Jerry Pournelle
See first quotes from Jerry Pournelle
57 Quotations from Jerry Pournelle
| Belter n. | 1974 in Galaxy Science Fiction May 106/1 One supposes there’s a local source of both energy and fuel in the Belt, of course, or there couldn’t be a Belter Civilization to begin with. |
| Belter n. | 1974 in Galaxy Science Fiction May 105/2 Belters are asteroid miners—they flit from asteroid to asteroid, slicing them up for the mineral wealth they presumably contain. |
| biotech n. | 1974 Mote in God’s Eye (1975) xviii. 139 Horace Bury watched the foot-high Moties playing behind the wire screen. ‘Do they bite?’ he asked. ‘They haven’t yet,’ Horvath answered. ‘Not even when the biotechs took blood samples.’ |
| cold sleep n. | 1990 Asteroid Queen in L. Niven et al. Man-Kzin Wars III (1992) . 66 She had spent most of the intervening decades in coldsleep, at a high fraction of lightspeed; he had lived every minute of them here on Wunderland, lived hard and without the best anti-senescent treatments. |
| cold sleep n. | 1992 In Hall of the Mountain King in L. Niven et al. Man-Kzin Wars V . 19 He learned that a hyperdrive transport back to Sol was out of the question, and there wasn’t even a place for him in cold sleep aboard a slowship. |
| con n. | 1991 Fallen Angels 89 A public venue was naturally out of the question; and very few fen owned homes large enough to house even a small con. |
| credit n. | 1993 Prince of Sparta 183 We be needing CS credits and Friedlander marks someday too. |
| cryosleep n. | 1987 Legacy of Heorot iii. 46 Were there dreams in cryosleep? The neurologists said no, but his memory said yes. |
| cyberpunk n. 1 | 1991 Fallen Angels 89 It’s the ultimate synthesis between science fiction, cyberpunk, and horror. |
| death ray n. | 1981 Decisive Frontier in Omni Nov. 147/3 The best-known and most often demonstrated space-weapon systems are beam weapons—the ‘death rays’ of H.G. Wells. |
| fanac n. | 1991 Fallen Angels 24 That was like Bruce, to evaluate everything, even her personal life, in terms of its utility to the current fanac. |
| fanac n. | 1991 Fallen Angels 74 When Bruce raised this expedition, it sounded like good fanac. |
| fandom n. | 1991 Fallen Angels 86 Chuck Umber had published fandom’s most successful news magazine for more than twenty years, in formats growing steadily more cryptic and secretive for an audience growing gradually smaller. |
| fannish adj. | 1991 Fallen Angels 131 You should see my collection of fannish art. |
| fannishness n. | 1991 Fallen Angels 24 Eventually she had had to watch what she said around him because she couldn’t be sure that he wouldn’t denounce her for fannishness to the University. |
| femmefan n. | 1991 Fallen Angels 328 Downstairs in one of the function rooms, he found Dinsby in a circle of femmefans surrounding Gordon. |
| fen n. | 1991 Fallen Angels 19 But why tell me, Bob? I'm fafiated. It’s been years since I've dared associate with fen. |
| fen n. | 1991 Fallen Angels 89 A public venue was naturally out of the question; and very few fen owned homes large enough to house even a small con. |
| filker n. | 1991 Fallen Angels 321 Filkers were gearing up out by the pool; the laughter was louder than the singing. |
| filking n. | 1991 Fallen Angels 27 His fingers fluttered through a few traditional tunes: jigs and reels and such; then he started in one some serious filking. |
| free fall n. | 1991 Fallen Angels 9 Gordon had been born in free fall and thrust was new to him. |
| fresher n. | 1992 In Hall of the Mountain King in L. Niven et al. Man-Kzin Wars V . 11 Sweat stained the fat man’s white linen suit, and a haze of smoke hung below the ceiling as the fresher system fought overstrain. |
| fugghead n. | 1991 Fallen Angels 357 Niven’s law. No cause is so noble that it won’t attract fuggheads. |
| fuggheaded adj. | 1991 Fallen Angels 357 Some fuggheaded Green Police. |
| gafiate v. | 1991 Fallen Angels 23–4 ‘We heard you'd gafiated.’ ‘Fafiated.’ She looked him straight in the eye, daring him to disagree. She hadn’t gotten away from it all; she'd been forced away from it all. |
| gengineer v. | 1991 Fallen Angels 363 Those mice are gengineered to produce juvenile growth hormone. |
| grav n. 2 | 1974 Mote in God’s Eye (1975) iv. xlvii. 447 It’s going to be tough facing three gravs after that dinner. |
| gripping hand n. | [1974 Mote in God’s Eye 167 It left the Motie standing comically on vacuum, its big left hand gripping a ring that jutted out from the hull.] |
| gripping hand n. | 1986 in Byte June 296/2 On the other hand, when I check with knowledgeable friends, they say they haven’t really solved the problem either. On the gripping hand, as the Moties say, I know it can be done. |
| gripping hand n. | 1993 Gripping Hand 7 On the one hand, if they shimmy too hard, they may be diseased. On the other, if they don’t shimmy, they haven’t eaten well. On the gripping hand, if they’re too young and healthy they will escape and attempt to eat you. |
| groundside adv. | 1991 Fallen Angels 46 Things wouldn’t behave naturally groundside. |
| hyperdrive n. | 1990 Asteroid Queen in L. Niven et al. Man-Kzin Wars III (1992) . 166 The commander of the hyperdrive warship Outsider’s Gift sat back and relaxed for the first time in weeks as his craft broke through into normal space. |
