The author got plenty wrong with this one! One example is the size of
Gold which in one place is stated as 2.5 times the mass of earth and
in another 2.5 times the size of Earth. Since an Earth sized object
would be wider than the habitable potion of the smoke ring it needs
to be much smaller. The cores of gas giants are extremely dense due to
the weight of atmosphere compressing them but that's not the case
here. Actually I don't think any of the numbers add up to anything
like the hard science these stories are touted to be. Both stories
appear to take place in a Smoke Ring quite different to the one
descibed - most significant to my mind was having all the habitations
existing in fixed positions to each other where they should be all in
different orbits. In the first few chapters the integral tree the
main characters were living in ought to have passed Gold numerous
times. I kept reading expecting a desription of what happened as it
did. It didn't. Carthers Jungle stayed for years nearby London Tree
until deliberately moved into a different orbit although even a small
relative velocity difference would quickly separate them. The Sequel
set some 15yrs later puts the Trees in the same places. How do Trees
and Jungles cope with repeated passages past Gold? Even with a much
smaller Gold passage of such large objects as Trees and Jungles has to
be tricky, yet it would be happening all the time. I'd think the ones
furthest from Median would fare better than ones in orbits close to
median. Other inconsistencies include illiterates keeping Ship's Logs
and reading out heliograph messages. It's a real shame Larry didn't
get this one right- It's an awesome concept that despite it all did
fire up my imagination.
Ken
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