----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2011 9:12
PM
Subject: Re: Night land : Sea of images:
Section 3.
Some reactions
- the idea of the Helm being especially festooned with
sensors and filters is one which fits very well with other NL
stories. The developing idea is that in this era the Helms have to
filter the Night Land into a sort of virtual reality in order for the wearers
to endure it. cf for example the story "Slope" (by me, but Brett
and I have used each others' ideas extensively http://www.thenightland.co.uk/nightslope.html
Their nightsuits are not the heavy amplified coverings used by the
Watchmen for patrols or close exploration work. They are as thin as
cloth and as light as paper, unamplified and uninstrumented. Their
only augmentation is in the complex filters in the Helms, which make up
thirty percent of the suits' weight and consume all their power. Long
ago, men could survive in the Land by relying only on their own
senses. Now they must wear the Helms, which mount shields and sensory
enhancements on a pattern two million years old. The Helms capture and
amplify sound, and scavenge what little light there is in the Night
Land. They map the paths through the dark, and they pass
messages to other men in ways that hopefully are not obvious to the entities
of the Land, where even telepathy is too risky to be used. They
enhance and they communicate and they also protect, for they shield the eyes
as well as the Soul from that which can destroy merely by being
sensed.
but these are the heavy amplified suits
used for close in work,
- the one thing I don't like are the heavy lower limbs
and boots. Very bad mechanically - the last place you want
energy-soaking mass is at the end of your limbs. reminds me of mecha, not in a good way. mecha are not the
product of real world evolutionary selection
- is there a risk of the "ruff" looking
foppish?, - maybe more like radio
telescope dishes / bat ears / antennae?
- another gothic suit
good stuff :-0