David Brin
See first quotes from David Brin
85 Quotations from David Brin
| alien n. | 1984 Practice Effect .iii.11 They stared at each other—Earthman and alien. |
| alternate reality n. | 1984 Practice Effect . i. 1 By using zievatronics alternate realities appear to be almost within our reach, presenting possibilities for bypassing both space and time. |
| antigravity adj. | 1987 Uplift War 251 The Suzerain of Propriety tried to make allowance for such difference as the clucking swarm of fuzzy, rotund clients carried the antigravity perch from the site where the body had lain. |
| antimatter n. | 1987 Uplift War 291 At the edge of the forest Athaclena saw their special weapons team begin setting up their only antimatter projectors. |
| ant-man n. | 1984 Practice Effect iii. iii. 47 To be slain on sight by mammal-hating antmen, for instance, would have merely been unavoidable bad luck. |
| astroengineering n. | 1986 Heart of Comet (1987) i. 70 He had applied to Berkeley for graduate school in astroengineering. |
| biosuit n. | 1992 Genji in Murasaki 44 Minoru stank from hour after hour in his biosuit. |
| bot n. | 1983 Startide Rising 190 ‘I'll bet this will please Dr. Dart… Of course, the sensors might not be types he'd want. But the 'bot is still operational.’ Gillian examined the small robot-link screen. |
| bot n. | 1984 Practice Effect .i.23 Compared with some of the sophisticated machines Dennis had worked with, the exploration 'bot wasn’t very bright. |
| bot n. | 1998 Heaven's Reach 303 A formation of cop-bots swept eastwards at top speed, rushing around the next corner toward some noisy emergency. |
| commlink n. | 1983 Startide Rising 403 Gillian reached for the comm link, but the carrier wave cut off before she could say another word. |
| communicator n. | 1980 Sundiver .xii. 131 By the elevators Kepler spoke briefly into a wall communicator. |
| deep space n. | 1987 Uplift War 592 Let them engage in uplift of their new clients from deepspace! |
| deep-space adj. | 1980 Sundiver ii. 17 Here was old Uncle Jeremey gabbing on and on about all that old nonsense, and Alice—lucky Alice whose turn it was to risk the oldsters' ire and listen in on the tap they'd placed on the house deepspace receiver—what was it she had heard! |
| dirtside adv. | 1986 Heart of Comet 90 Probably too late for me, though. I'll have to go live on Earth to have my babies, and no male spacer will give up the Black to stay dirtside with me. |
| dystopia n. 1 | 1980 Sundiver .xxxi. 337 Some sort of dystopia, wasn’t it? [about Huxley’s Brave New World] |
| Earther n. | 1995 Brightness Reef (1996) 10 Nowadays, Dad says I should read the new hoon writers, those trying to go past imitating old-time Earthers, coming up with literature by and for our own kind. |
| earthling n. | 1984 Practice Effect i. 99 Earthlings had had to struggle and experiment for thousands of years to reach a level of comfort these people achieved almost without thinking. |
| earthman n. | 1980 Sundiver .i. 12 Fagin was also the one extraterrestrial who tried hardest to understand Earthmen. |
| earthshine n. | 2012 Existence (2013) viii. 62 Gerald could not judge exactly where the object’s boundary gave way to the blackness of space. Glassy reflections rippled fields of starlight, or Earthshine from below, almost like a wavy liquid, creating a maze of shifting glitters that vexed human perception. Even image analysis produced an uncertain outline. |
| earthship n. | 1996 Infinity's Shore (1997) 433 Until the Earthship Vesarius fell through an undetected hyperanomaly, ending humanity’s long isolation. |
| Earth-type adj. 1 | 2015 Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss in Old Venus 304 Dizziness, muscle aches, and labored breathing? These could just be the result of hard labor. The book said to watch out also for joint pain, rashes, delirium, or sudden unconsciousness. He did know that the old dive tables were useless—based on Earth-type humanity. And we’ve changed. First because our scientist ancestors modified themselves and their offspring. But time, too, has altered what we are, even long after we lost those wizard powers. Each generation was an experiment. |
