Fragment by Warren Fahy, also, a Poll.

[NothingNow]

So, yeah, although Fragment is really more Speculative Biology then pure AH, I'm still putting it up here, since it's IMO a good book, (definitely worth the dollar I paid for it at a second hand shop,) and a half-way decent concept for shoe-horning some sort of lost world adventure into the modern day.

My only real complaint about it is the fucking Ecosystem on Henders Island. An island roughly two miles by two miles in the middle of the south pacific's big batch of nothing, and at the edge of the roaring forties somehow has an ecosystem so intense, it's like everything is a Juggalo on a near lethal dose of PCP! Including the "Moss." Dear god, half the conflict in the first few chapters can be summed up as Man v. Henders Moss (said moss eats almost everything.) Also, everything on the island is about thrice as fecund as you'd previously thought could be possible and far, far more invasive then the mongoose, or even dandelions. So, Henders Island gets Nuked, from High Altitude.

I'm not going to spoil the rest of the book just yet, since it's only been out for a little over a year, but still.

According to the guy's site, a sequel is in the works, as is a movie adaptation.
So, Has anyone else read it?
Anyone willing to speculate on the Ramifications of the US nuking an Island in the South Pacific with a unique and highly dangerous Ecosystem?

Leaving you lot with an image from the site, of some Henders Rats versus a Mongoose. Said Mongoose lasts something like seven minutes.

 

[Paladin]

Christ, it's like Wayne Barlowe on a bad acid trip. I haven't seen an ecosystem this deranged since the King Kong revival's Skull Island (which was pretty awesome, actually, since it was biology based entirely on Rule of Cool).

 

[Keenir]

SoSo, Has anyone else read it?

yes.

I have.

Anyone willing to speculate on the Ramifications of the US nuking an Island in the South Pacific with a unique and highly dangerous Ecosystem?

that's what we do when we test nukes on Pacific atolls and islands.

 

[NothingNow]

that's what we do when we test nukes on Pacific atolls and islands.

Yeah, but the US hasn't done something like that in nearly 50 years by that point, and the month or two of build up of forces around the island after the broadcast, and followed by the revelation of the Henders should make for one hell of a political shit storm.
Hell, the attempted cover up should be enough do that. In the book one of the characters mentioned the disparity between the "CGI" and the "real" shots, and any fool or government that has access to a terrestrial imaging satellite ought to be able to see through it.

 

[B_Munro]

Yeah, but the US hasn't done something like that in nearly 50 years by that point, and the month or two of build up of forces around the island after the broadcast, and followed by the revelation of the Henders should make for one hell of a political shit storm.
Hell, the attempted cover up should be enough do that. In the book one of the characters mentioned the disparity between the "CGI" and the "real" shots, and any fool or government that has access to a terrestrial imaging satellite ought to be able to see through it.

Meh, it'll be all forgotten after the Hender's symbiotic parasites kill off most of the world's population.

Bruce

 

[B_Munro]

On the poll, I'll go with a case-by-case basis: I'd go with pre-1900 for, say, "WI the horse had not gone extinct in N. America" or "WI the Australian aborigines had a better yam ", but "WI a totally isolated continent developed it's own unique life over hundreds of millions of years without any of its lifeforms ever developing a resistance to salty water or the capacity for long-range flight and then crumbled down to an inaccessible rock pillar about to collapse into the sea just as human beings arrived while it evolved life forms meaner than those in Deathworld[1] and also BTW an intelligent species with a gene pool of a couple dozen which don't have any of the fierce endemic symbiotes everyone else on the island needs to survive" goes in ASB.

Bruce

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathworld

 

[NothingNow]

On the poll, I'll go with a case-by-case basis: I'd go with pre-1900 for, say, "WI the horse had not gone extinct in N. America" or "WI the Australian aborigines had a better yam ", but "WI a totally isolated continent developed it's own unique life over hundreds of millions of years without any of its lifeforms ever developing a resistance to salty water or the capacity for long-range flight and then crumbled down to an inaccessible rock pillar about to collapse into the sea just as human beings arrived while it evolved life forms meaner than those in Deathworld[1] and also BTW an intelligent species with a gene pool of a couple dozen which don't have any of the fierce endemic symbiotes everyone else on the island needs to survive" goes in ASB.

Bruce

Hell, yes, this is so fucking ASB, but it's awesomely Hilarious Grimderp ASB.
But, it's still a lot less ASB then the upcoming sequel, with it's Puppeteer Cave-Octopi but still, Speculative Bio ought to be here, but sorted by board. Hence why this is here.
Incidentally, my Roommate thinks that Henders Rats and Spriggers would make for awesome Tyranids.

 

[jkarr]

well its not really alt history is it...its focused on a single island, and goes on about its ecosystem before getting nucked..doesnt include the rest of the world, doesnt actually have a divergence point (compared to most other ah plots)...its really just a natural jurassic park-ish story

 

[Keenir]

well and goes on about its ecosystem before getting nucked..doesnt include the rest of the world, doesnt actually have a divergence point

Cambrian or between the Edicarian and Cambrian.

and also BTW an intelligent species with a gene pool of a couple dozen which don't have any of the fierce endemic symbiotes everyone else on the island needs to survive" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathworld

given that they're essentially immortal, that can be excused as "the rest got eaten"

ps: what 'endemic symbiotes'?? the Disk Ants carry their young (which carry young which carry young ad infinitum),,,and other creatures carry organisms which simply can't kill them until the carrier has been crippled/weakened.

 

[NothingNow]

Cambrian or between the Edicarian and Cambrian.

And there's a natural butterfly net with the whole Saltwater weakness thing. So, it's really Speculative Biology and AH in a bottle, for now. The site does have a thing up, which covers the near-extinction events on the island, and apparently the Henders have a cultural memory stretching back to the early cretaceous or something, which is fucking ridiculous.

 

[B_Munro]

ps: what 'endemic symbiotes'?? the Disk Ants carry their young (which carry young which carry young ad infinitum),,,and other creatures carry organisms which simply can't kill them until the carrier has been crippled/weakened.

And until they are killed or crippled, they defend them from other nastier buggers trying to climb onboard - I definitely recall that from the book.

Bruce

 

[B_Munro]

Cambrian or between the Edicarian and Cambrian.
given that they're essentially immortal, that can be excused as "the rest got eaten"

Nobody on an island like that can be "essentially immortal." Or do they all carry the Mary Sue gene?

Bruce

 

[Fenrir_Angerboda]

I liked it.
wish it had more illustrations, because those were pretty interesting.

On the other hand, it gave my mom nightmares.

 

[Dave Howery]

I read it too, but I'm surprised it's going to be a movie, since it's so 'talky', and would require a ton of explaining for everything. I thought it was an ok book, not fantastic, but worth the time I spent reading it...

 

[B_Munro]

So next they find a dangerous new ecosystem, only now it's deep underground? I can see where this is going - by sequel five, the hero will be finding dangerous new ecosystems developing in the back of his refrigerator....

Bruce