sublight adj.
occurring below the speed of light; (also) relating to travel at speeds below the speed of light
SF Encyclopedia
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1947 Inexorable Laws in New Worlds Oct. 59/2
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The crew prepared for the blackout that always occurred when the drive passed from supra-light to sub-light speed.
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1950 Shadow on the Sand in Thrilling Wonder Stories Oct. 14/1
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John D. MacDonald
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They were in the eight-minus level, apparently. Later, when he found a reference to the manufacture of radioactives, he quickly revised it to six-minus, knowing that these people were on the verge of Newtonian sub-light space travel.
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1956 Margin of Profit in Astounding Science Fiction Sept. 51/2
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Poul Anderson
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The shells have to be hypered themselves, of course, or they would revert to sublight velocity and be left behind as soon as they emerged from the drive field.
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1969 We All Died at Breakaway Station in Amazing Stories Mar. 58/2
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Richard C. Meredith
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Port Abell just received an FTL probe saying that he was approaching the system at maximum sub[-]light speed.
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1969 The Weather on Welladay in Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine Mar. 102/2
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Anne McCaffrey
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A sublight message?… Now what?
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1972 Star Trek 8 146
James Blish
A very archaic type, Captain. Sublight space.
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1985 Starhunt 79
A typical battle maneuver consists of several minutes or hours of complex evasive patterns of the warp in the stress field, interrupted by a sudden unwarping—with the ship bouncing off in a totally unexpected direction and at sublight speed—followed by the almost immediate launching of its missiles.
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1986 Dreadnought! viii. 199
Diane Carey
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I urged the massive beast into sublight movement.
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1988 Iron in L. Niven et al. Man-Kzin Wars (1989) . 47
Poul Anderson
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The kzinti hurled a sublight fleet out of Alpha Centauri at variable intervals, but years apart, since one way or another they always lost heavily in the sanguinary campaigns that followed.
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1997 Vulcan’s Forge xxvii. 306
Susan Shwartz
Josepha Sherman
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Spock heard the familiar crackle of sublight communications.
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2002 Stone 139
When people from the Wheah made the slow sublight journey through the Tongue they—obviously—chose its narrowest point.
Research requirements
antedating 1947
Research History
Mike Christie submitted a cite from a 1993 reprint of Dan Simmons' "Hyperion".Katrina Campbell submitted a cite from a 1991 reprint of Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon's 1990 "Sassinak".
Katrina Campbell submitted a cite from a reprint of Anne McCaffrey's "The Weather on Welladay"; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1969 original magazine appearance.
Enoch Forrester submitted a cite from a 1990 reprint of Poul Anderson's "The High Crusade"; Mike Christie verified the cite in a 1968 reprint. We would like to check the 1960 first edition.
Jeff Prucher submitted a cite from a reprint of a John Clute review; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1973 first magazine appearance.
Katrina Campbell submitted a cite from a reprint of Richard Meredith's "We All Died At Breakaway Station"; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1969 first magazine appearance.
Katrina Campbell submitted a cite from a 1985 reprint of David Gerrold's 1972 "Starhunt".
Dave Langford submitted a 1956 cite from Poul Anderson's "Margin of Profit".
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1963 reprint of John D. Macdonald's story "Shadow on the Sand", and Mike Christie verified it in the 1950 original publication.
Jesse Sheidlower submitted a 1947 cite from New Worlds.
Last modified 2021-01-12 03:20:00
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