| ET n. | 1980 Sundiver .i. 9 He couldn’t resist an opportunity to talk with an E.T., anywhere, anytime. |
| ET n. | 1984 Practice Effect viii. 39 Blowing on it, he muttered as his temper slowly wound down. ‘Stupid, practical joking E.T.s…damned fickle aliens…’ |
| extraterrestrial adj. | 1984 Practice Effect .iii. 13 You may thank our extraterrestrial friend here for making up my mind for me. |
| first contact n. | 1992 Bonding to Genji in Otherness (1994) 225 Yamato arrived after the Spacers—upstarts from Earth’s asteroid colonies—had already visited the twin worlds of Genji and Chujo, taken samples of alien life, and usurped the privilege of first contact that should have been Japan’s. |
| galactic n. 1 | 1995 Brightness Reef 332 It may be that all advanced races learn to do what the Rothen are doing now—impressing those beneath them on the ladder of status. Perhaps we’re all extra-susceptible on account of being primitives, having no other experience with Galactics. |
| galactographic adj. | 1996 Infinity’s Shore (1998) 459 ‘Over the course of tens of millions of years, only one solution has ever been found for this enduring paradox. This solution consists of the continuing application of pragmatic foresight in the interests of the common good. In other words—civilization.’ — from A Galactographic Tutorial of Ignorant Wolfling Terrans, a special publication of the Library Institute of the Five Galaxies, year 42 EC, in partial satisfaction of the debt obligation of 35 EC. |
| gravitic adj. | 1998 Heaven's Reach 72 But right now they are using a supplementary gravitic engine to hasten progress, fleeing unexpected chaos in this stellar system. |
| grok v. | 1995 Brightness Reef (1996) 68 Noors can’t speak Galactic Two or any other language anyone’s ever grokked, but they can memorize and repeat any short mirror-flash they happen to pick up with their sharp eyes. |
| grok v. | 1998 Heaven’s Reach 410 Can you sniff/sense/feel/grok the very thing you covet…and secretly fear? |
| humanoid adj. | 1980 Sundiver .iii. 30 It was humanoid, standing at least two meters tall. |
| hyperspace n. | 1987 Uplift War 274 So the battle fleet had arrayed itself. Ships kept watch over the five local layers of hyperspace, over nearby transfer points, over the cometary time-drop nexi. |
| insectoid n. | 1996 Infinity’s Shore (1997) 242 One by one, the insectoids drifted upslope to the makeshift cavity where Dwer and Rety exposed their faces for air. |
| in-system adj. | 1980 Sundiver 238 Besides, more than half of the crewmen on in-system ships are male, and seven out of ten on military craft. |
| in-system adv. | 1980 Sundiver 96 You may recall we got back in system a couple of years ago. |
| jump n. | 1980 Sundiver .xiv. 146 Maybe people were more naturally intimate when they left Earth for the long Jump on Calypso. |
| laser rifle n. | 1983 Startide Rising xlii. 221 K'tha-Jon’s laser rifle could kill at long range, while the welder/torch on Akki’s harness was, like all sidearm-tools, of use only up close. |
| mech n. | 1986 Heart of Comet (1987) i. 3 Had had been tending the construction mechs—robots that were deploying girders. |
| megayear n. | 1995 Brightness Reef (1996) 172 Now let’s see if encephalization has changed during the last megayear. |
| Mercurian adj. | 1980 Sundiver xii. 126 For Kepler’s benefit, deSilva ordered the entire base reduced to Mercurian gravity. |
| mind-controlled adj. | 2009 Heaven’s Reach 376 Much harder was the physical effort, helping her enter places where Gillian Baskin had hidden the secretes, working with a mind-controlled Suessi to steal them, then having both agents smuggle out the material by separate routes. |