| in-system adv. | 1989 Children's Hour in L. Niven et al. Man-Kzin Wars II (1991) . 176 The flatlander warship was still headed insystem; from the look of things they were going to use the sun for a whip-round. |
| jump v. | 1974 Mote in God’s Eye 103 First Jump was routine. The transfer point to Murcheson’s Eye was well located. New Caledonia was a magnificent white point source in the moment before MacArthur Jumped. Then Murcheson’s Eye was a wide red glare the size of a baseball held at arm’s length. |
| light-day n. | 1981 Space & the Longevity of Man in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 13 Apr. 122 There might be many civilizations ‘close’ together—a few light days from each other. |
| light sail n. | 1974 Mote in God’s Eye (1976) 48 ‘You knew we were dealing with a light-sail propulsion system, sir?… Sunlight per square centimeter falling on a light sail decreases as the square of the distance from the star. Acceleration varies directly as the sunlight reflected from the sail.’… Renner made another parabola, very like the first, but in blue. ‘The stellar wind can also propel a light sail. Thrust varies about the same way. The important difference is that the stellar wind is atomic nuclei. They stick where they hit the sail. The momentum is transferred directly—and it’s all radial to the sun.’ |
| military science fiction n. | 1979 Mercenaries & Military Virtue in D. Drake Hammer’s Slammers Introd. p. ix Military science fiction is a highly specialized art form. It is attempted often, but there are few writers who know science, society, and the military well enough to write a good story of war in the future. |
| neofan n. | 1991 Fallen Angels 91 ‘I just dropped in recently.’ A neofan, then. |
| null-g n. | 1974 Mote in God’s Eye (1975) iii. xxxi. 316 Null-gee races were a favorite if slightly nonregulation game with midshipmen. |
| off-planet adj. | 1993 Prince of Sparta 17 They’ve got too much off-planet support. |
| planetography n. | 1974 Mote in God’s Eye (1975) iii. xxvi. 244 The physical features of Mote Prime are of some interest, particularly to ecologists concerned with the effects of intelligent life on planetography. |
| psychohistory n. | 1980 New Beginnings: The Proper Study of Mankind in Destinies Spring 44 Hari Seldon’s psychohistory probably isn’t possible; but something short of it may yet be developed by people trained in scientific method and equipped with modern tools. |
| rocketeer n. | 1993 Prince of Sparta 219 Finally, two Helot rocketeers came up. |
| scanner n. | 1974 Mote in God’s Eye (1975) i. vi. 59 The forward scanners were operative and recording. |
| sercon n. | 1991 Fallen Angels 92 Chuck laughed. ‘Sercon,’ he explained. ‘Serious and constructive activities.’ |
| sercon adj. | 1991 Fallen Angels 92 You'll find plenty to entertain you. Not every fan activity is sercon. |
| slideway n. | 1990 Asteroid Queen in L. Niven et al. Man-Kzin Wars III (1992) . 82 The men at either elbow guided him to the slower edge-strip of the slideway and onto the sidewalk. |
| space v. 2 | 1974 Mote in God’s Eye 485 ‘Curse. And how many Mediator pups when they returned?’ ‘I had four sisters.’ ‘Curse!’ Mediators identified with Masters. They held the usual Master emotions about children. Though sterile from an early age, Ivan was not immune to those emotions; but he knew. The children should have been spaced. |
| spinward adv. | 1990 Asteroid Queen in L. Niven et al. Man-Kzin Wars III (1992) iv. 80 He passed through the mechanical airlock and into one of the main transverse corridors. It was ten meters by twenty, and sixty kilometers long; three sides were small businesses and shops; on the fourth, spinward, was a slideway. |
| stasis field n. | 1990 Asteroid Queen in L. Niven et al. Man-Kzin Wars III (1992) . 63 They had a device, a stasis field that forms invulnerable protection and freezes time within; we have never been able to understand the principle and copies do not work, but we have found them occasionally, and they can be deactivated. |
| suit n. | 1991 Fallen Angels 11 Five times his suit had leaked air while they worked to save Freedom Station. |
| supernova n. | 1974 Mote in God's Eye (1976) 278 For astrophysics, perhaps verra important, Captain. They hae been watching yon supergiant for aye their history as it passed across the Coal Sack. ‘Twill go supernova and then become a black hole—and the Moties say they know when. |
| terraform v. | 1974 Mote in God’s Eye (1975) i. iv. 33 The middle two planets are inhabited, both terraformed by First Empire scientists after Jasper Murcheson. |
| thruster n. | 1974 Mote in God’s Eye xiv. 113 Whitbread coasted slowly inward. He rode a space-to-space taxi, the cabin a polarized plastic bubble, the short hull studded with ‘thruster clusters’—arrays of attitude jets. |
| torchship n. | 1990 Asteroid Queen in L. Niven et al. Man-Kzin Wars III (1992) . 41 The little torchship had not been doing well of late, and the kzin-nominated purchasing combines on the asteroid base of Tiamat had been squeezing harder and harder. |
| tri-v n. | 1974 Mote in God’s Eye 448 They have given us a tri-v…and it is obviously what the humans watch. There were spokesmen for many Masters. You saw. |
| trufan n. | 1991 Fallen Angels 89 Without Tremont J. Fielding—3MJ as he was known to all trufans—and his sprawling mansion, Minicon might not have come off at all. |