An Ancient Peace (Peacekeeper, book 1) by Tanya Huff

[james_davis_nicoll]

An Ancient Peace (Peacekeeper, book 1) by Tanya Huff

Comments

[thornsilver]

I a big fun of this series and cannot wait until the next book some out. (June! I can't wait until June, gimme now!)

It is interesting to point out that the reader knows nothing about the H'san except: a) they are cute, b) the like cheese, and c) they sing. Personally I find hinted upon biology creepy rather than cute. Give me a Mictok any day.

[jamoche]

And they treat other races as science projects - sounds like the HItchhiker's Guide mice :)

[jessie_c]

Isn't it the Big Yellow Aliens who were doing the whole Science Project thing?

[jamoche]

Well, there are so many versions; those don't ring a bell. In the books/radio/TV versions they're the 3D intrusions of hyperdimensional beings who manipulate us by suddenly running the wrong way in mazes and otherwise skewing behavioral studies. They commissioned Magrathea to build the Earth.

[jessie_c]

Yes, the Mice are the H2G2 experimenters, but I was talking about the ones in the Confederation Universe. The H'san haven't been shown to be ruthless experimenters in the series up to this book. It's not clear from your comment whether you meant them in your reply to Thornsilver.

[jamoche]

Oh. No, I haven't read any of the Huff books, so all I had to go on was that "cute" was one of the few things known about them.

[jessie_c]

Oh. It gets a bit complicated, but in one of the books, Torin and a hastily-assembled team of Marines get tasked to explore a mysterious, huge yellow ship drifting in space. They run into the Others (the series "bad guys" up to that point), and have a running battle through the ship. They eventually deduce that both they and the Others were lured there as part of the huge Sociology experiment the Big Yellow aliens were running.

[kylinn]

There are hints that Big Yellow might be related to the H'san; perhaps originally built by them? In that case their comment about being 'sorry' after it was discovered that the war was a science experiment takes on new meaning.

[filkerdave]

Are there? I thought it was all done by the plastic aliens?

[(Anonymous)]

Big Yellow is the plastic aliens.

[jessie_c]

Now there's a thing. Is that in this book? If it's in one of the others I have to confess I missed it.

[kylinn]

Filkerdave: Big Yellow and the plastic aliens are one and the same.

Jessie: It's in reading between the lines. The similarities between the prison planet and the H'san graveyard planet, for instance, which is briefly remarked upon. The H'san saying 'sorry' after the experiment was revealed. Some other bits here and there - just hints.

Of course, I could be wrong; it could be coincidence. Guess we'll have to wait and see if we find out.

[ba_munronoe]

I'm really confused by pacifists who carry out wars as science experiments. Why do they need younger races to fight for them? They certainly seem to be capable of pushing buttons to send in the Deathbots. Perhaps the Frink Law [1] applies to robots in this universe.

[1]http://www.simpsonsworld.com/video/311653955527?redir=scratchy

[roseembolism]

Everybody needs a hobby...