--- Dave Menard <menard5078@rogers.com> wrote:

<grin> And here I was just reading "Grumbles From The Grave", too... This is
an interesting premise right off the bat. I'm ashamed to say that I hadn't
read more than just a smattering of Heinlein (the bare essentials:
"Troopers", "Stranger" and the odd short, like "By His Bootstraps") before
last month, when you posted "Prelude to Federation" and metioned Scudder.
Then, of course, I had to read "Past Through Tomorrow" to figure out what
was going on, and that led me to "Number of the Beast, "Time Enough For
Love", "the Cat Who Walks Through Walls", "To Sail Beyond The Sunset", and
pretty much everything else I could get my hands on. Kinda weird that fanfic
could lead me to do something that Spider Robinson couldn't... I wonder,
have you determined who was the first human on the moon in this world?

Not yet, though it was probably someone in the early 1960s, with a permanent
settlement founded in '69, which became the 60th state in 1989.
 

An odd child. I mean, what average teenager listens to "easy listening"? ~_^
I'm sure it's all tied into the altered history of this world... Or else
you're playing with our minds somehow, or... Ahhgh! Can't...Stop...Trying
to... Second-Guess... Davies... Nice fake-out with the names, btw. Would've
figured "Diane" (Diana=Artemis=moon goddess) to be Usagi/Serena...

I actually was more concerned when I realized I had inadvertantly named them
Sam and Diane ...

I'm a bit confused by this. Not the problem her parents might have with Mary
(considering her general attitude and her family background within the
story) but the problem they would have with public transportation. Will you
be going into that later, or is it just parental protectiveness?

Mostly it's the latter, though there are other elements. Aren't I vague. :)

<smile> For some reason, I have a hard time imagining a universe where
Howard's poetry would be so widely-read that parent would need to bar their
children from reading it at too young an age.

It's pretty grim stuff, from what I recall.

so Mary is a Molly/Naru analogue, then? And possibly related to Sam in this
life, too, huh? (Or was there a Moon Kingdon in this world? Or is that a
question that will be answered in later chapters?)

Yes to at least one of those questions. :)

     What say we skip ahead about an hour, avoiding all the embarrassing
questions? Rather, let us watch as the girls walk through the front gates

of

Robert A. Heinlein Academy of Learning,

Heheheheheh. So what was R.A.H. in this universe? Celebrated writer, or
Naval hero?

More the latter than the former, but he did write extensively, both fiction and
non-fiction.

beneath the thirteen stripes and sixty
stars of the United States of America.

Oh-ho. The very flag mentioned in the prologue. A very nice and subtle way
of answering some questions without being too obvious. Nicely done.

Danke.

Y'know, oddly enough, I don't recall reading that the educational system's
discipline of Hitler's Germany was any stricter than any other European
country in the early 20th century...

The "Reich" may not refer to Hitler's Germany. :)

 > >      Sam suppresses her by-now instinctive response -- "It's not my

fault!" --

and silently hands her the note she requested from the guards,

Smart cookie, our Sam.

Yep -- though it's mostly a case of "done this before".

Is that a case of sloppy scholarship on Sam's part, or a change in your
world's history? Personally, I think it works either way, but I'm curious
all the same.

The latter.

They remain the backbone of
the

industry, even though character-focused titles form most of its skeleton:
_Doctor Savage_, _The Shadow_, _Gladiator_, _The Black Bat_, _The Golden
Amazon_, _Spider_, _Tony Stark_,

This is neat, esp. Tony Stark. A Young Tom Edison type inventor-adventurer
in this ficton, hmm? Very cool. I get the gag for Gladiator and the Black
Bat, but is there one for Golden Amazon?

Yep -- there really was a Golden Amazon pulp/magazine character who may (*may*)
have influenced William M. Marshall, the creator of Wonder Woman.

I mean, she's obviously a Wonder
Woman analogue, but is there more to it? Either way, it's a nice name. On an
only-slightly-related note, have you read Warren Ellis' "Planetary" or
Moore's "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"?

Mbut of course. :)

_Ka-Zar_, _Doctor Doom_, _The Mutants_,
_Prince Arn_, _Archie_, _Star Trek_, and Sam's personal favorite, _The
Avengers_.

Would that be the Marvel book, or John Steed and Emma Peel?

More the former than the latter, although with a strong influence of the latter
("trained professionals and talented amateurs in defense of the nation").

     "Don't shout at me," Mother says, very calmly. "That, in particular,

is

never the right thing. No dessert tonight."

Ouch. Strict. (But fair, I'll admit. As a parent, I envy her ability to be
both caring and a hard-ass at once. that's quite a tightrope to walk- and
one which parents in Heinlein stories almost always navigate so well. The
bastards. You can tell that the Heinlen's never had any kids of their own,
sometimes.)

Mrs. Hazzard is probably my favorite character in this story so far ...

     Sam reluctantly closes her eyes and makes a picture of her hometown's
layout in her mind's eye. It's fairly easy, as she always did well in

civics.

Heheh. Who was her teacher? Not a certain one-armed ex-infantryman?

No comment. 

     "Oh no," says Rune as she divines Sam's intent. "You're not serious."
     "Gladiator does this sort of thing all the time. So does Steve

Austin."

Steve Austin? The Bionic Man exists in this world? Or do they just call him
"Cyborg"?

He exists as a fictional character -- if he's a real person, deponent saith
not. :)

Nice exorcism. Raye would be proud of her. <blinks> Y'know, I'm curious to
see what the Raye-analogue in this ficton is like. If it's a
Heinlein-inspired world, someone as religious as Raye might be considered
quite the looney. (Or at least a weak-willed fool...) Or are you taking the
"Job" tack with her?

It's not *totally* Heinlein-inspired ... 

Another great piece of work. I'm really looking forward to reading more;
will this be a chapter-a-week sort of thing, or it that just how it worked
out with the prologue and chapter one?

I'm aiming for chapter-a-month.

Like all your stuff, this has layers. I enjoyed it on so many different
levels; I'm simply astounded by the quality of this piece. If there was any
justice in the world, someone would be paying you for this. Looking forward
to the next chapter!

Thanks!

Chris Davies.

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