Hi everyone, this is my first post here, so "Hi", absolutely love the books, all that fun stuff. Bought SotG and read it in one day, to the dismay of several test grades...
Anyway, I've got a small question about the potency/possibility of nukes in SotG. I know they were mentioned a few times, but I can't remember exactly how scared people were of them. I remember there wasn't that much fear, but I thought that the reason that people didn't worry was because everyone remembered what happened to Mecca and it was basically unspoken agreement that no one would use nukes again. If someone could refresh my memory as to why nukes weren't feared, that'd be greatly appreciated.
I only ask because I started re-reading Ender's Game again and noticed one line in ch 9 where Peter says "The shields make it so no one bothers with nuklear weapons anymore."
I realize that the entire "nuke" deal was very small in SotG, but it's nagging at me now that I thought of it, so if someone could remind me, that'd be great - I wanna reread the entire series in order, so jumping to SotG after Ender's Game kinda throws that outta whack.
Thanks in advance!
Posted by Dread Pendragon (Member # 7239) on :
I think the International Fleet had the ability to stop a nuclear attack, or at least severely punish any country who would use them.
Posted by Michiel (Member # 7649) on :
Yes, I think that's right.
Posted by definitelynotvichysoisse (Member # 7559) on :
The Humans have the ecstatic shield which prevents nuclear attack. I believe there is a line that goes something like "now that we have the ecstatic shield humans can only kill each other thousands at a time rather than millions."
[ March 29, 2005, 08:48 PM: Message edited by: definitelynotvichysoisse ]
Posted by Alex Lin (Member # 7667) on :
Ah, okey, thanks everyone. Saved me a great deal of work - not that reading SotG is work, of course! *goes back to reading and not studying* Horrible work ethic...
Posted by jongo05 (Member # 7580) on :
Yeah, the nuclear attack was one of limited reasons the IF would interfere with matters on Earth.
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
Wow. I completely, and I mean COMPLETELY, forgot about the "ecstatic shield." Should have been mentioned several times in the Shadow books, if I had remembered them. Bummer!
Still, I don't actually contradict them. The nuking of Mecca would have taken place BEFORE the ecstatic shield, which grew out of what humans learned from Bugger technology after Mazer Rackham's victory.
Posted by Sid Meier (Member # 6965) on :
Don't worry mister Card, if we had noticed a contradiction you would have all of us hopping up and down and sending you a bizillion emails about it.
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)