| nanorobot n. | 2012 Existence xxx. 192 In fact, the creeping nano-robots should not trigger any conspicuous reaction at all, as they made their way to preplanned positions in the visual cortex, the cerebellum, the anterior cingulate, the left temporal lobe... and a host of other crucial nexi, scattered through Tor’s intricately folded cerebrum. |
| needle gun n. | 1984 Practice Effect . v. 21 He strapped on his tool belt, with the needlegun holstered to one side. |
| needler n. | 1983 Startide Rising 386 He checked his weapon. The needler only had a few shots left. |
| neural adj. | 1986 Heart of Comet (1987) i. 10 Tapped into channels through a direct neural link and wrist servos, she scarcely moved. |
| plasteel n. | 1983 Startide Rising 39 All of his dreams since the age of nine had dealt with ships. Ships, at first, of plasteel and jubber, sailing the straits and archipelagos of Calafia, and later ships of space. |
| plastiskin n. | 2012 Existence 491 Gavin’s supple, plastiskin face was somber, his voice subdued. |
| pseudogravity n. | 1980 Sundiver 80 Apparently the dome enclosed a pseudo-gravity field so tight that it could be wrapped around a mere few yards. |
| pseudopod n. | 2002 Kiln People vii. 74 The maestra has guests. Four are females, identical, with frizzy pink hair and earthen-red skin so dark it's almost umber. They look nervous, agitated. One stares constantly at a vid-screen, nodding and grunting. A sluglike string of flesh seems to ooze out the side of her head, clamping a pseudopod onto an electronic sensor pad. |
| psi n. | 1984 Practice Effect .ii. 168 The Practice Effect was at least partly a psi power exercised by humans on this world. |
| sapient adj. | 1983 Startide Rising 104 The chimp scientist grimaced. His lips curled back to display an array of large, yellowed, buck teeth. At the moment, in spite of the enlarged globe of his cranium, his outthrust jaw, and his opposable thumbs, he looked more like an angry ape than a sapient scientist. |
| Sol n. 1 | 1983 Startide Rising 81 The great cylinder was only twenty meters across. The vista wasn’t as impressive as the view from the hub of one of the space cities of Sol’s asteroid belts. |
| Solarian n. 1 | 1980 Sundiver 49 ‘There has been another dive since our meeting, Jacob, and on that dive, we are told, only the first and more prosaic species of Solarian was observed. Not the second variety which has caused Dr. Kepler so much concern.’ Jacob was still confused by the hurried explanations Kepler had given of the two types of Sun-creatures so far observed. |
| Solarian adj. | 1980 Sundiver 288 The huge Solarian beasts were coming up fast from below the Sunship on a collision course. |
| solar sail n. | 1998 Heaven’s Reach 72 The image you see is caused by a tremendous reflector-and-energy-collector…a solar sail. |
| sophont n. | 1980 Sundiver iv. 46 Homo sapiens—just as every other known race of sophonts—was part of a chain of genetic and cultural uplifting that stretched back to the fabled early days of the galaxy. |
| space drive n. | 1980 Sundiver .xiv. 157 The wolfling race may develop a crude spacedrive from the dregs of its patron’s technology. |
| space flight n. | 1980 Sundiver .xxi. 238 More males volunteer for spaceflight than females. |
| space helmet n. | 1984 Practice Effect .vi. 74 The beanie cap had become a space helmet and the whirling blades lifted him into the air. |
| spaceport n. | 1987 Uplift War 588 Robert blamed the symptoms on the fringing fields of a lifting starship, whose keening engines could be heard all the way from the spaceport. |
| spacer n. 1 | 1986 Heart of Comet 90 Probably too late for me, though. I'll have to go live on Earth to have my babies, and no male spacer will give up the Black to stay dirtside with me. |
| space suit n. | 1980 Sundiver xii. 128 Now LaRoque was putting on a spacesuit in a tool closet twenty meters from an outer airlock. |
