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"...a few centuries of coherent humanist thought, set against a million odd years of evolved killer ape tendency. No-one's going to give you very good odds on humanism, are they?"
- Richard Morgan
 |
| Life-shield Blanket | ||
| A device that is capable of shielding the person using it against ordinary forms of detecting living beings. |
This novel takes place many thousands of years after the events in Dune.
| Some thirty kilometers into the thick forest northeast of the Gammu Keep, Teg kept them waiting under the cover of a life-shield blanket until the sun dipped behind the high ground to the west. "Tonight, we go in a new direction," he said.... The dark weave of the shield fabric hissed against his body as he moved.... Teg heaved a sigh, The blanket always woried him. It did not have the deflective powers of a full battle shield but if a lasgun's beam hit the thing the consequent quick-fire could be fatal. |
| Technovelgy from Heretics of Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1984 Additional resources -
|
A former Bashar named Teg is forced into hiding with a young ghola he is training.
This blanket makes use of shield technology that is similar to the personal shields worn during combat and also used by large ships. The drawback of shield technology is that, when a lasgun is used to fire upon a shielded object, both hunter and hunted are caught in an explosion.
Compare to the
radiant shield from The Houses of Iszm (1954) by Jack Vance, the
life detector shield from Cease Fire (1958) by Frank Herbert, the
protective shield from Triplanetary (1934) by 'Doc' Smith and the
personal force-shield from Foundation (1951) by Isaac Asimov and the geofractor shield from One Against the Legion (1939) by Jack Williamson.
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'... an artificial intelligence equal to the human.'
'Rayno folded up the microterm and tucked it back inside his jumper.'
'Nemourlon armor of reasonable weight resists penetration by most fragments and any bullet that is not both reasonably heavy and fairly high-velocity.'
'Several thousand of them formed the positioning grid on the rubble pile.'
'Its slack walls tightened, bulged, were crossed by ripples and waves of movement.'
'Norman... had never ridden any motorized device that lacked onboard steering and balance systems.'
You will note that HG Wells also figured out the aspect ratio of the future!
'As though a switch had been turned off, the pain stopped...'
'At the ringside opposite them a table had been removed to make room for a large transparent plastic capsule on wheels.'
