Tree cats

[Timba]

New tree cat story is out in eARC form at Baen books. I am going to wait a bit for the final edited copy and lower price but for those of you who simply cannot wait, dive in, I am sure the reading is fine.

[Vertigo]

Is this a new Stephanie Harrington YA book?

[Timba]

Yes, appears to be but I did not look at it hard as I did not want to give in to temptation.

[Vertigo]

I haven't had a look at these yet. I did enjoy the short A Beautiful Friendship so I shall get around to them eventually.

[Timba]

Was going over my wish list at Baen and I see that this book will be out 10/15/2012. I expect I will have finished Midst Toil and Tribulation by then and perhaps already starting to jones for a new fix. Good timing

[Parson]

I am intrigued by the Stephanie Harrington YA books. It will be interesting to see if Weber will be able to pull off good stories without ruining the back story for Honor. Already I feel that Stephanie has too good a handle on what the tree cats really are to allow for centuries of development and yet have the relative ignorance shown in "On Basilisk Station."

[Vertigo]

An interesting observation Parson, and you are quite correct the knowledge of tree cats at the start of the HH books was really quite poor - he may have stuffed himself a little there!

[Timba]

Sort of depends on what Stephanie communicates to others and given the treecats desire to remain a bit aloof we can't be sure she gives it all away.

[Vertigo]

That's a possibility but I think it would be a bit of a cop out. Kind of elitist in a way; sort of "Stephanie knows what's going on but won't tell anyone else 'cos they don't deserve it." Hmm I don't think I'd be happy with that really.

[Timba]

I am not sure it is aloof to honor your friends wishes! If she recognizes the level of their sentience and intelligence and grasps their desire for caution in revealing it that seems perfectly reasonable to me.

[Parson]

Originally Posted by Timba

I am not sure it is aloof to honor your friends wishes! If she recognizes the level of their sentience and intelligence and grasps their desire for caution in revealing it that seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Sort of agree with this. But human nature being what it is, what we know slowly seeps out even if we keep mum about it specifically.

[Vertigo]

And of course she doesn't even get to pass the secret on to her children or grandchildren. Pushes it a bit for me I'm afraid.

[Timba]

But there is so much we do not know about her. Perhaps she dies in childbirth or is overtaken by some other tragedy that makes it impossible for her to pass anything on to her children.

As a parent I can assure you there are things I know that I have not and will not pass on to my children. Fine children one and all but they really do not need to know everything about my life.

[Parson]

Originally Posted by Timba

But there is so much we do not know about her. Perhaps she dies in childbirth or is overtaken by some other tragedy that makes it impossible for her to pass anything on to her children.

As a parent I can assure you there are things I know that I have not and will not pass on to my children. Fine children one and all but they really do not need to know everything about my life.

Yet... I have an 86 year old Dad and I am finding out more about him now than I really ever wanted to. He's suffering from the opening stages of dementia. I suspect something of the same will be in store for my children as well.

[Timba]

Sorry to hear that Parson, dementia may well be the worst thing that can happen to us when we get old and I am including death in that assessment. To be trapped in a dysfunctional brain scares the heck out of me.

My mother, who lived until she was 98 stayed pretty sharp up until the last year but that last year was really a struggle for her and me. Finally had to go the nursing home route which she had never wanted to do. Sometimes it just gets taken out of your hands.