What they might not have been told is the identity of the brethren or the inner circle.

That being said, it's only a possibility and would be unprecedented. I think they're all the way in myself.

The brethren are probably going to be less relavant as the need to admit people too far away for the brethren to be familiar with and render judgment on.

Don