[email removed] writes:
> For those who aren't familiar with Cherryh, her SF universe
> (known as Union/Alliance/Compact) is quite similar to traveller. The
> ships take a long time to jump between stars and information travels
> at the same speed. There are even furry cats with gender distinctions
> very similar to Aslan. What hit me hardest when first reading her is
> "This *feels* like Traveller". I really don't know if Cherryh had an
> influence on early Traveller or early Traveller had an influence on
> Cherryh (or if it is all some vast coincidence).
It's really hard to be sure. The publication dates for Pride of Chanur
*STRADDLE* the publication date The Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society
#7, which contains the first description of the Aslan. That is, the
portions of the book that were published serially came out before
JTAS#7, while the book was published after.
I'd conclude that any similarities (and there are quite a few) between
the Hani and that early Aslan article are probably coincidental ...
However, I wouldn't doubt that since then Cherryh's books, as popular
and well-read as they are, haven't had some effect on the later
development of the Aslan (it would be hard not to).
As far as the overall "feel" of the game and books go, the similarity
is probably deliberate, but not in the way that you might think. Cherryh
writes an awfully good SF tale, and in many ways it reminds me of the
masters of "Space Opera" updated to the present; in this respect Cherryh is
(IMHO) successor to the likes of "Doc" Smith, Heinlien, Clarke, Asimov, and
company. Since Traveller was designed to create the same sort of
"atmosphere" present in those SF classics, it's no suprise that they
came out "feeling" the same.
As a one-sentance description, I sometimes sum up the Aslan for new players
as "Imagine a race of Hani females and Kzin males ..." This isn't really
very fair to the Aslan, but it's about as good as you can do in one
sentance.
[email removed]
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Science-Fiction Adventure
In the Far Future