LAST EDITED ON Jun-13-01 AT 11:12 PM (EDT)

>Allusions in SotS:WR imply something *bad* happened at Ohtori Academy
>(will we ever find out *what*?)

No, I figured I'd just leave that unresolved forever and ever. Of course we'll find out what happened!

> -- are the images and lyrics of the
>opening sequence prophetic? Or does the "trick of the light" in the
>forbidden forest fall down?

Can't tell you exactly... some of it is, some of it isn't. Some of it can probably be worked out from context - after all, you don't see Anthy anywhere, do you? - but the details are for telling as the Symphony progresses, not for spelling out all at once. It's more interesting that way.

>Re 2: Azalynn the Dantrovian. I keep thinking "Azalene XVI(?)" from
>"Irresponsible Captain Tylor", but she had *red* hair, right?

Coincidence. I've never seen Tylor. Physically Azalynn rather resembles Kaolla Suu from Love Hina - which I've never seen either, except for a couple of music videos Truss found on the Web - but she's an original character who isn't supposed to be anybody in particular.

>And are
>Dantrovians a species with precedent in UF?

Nope, I made them up for Az. They don't leave their homeworld all that often. (Originally, Azalynn was going to be Salusian, but I decided to make her more exotic.)

>Re 3: Amanda Dessler the Gamilon. IIRC, there are EDF _Yamato_-type
>ships in UF (the climactic battle of Core:4), but did planet Gamilon
>blow up or not?

No, it's still there.

>If they never bombarded Earth with radioactive
>meteoroids, why *do* _Yamatos_ exist?

Because Lord Fahvergnugen likes to design ships that look like ships.

>So why exactly is the
>Empress-to-be slumming it with other species at the Worcester
>Preparatory Institute? Seems awfully *egalitarian*...

Amanda's a bit odd. We'll be learning more about her later.

>Re 4: WPI. So, how many times has the school been rebuilt, according
>to the same I-assume-suboptimal-plan, since the Wedge took a couple of
>dorms with it, the Genom Tower popped up, and the whole city got
>shield-nuked?

Twice.

>Re 5: "Some characters created by Kunihiko Ikuhara and Chiho Saito"
>etc. *Every* UF fic has this sort of acknowledgment, but the authors
>never specify the characters or source anime for those of us who want
>to cross-reference plots, or at least get pictures. Or maybe they
>don't *want* preconceptions. True, such declarations up front would be
>spoilers; but they could instead appear in the *end* credits.

Mm, I suppose. I don't like giving that kind of thing away ahead of time, and the end credits didn't have room.

>
>Re 6: the shape of UF's future. It's just like *today*, with the
>occasional alien, spaceship or niftier computer. Earth and every
>colony world; no cultural changes, no increases in longevity, no
>popular acceptance of cybernetic implants (it's still unusual and
>often sub-legal).

No increases in longevity? John Gill is pitching in the major leagues and batting .339 at the age of fifty-eight. As for cybernetics, they're around, but they aren't made a big deal of. People don't walk around going "ph33r my l33t cyb4rj3x!"

I don't go out of my way to point this stuff out, because I don't want to turn into E.E. Smith, but some of it's there. The rest, well, see below.

>This might be intentional by the authors (maybe to
>concentrate on characters), but (as a reader of serious SF) it doesn't
>ring true to me

UF isn't serious SF. Its world is a future that I would like to live in - and that means it's just like today, with the occasional alien, spaceship or niftier computer. :)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/