Comments on: The Brick Moon

By: John Holbo

John Holbo — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 16:42:55 +0000

This has been my favorite thread in a long time. Awe. Some.

By: Johnny Pez

Johnny Pez — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 08:00:19 +0000

Perhaps a radical abolitionist group launches their own armed Brick Moon in an attempt to destroy the Orrery – or at any rate hold it hostage – as a blow against the transatlantic slave trade? Under the command of John Brown!

Why bother launching a full-fledged Brick Moon? Just have Brown seize the launch facility and use it to fire Intercontinental Ballistic Brickloads at selected targets:

James Buchanan stared thunderstruck at General Scott. “Charleston? Gone?” said the bewildered president.

“I’m afraid so, Mister President,” said Scott. “And we’ve just received a telegram from the abolitionist leader, John Brown. He says that unless every slave in the nation is freed in the next forty-eight hours, the next load of bricks will be aimed here, at Washington City.”

By: Nigel

Nigel — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:25:25 +0000

Grant Morrison’s Seaguy, amongst other awesome things, had a moon made out of bricks, built by a mad Egyptian Pharoah. It was awe inspiring.

By: ajay

ajay — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:58:34 +0000

40: hmm… I can’t see Captain Swing trying to kill thousands of innocent working folk in Manchester. Sounds more like the kind of stunt that the Taiping or some similar Chinese rebel movement might try on, say, Shanghai (in order to purge it of foreigners). I’ll save that for the sequel, “Under the Mandate of Heaven”.

I notice, though, that the Saint-Simonians are exactly the sort of group I want – a strange 19th century messianic Christian socialist group who lobbied for a Suez canal. I can easily see them pushing for a French presence in the Orrery. Thanks!

By: jholbo

jholbo — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:41:58 +0000

“Who did the Rhino Bird logo, by the way?”

Zoë did it. Quite by accident.

By: richard

richard — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:45:36 +0000

attempt to destroy the Orrery – or at any rate hold it hostage – as a blow against the transatlantic slave trade?

Dude, it’s brick. You can hold any city in the world to ransom by threatening to destabilise its orbit. My money’s on the Saint Simonians, or Captain Swing, in which case, look out Manchester.

By: ajay

ajay — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:20:40 +0000

38: ma’am, it is indeed awesome. (Who did the Rhino Bird logo, by the way?)

By: belle waring

belle waring — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 03:00:11 +0000

it’s so fucking awesome that my husband makes all these books, isn’t it?

By: John Holbo

John Holbo — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:56:35 +0000

ajay, that’s brilliant.

By: mijnheer

mijnheer — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:42:27 +0000

The news is just in that Arthur C. Clarke has died at the age of 90. When I got into science fiction a long time ago, Clarke was one of my big three, the ABC of science fiction: Asimov, Bradbury, and Clarke.

By: md 20/400

md 20/400 — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:10:10 +0000

So sublime!

By: rea

rea — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:18:41 +0000

Edward Everett Hale was a contemporary of John Brown, and was prominent as a fund raiser for armed resistance to slavery in Kansas in the decade before the Civil War.

By: ajay

ajay — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:54:20 +0000

32: well, yes, but they lasted well into the 19th century, which is when they got aggressive about Weird Astronomy. Look, if you want to put Fifth Monarchy Men in Space, you can write your own brickpunk. I’m not stopping you. There are many worlds in the Brick Orrery.

By: praisegod barebones

praisegod barebones — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:43:11 +0000

Weren’t the Muggletonians 17th century too?

By: BillCinSD

BillCinSD — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:28:43 +0000

the world’s been going to h e double hockey sticks since the heyday of strawpunk passed.