by broberds on Fri Mar 02, 2001 4:16 am
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kwark:
<B>
Is this a new storyline? If not, what the hell is going on? I was a little annoyed to see Bob bitin' Niven's style, but these guys look like a hell of a lot more fun than the original aliens.
</B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Well, all the alien stuff started in January 1999. There was a brief Ringworld-inspired story and the alien characters were just meant to be a one-off, but I've kept them around cuz I like em. Every so often they come back and get into mischief, interacting with the humans of Earth (though only Circe actually knows about them, and she's been brainwashed into being unable to tell anyone else that they exist).
I feel kinda bad about using ripped-off character designs, but not bad enough to stop doing it. Besides, they only <I>look</I> like puppeteers. Their society isn't at all like any society in the Niven stories. Other aliens, like the Slugdors, are ripped off from totally non-Niven sources, etc., and any similarity to Known Space is long gone.
Of course, if I ever do get in trouble, you can bet I'll come up with some kind of weird DNA-mutating plague that completely alters the aliens' appearance to the point where Niven's own mother (or more to the point, Niven's own lawyer) won't recognize them. Voila!<P>------------------
Bob Roberds
<A HREF="http://www.soaprope.com" TARGET=_blank>Soap on a Rope</A>