stickmaker | Visitor From Beyond the Stars!

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Well, at least from outside our star system:

http://spaceref.com/asteroids/something-visited-our-solar-system-from-interstellar-space.html

There are currently no formal rules for naming such objects. I suggest using names from mythology and folklore - and possibly even history - of famous travelers.

For this one I suggest Odysseus.

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: Frankfort, Kentucky
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From:

kengr

Those are what we use or naming stuff *inside* the solar system.

I think we should name them after SF characters who've traveled outside the solar system.

Since this is the first, I'd name it Seaton for Dr. Richard Seaton of Skylark fame.. Though you could argue for Duquesne, because he did do it first, even if it was an accident and seaton had to rescue him.

From:

stickmaker

I could be wrong, but I don't recall any group of natural bodies specifically named after explorers. I also don't think Odysseus has been used.

Anyway, glad to meet another Skylark fan. Remember, the hundredth anniversary of the completion of the ms. is just two years away! Also, the serialized magazine version is in public domain. :-)

From:

kengr

I still kick myself for not spending the $10 at a Westercon (around 1990, the one with Harlan Ellison as the GOH) to buy a first edtion hardcover of the Skylark of space

From:

stickmaker

Ow.

I managed to get a copy of the hardback novelization of _Forbidden Planet_ many years ago at MarCon. I sold it a few years later for a fair profit.

I still have a hardback copy of _The Power_, the novel George Pal later turned into one of his best movies. Not actually very valuable, but a good read. Though I think Pal had a better ending.

There's actually more technical info in the magazine magazine serial version of _Skylark_ (available at Project Gutenberg). I used that to create a spreadsheet for copper-based drives and such. :-)

This was for something I call Skylarking. It's a proposed tribute to the original story for its centenary. The idea is that the first part of the book is based on real events Doc Smith heard about second- or third-hand, with the rest being all his invention. Because the "real" versions of Seaton and Crane never returned from their first test flight, due to a flaw in their design. The families in their grief put all the equipment and notes in storage, not looked at again until they're rediscovered a century later. That is, now.

From:

kengr

Oops. There was a typo. It was $100 not $10 (a vendor at a Westercon who was *that* ignorant of values...). But I could still have afforded it easily enough.

Oh, that's far from the only time I've passed up something and then kicked myself later.

Sometime in the early 2000s I saw a hardcover of "The Hunt For Red October" at Powells. The Naval Institute one. Price wasn't even that high ($20 or less?). I just didn't get it.

Later I found out that that was the actual first printing/first edition.

Oh well.

Your Skylarking sounds good. And I'll have go get that Project Gutenburg file.

I am more than a bit annoyed that the trade paperback acid-free paper copies of the Lensman series didn't include The Vortex Blaster/Masters of the Vortex.

And they only did the first two Skylark books. While I can understand Skylark Duquesne not being included (it was printed in the 60s after all) Skylark of Valeron would have been nice, but I guess it didn't quite make it into public domain. and since the Smith estate has been such idiots about rights... *sigh*

I'll relocate my late sixties paperback copies of those two eventually.

Edited Date: 2017-10-29 03:10 pm (UTC)