A lot of people describe Scalzi’s Old Man's War novels as military science fiction, but I would classify its sequel Zoë’s Tale as a space opera. It’s a story about, well, Zoë, a teenage girl whose parents are invited to take leadership roles in building a colony on a new planet. Zoë is an enthusiastic member of the group sent to colonize Roanoke, despite the risks—and the risks are considerable even before the political machinations of greater powers boil to the surface. Continue reading Zoë’s Tale
Review by Silk
Discuss it in our forums.
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
For me it is Axies the Collector. Anyone who gets completely drunk just to do a bit of mythbusting has my vote. Seriously though, I hope we see more of him.
I believe that the shard from Warbreaker (i dont remember what the name of the planet) is Endowment, while the shards from Sel (planet Elantris is set on) are Skai and Aona.
The part that bothers me now is the distance between the crew and the Parshendi shooting at them. From 20 feet away, I don't know how any bridgeman lives through a single charge that isn't fully supported by covering fire.Maybe the Parshendi have really bad eyesight? Or they're facing the sun?
Quote from: Eerongal
I cant honestly see a 30 foot long bridge weighing a mere 2000 pounds able to hold so much weight, however, as established, it cannot possibly weigh more than this for carrying purposes.)
Depends on the materials and how its constructed. I've seen some ridiculously light structures (usually bamboo) hold quite a lot of weight. I'm willing to buy that if the wood is tough and strong and light, then it could work.
Just to throw an additional wrench in the works, Brandon has stated in interviews and such that gravity on Roshar is lower than Earth-normal (0.7 or 0.6, I think?), which does have some effect on all calculations.
I love that you guys are putting this much thought into it. Whether the math works out easily or not, it's fun to see readers get involved to this degree.
Properly crossbraced, it should be possible. Still, if you are right and it is indeed some 2000 pounds, it would still be manageable up to about 25 feet by a group of 10-15 men. The weight can't be greater than 100 pounds per person for 25 carriers, or it would never get to the battlefield. So my original upper estimate of 1500-1650 still stands as the heaviest feasible weight, with some 1250-1350 more likely.
That's assuming they use modern weighted thicknesses and planks. With proper supports, you could make the wood relatively thin, even the crossbeams. 1250-1500 could easily be the weight of the bridge.
Yes, Rosharan wood is likely heavier. But if it is denser, it is also likely stronger, so it doesn't have to be nearly so thick, leaving the weight roughly the same. Of course, even if it were heavier, just add more people to the end. That equals more weight at the end, making the bridge effective over long chasms.
If it's weighted by anythign other than bridgemen they can't pull it accross after crossing it, of course this doesn't matter for the tower(or any other battle plateau), where they're crossing to fight then crossing back, but for the intermediate plateaus where they need to cross onto the plateau and cross a different gorge off of the plateau ahving the bridge weighted to enable them to cross would mean they couldn't then pull it accross. Unless it's just weighted by the bridge men, remember though, that a wooden bidge that's 30 foot by 8 foot would be pretty heavy, would 20-30 men be enough to weight it? Especially with only 5 feet to weight it in (if they're crossing a 25 foot gorge, just before the bridge reaches the other side it would ahve a mere 5 feet left on the near side, I guess 5 foot by 8 foot is a large-ish area...)
Ermm... They would be able to push a 30 foot bridge over a 25 foot chasm because it is weighted. By the Bridgemen.It would be a simple, even a necessary matter to push down slightly while pushing the bridge over the chasm. This pushing down would keep it sticking out horizontally. Of course, if many bridgemen died the bridge would topple over the edge, but I suspect that that wouldn't be too much of an issue. (The bridges could be replaced with new ones)
To prove my theory, with one hand push a hardcover book to the edge of a table. See how far you can push it without it tipping over, while only using one hand. (Don't grab it.)
You'll be able to get surprisingly far! (Please don't use, WOK, not only is it far too thick for an accurate comparison, the risk of damage to said great tome is too great.)
But they wouldn't be able to push a 30 foot bridge out accross a gap 25 feet without it toppling, not easily anyway...A bit of a jump back in the conversation, but I recall we were discussing bridges being 50 feet long, When Kaladin first sees a bridge on page 101 it is said to be around 30 feet long.
Well, considering inkthinker was talking about the longest gaps they'd be seeing at 25 feet, this doesnt really hinder too much. In fact, it makes it a bit easier in the bridges not being so unwieldy.
A bit of a jump back in the conversation, but I recall we were discussing bridges being 50 feet long, When Kaladin first sees a bridge on page 101 it is said to be around 30 feet long.
It was said at one point that Sadeas held more lumber resources than any other Highprince (and that other Highprinces would try to make deals for that lumber), indicating they all used lumber for one thing or another.In the end, it's cheaper to Soulcast rocks into food and use manual labor to make bridges than it is to Soulcast air into bridges and use manual labor to transport food to the warcamps.
But the wood for the bridges is being created by soulcasting, as pretty much explicitly stated in the book.
This is where the conundrum lies, which is why i say there has to be some quirk with soulcasting we arent aware of, i.e. bridge from nothing is more costly, timely, or impossible for this or that reason.
I'm nearly positive there is mention of nearby sources for wood. I'll have to re-read to find it for sure, but I though for sure there was something mentioned, either as Kaladin was coming in to the camps or while he was wandering about.
For some reason I thought it was stumpweight trees (though they may not be mentioned by name), but maybe that's 'cause when he described those I thought, "these are perfect for lumber" and I made a connection that isn't there.
Just the same, I'm pretty sure they're not getting all their wood through soulcasting.
They're not limited to conventional building techniques. Maybe Soulcasting is slow, maybe it's hard to do. But we've seen no indication that they've even tried.
Or what about the interlude chapter (don't have my book with me... ) dealing with the traders. There is definitely mention in there about turning wood into metal... and that they wouldn't make a complex structre out of metal, but would carve it out of wood and then soulcast it into metal.
Why not build the wooden bridges, carry them into place, THEN soulcast them into metal? A metal bridge would be stronger than a stone bridge, heavier than a wooden bridge, able to withstand the elements, and impossible to burn. Granted, they could possibly still push them off the edge, but depending on how heavy the metal is, that may not be possible either and would require a LARGE group of Parshendi that the scouts would notice in time to prevent.
Best of both worlds?
In the end, it's cheaper to Soulcast rocks into food and use manual labor to make bridges than it is to Soulcast air into bridges and use manual labor to transport food to the warcamps.
