16
votes
Accepted
Is the Descolada based on an actual virus?
No. The Descolada's pathology makes no sense for a real-world virus.
First of all, "changing random genes" would result in death from all the infected cells dying in the body long before an ...
- 17.3k
10
votes
Accepted
Why don't the piggies plant a seed when they kill Pipo and Libo?
DISCLAIMER: this is all from my memories of reading these books many times as a teenager, and it's possible that I have remembered the details wrong. Other folks should feel free to dispute this ...
- 1,911
9
votes
What is the Speaker for the Dead cover depicting?
Spaceships doing generic spaceshippy stuff
But I also hated the cover on my bestselling book, because the art came from a game sold in the UK and it depicted spaceships doing generic spaceshippy ...
- 96.1k
6
votes
Accepted
The founding of Starways Congress
Starways Congress had control over the ansibles.
The far-flung colonized worlds were self sufficient, but the human need to belong to a greater community and receive the scientific and cultural ...
- 993
1
vote
Is the Descolada based on an actual virus?
Transmittable cancers
While they don't randomly change the genome everywhere, cancer cells do represent a mutation of the existing genes. And in particular, the transmissible cancer known as Devil ...
- 111
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