| starfarer n. | 1987 Uplift War 271 Throughout the Five Galaxies the Thennanin were known as tough fighters and doughty starfarers. |
| star lane n. | 1987 Uplift War 590 The dolphins seem to have miraculously escaped a trap set for them by a dozen of the most fanatic patron lines—an astonishing feat by itself—and now the Streaker seems to be loose on the starlanes. |
| starship n. | 1987 Uplift War 306 Sam Tenance was a starship pilot who stopped at Garth every five years or so, one of Megan’s three spacer husbands. |
| stasis field n. | 1980 Sundiver (1989) 117 The ship is a flat deck inside an almost perfectly reflecting shell. The Gravity Engines, Stasis Field Generators and the Refrigerator Laser are all in the smaller sphere that sits in the middle of the deck. |
| teleportation n. | 1984 Practice Effect .i.22 Had the ziev effect played another trick on them all and given them teleportation rather than an interstellar drive? |
| terraformed adj. | 1980 Sundiver .xxi. 239 We are challenged by some two-bit species…who now own two little terraformed planets that sit right astride our only route to the colony on Omnivarium? |
| terraformer n. | 1998 Heaven's Reach 188 Even if all the technicians and Terraformers left, where would that leave the natives? |
| terraforming n. | 1980 Sundiver .x. 107 Have only allowed the Pring to colonize class A worlds, devoid of life and requiring terraforming, but free of use restrictions by the Institutes of Tradition and Migration. |
| three vee n. | 1984 Practice Effect . vi. 72 It was a late-night talk show on the three-vee. |
| tight-beam v. | 1986 Heart of Comet (1987) i. 39 Maybe somebody'll tightbeam stuff back before we return. |
| torchship n. | 1986 Heart of Comet 20 When they arrived the first task awaiting the torch ship’s crew was to recover the huge cylinders containing the deep-sleeping majority of the mission crew. There were disadvantages to each style of travel—torch ship or slot tug. |
| tractor beam n. | 1996 Infinity’s Shore (1997) 477 Worst of all, he pictured a ‘tractor beam,’ seizing and dragging him down to torment in some Jophur-designed hell. |
| unobtainium n. | 1983 Startide Rising (1995) 93 None of the other moons in the Kthsemenee system had the one attribute this one possessed: a core of almost one percent unobtainium. Already thirty of the Brothers' ships had landed, to begin construction of the Weapon. |
| uplift n. | 1980 Sundiver 11 And from now on the work here at the Center for Uplift would be evenmore routine. |
| uplift v. | 1980 Sundiver 22 A young man on the left, wrapped in silver sateen from the throat to toe, held up a placard that said, ‘Mankind Was Uplifted Too: let our E.T. Cousins Out!’ |
| uplifting n. | 1980 Sundiver (1989) 46 The other side held that homo sapiens—just as every other known race of sophonts—was part of a chain of genetic and cultural uplifting that stretched back to the fabled early days of the galaxy, the time of the Progenitors. |
| vibroknife n. | 1986 Heart of Comet 288 Her mouth went dry as she saw the slim-bladed vibro-knife lying next to the corpse. |
| warp drive n. | 1994 Those Eyes in Otherness 205 Suppose we do have remnants of some super-duper, alien warp-drive scout ship from Algerdeberon Eleventeen. |
| wetware n. | 2012 Existence vi. 413 Amateurs…equipped with every kind of immersion hardware, software, and wetware money could buy. |
| worldlet n. | 1985 Warm Space in D. Brin Otherness (1994) 266 Asteroid-sized arks—artificial worldlets capable of carrying entire ecospheres—remained a dream out of science fiction, economically beyond reach. |
| xeno- prefix | 1980 Sundiver ii. 22 The former group took their love of aliens to almost a pseudo-religious frenzy. Hysterical Xenophilia? |
| xenology n. | 1998 Heaven’s Reach 160 Lark abruptly recalled something he had read once, in a rare galacto-xenology text, about a type of hydro-life called Zang. |