Spider Robinson
14 Quotations from Spider Robinson
| astrogating n. | 1979 Stardance (1980) iii. 222 We essentially widened the circle of our orbit until it intersected the Trojan point—decelerating like hell all the way so that we’d be at rest relative to it when we got there. It had to be at least partly by-guess-and-by-God, because any transit in Saturn’s system is a ten-body problem (don’t even think about the Ring), and Bill was an equal partner with the computer in that astrogating job. He did a world-class job, as I had known he would, wasting no fuel and, more important, no passengers. |
| corpsicle n. | 1991 Lady Slings the Booze (1992) 9 It started when a janitor found a corpsicle floating in a rooftop swimming pool next to Central Park one August morning. A stiff, but I mean stiff. |
| cryonics n. | 1975 A Voice is Heard in Ramah.. Nov. 168/1 ‘You can’t clone people, Eddie.’ ‘Not today, you can’t. Maybe you an' I won’t live to see it happen, either. But I can take ya inta Manhattan to a place where they'll freeze a slice o' yer skin, a lousy coupla million cells, an' keep 'em on ice 'til they can clone people. Tom Flannery’s there now, frozen like a popsicle, waitin' for 'em to invent a cure for leukemia; he tol' me about it. So how 'bout it, Rachel? You want cryonics? Or d'ya just wanna cry?’ |
| gravity n. | 1977 Stardance in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact Mar. 49/2 I’ll exercise in three gravities, and I’ll sleep in two, and I’ll make this body last. I know I can. |
| home sun n. | 1976 Galaxy Bookshelf in Galaxy July 127/2 (review of John Brunner’s Polymath) The central character is a ‘polymath’, a multi-discipline genius with a high-survival potential specially trained to help colonists survive on a strange world. Only, when the home sun blew up, he was just beginning the decades of training—and what instruction he did receive was not for the planet they’ve found. |
| pocket universe n. | 1980 Have You Heard One About.. in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact June 76/1 No, compadres, it is not a hole-o-graph. It is a hyperpocket, a dimensional bridge to a…ahem…pocket universe. Regardez! |
| science fictional adj. | 2000 Callahan's Key xv. 254 Nobody has any idea what the hell they are, but all kinds of guesses have been made, some of them fairly science fictional. Black holes colliding. Star drives switching on. Wormholes eating galaxies. |
| spacehound n. | 1978 Stardance II in Analog Sept. 27/1 My attempts to play seasoned old spacehound to Norrey’s breathless tourist were laughably unsuccessful. No one ever gets jaded to space, and I took deep satisfaction in being the one who introduced Norrey to it. |
| spacewrecked adj. | 1976 Galaxy Bookshelf in Galaxy July 127/1 Polymath also concerns space-wrecked humans, who land on a mystery world after barely escaping the destruction of their home planet by nova. They ground safely, but their ship is subsequently wrecked. |
| star drive n. | 2000 Callahan's Key xv. 254 Nobody has any idea what the hell they are, but all kinds of guesses have been made, some of them fairly science fictional. Black holes colliding. Star drives switching on. Wormholes eating galaxies. |
| telempath n. | 1976 Telempath 213 A telempath is a person who approaches telepathy by way of empathy. |
| telempathic adj. | 1976 Telempath 215 I was still dazed from the shock of telempathic contact with my unborn son. |
| teleport v. 1 | 1989 Callahan’s Lady (1990) 148 If you teleported a stranger into that room and told him he was in a whorehouse parlor, he would not believe you. |
| thionite n. | 1974 When No Man Pursueth in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact Nov. 134/1 [U]nder questioning he broke down and admitted smuggling thionite on board to sell at Forced Landing. We found the thionite just where he said it would be. Say, did you know he’s got a modified voicebox? Cursed you out in three-part harmony. |