Date: Thu, 17 Jul 1997 15:52:54 EDT From: "third star on the left, and straight ahead..." Subject: Re: FILL: Questions On Tue, 15 Jul 1997 11:57:27 CDT, Indigo asked: :) First of all, have you ever read a book that was set in the future on a :) colonized planet, yet the people were pretty feudal with medieval feel :) towns, however they had some technology? yes. quite a few, actually. one of the simpler assumptions about how a colonizing effort might play out is with large numbers of people living close to the soil (a serf by any other name) while a smaller group rules the roost via strength (sometimes technology is the source of the power). As for what happens when alien and human meet, with one powerful and the other not-so-strong...the imagination weakens and goes with old-style feudal forms... that's without getting into the number of alien societies that seem to be feudal but green... I suspect you may want to think about exactly what you mean by "feudal" and "medieval feel". E.g., feudal government? feudal religious beliefs? feudal in that extended families form entire towns? feudal in that the main way of making a living is backbreaking manual farming? (a quick partial list from last night in front of the bookshelves of glory...) Lois McMaster Bujold's work...Try Shards of Honor and Barrayar L. Sprague De Camp - maybe? his Tales of the Vaigens (sp?) have that feel Jack L. Chalker -- I think some of his "feel feudal" Cherryh Serpent's Reach - well, sort of Gordon R. Dickson - again, in a way Frank Herbert Dune Harry Harrison Deathworld...2? 3? David Gerrold Spaceskimmer -- concerns the breakdown of an empire due to better ships... Mary Gentle -- the alien culture is sort of feudal. Alan Dean Foster The Tar Aiym Krang and the rest of the Flinx books Janet Kagan Mirabile is a colony with some of the feel... Landis Camelot trilogy - technology, magic, and more! Keith Laumer the Retief books, maybe? some of the societies, at least. Steve Miller and Sharon Lee Agent of Change and Conflict of Honor Fritz Leiber Gather Darkness - Maybe the best example, except it isn't a colony H. Beam Piper - there's a sense of history there Larry Niven's World of Ptavvs or The Mote in God's Eye I think my key response is just...what are you going to put in that setting? it is certainly feasible to justify such a development, but what is the story in the setting? :) Secondly, what would be the effects of having a lowers-than-earth gravity :) planet with a thinner atmosphere and a smaller-than-earth planet itself? :) Just curious... Which effects? How much lower/thinner/smaller? things will fall slower. I think someone else pointed to some of the books about how to figure this out. Don't miss Hal Clement - he has articles various places about planetbuilding. tink