Alain <ele### [at] netscapenet> wrote:
> Gaea is a wheel space-station like living and centient hollow world orbiting Saturn.
It have a main
> "brain" in the central hub and 6 secondary "brains" around the rim. All have ther
own parsonalities.
> Tha main Gaea is obsessed with old movies. The interior environment is subtropical
earth like thank
> to the mirror pannels and large transparent areas on the inside ot the rim.

It would therefore appear that Hamilton plundered both this idea and the
original Rama, combining them for his bitek habitats*. They are closed
environments, like asteroids, with extensive cities on the exterior and
garden space on the interior. They are composed of a versatile polyp
material; almost everything is part of a huge single 'creature' - energy,
plumbing, recycling etc. They have superconductor spines which sweep
through their primaries' magnetospheres for energy. Their personalities can
be quirky too. One of them is even a main character!

*Not that this is a bad thing - Hamilton's work weaves virtually every large
sci-fi idea from the last 50 years into his universe, with a generous
helping of his own ideas.

I'll keep my eyes open for some Varley.

B

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