Question

[Weyrbrat]

This is proably a stupid question, but i was wondering, is the alien mind in the Damia book(can't remember the name) a brainship? I've not actually read the brainship books, but was just curious to know.

[edith]

It's a brainship in that it's a brain cotrolling a ship but no, Sodan is nothing like the brainships in the Brainship books, who are humans connected to a ship "body".

[kevia]

No. Brainships are in a different universe and the brains of brainships are human, not alien.

Sorry, Edith. I somehow missed your post. Weyrbrat, what Edith said.

[draconichybrid]

It's the Heptite Guild/Brainship universe, not the Talent/Brainship universe. :P

As for your question, it's not stupid -- there's no such thing. Plenty of stupid answers, but no stupid questions....

As I find myself saying at least twice a week: "You don't get much of anything without asking for it -- one way or another."

[Weyrbrat]

thanks! i must find a lbrary with the brainship books!

[D. M. Domini]

Like others said, Sodan is not a brainship in the manner of AMC's Brainship series (the Talent and Brainship universes are incompatible with one another; there's no need for Brainships in a Talented universe), but it is a brainship in that Sodan is said not to have a body.

I am personally curious as to how Sodan is so powerfully Talented, and why he's nothing but a brain. What chain of effects caused that to happen?

[Weyrbrat]

I just thought I might add a another question here, it fitting the title and all, in the tower and hive universe, have they met other alien species before the evnts of the Rowan? i seem to remember something about Rhiadon(not sure spelling, the old earth prime) having chairs in his room shaped for alien forms, and some other things. Anyone else remember or am i just crazy?

[D. M. Domini]

Rhiadon? No clue who that is. Earth Prime before Jeff Raven was Peter Reidinger III. First Earth Prime was Peter Reidinger I. And before that, Rhyssa op Owen (sp? Is it ap or op?) was the Director of the...Parapsychic Centers in North America? Forgot her exact title, but it was pre-Earth Prime.

First alien species they met were the Hivers/Beetles, and that's when they were bombing Deneb.

It is possible perhaps there was a continuty mistake mentioning alien-shaped chairs, but I don't recall it and I'd need you to give us a page number so we can check. Is it in the Pegasus books, or the Tower and Hive books?

[Greenrider Tresa]

Originally Posted by D. M. Domini

Like others said, Sodan is not a brainship in the manner of AMC's Brainship series (the Talent and Brainship universes are incompatible with one another; there's no need for Brainships in a Talented universe), but it is a brainship in that Sodan is said not to have a body.

I am personally curious as to how Sodan is so powerfully Talented, and why he's nothing but a brain. What chain of effects caused that to happen?

Maybe the body atrophied? :;shrug:; When I read about Sodan I thought of the brains in the Star Trek episode Gamesters of Triskellion...

[Emeraldrose]

It has been at least 4 years since I read any of the Talent series...I have read Rowan, Damia and Lyons Pride...I thought the enemy was an Insect race (rather like in Ender's Game) Is my memory faulty?

[ghost8772]

After the initial hive invasions, but before the whole "Going out looking for trouble" there was Sodan. I remember him being only a mind, but not the brainship kind. There was one brief mention that he had a body once before he was removed from the storyline.

[D. M. Domini]

Emeraldrose - Sodan was a once-off baddie in the Talent series that appeared in Damia. It was implied that he literally came from another galaxy (outside of the Milky Way) because his home world was utterly destroyed. Damia, Afra, Larak, Rowan, and Jeff killed him and his ship in a merge. Larak lost his life during this, and Afra and Damia were badly wounded.

The main enemy is the insect-like Hivers (also called Beetles in earlier books). Sodan's people probably won't return, since it was implied he was the last of his race.

The third set of aliens we've seen is the Mrdini, obviously, but they're allies of Humanity.

[P'ter]

I thought that Sodan implied/stated that he had volunteered to be transplanted into his ship as the only hope left for his race.

[D. M. Domini]

I don't recall that specifically, but I do recall a scene that could be taken and extropolated (sp?) upon to provide that conclusion.

They show a brief memory from Sodan where Sodan was once in an alien body, navigating down alien roads.

It's a brief scene, but it sort of acts as a first step where you can come up with all sorts of subsequent events that were never actually shown, and that never actually happened.

Personally, I think their race killed itself with its infighting, because of this war-like culture, this is why Sodan decided to attack Iota Aurigae rather than say to Damia, "Hey, know any habitable planets we can use? We're the last of our race, and that's sad.". I think he (reluctantly) saw Damia as a rival, since she was a Prime, and he was Prime, and I think their race's Talents were what killed their species--basically, the egotism shown by the Rowan-era Primes taken to an extreme...like where the Primes were reluctant at first to merge to help Deneb, because Reidinger and the others were fearful that the merge of such strong egos would rip them all apart. I think Sodan's people kept going forward with extreme Prime-in-her-Tower syndrome and became dictators, and waged war on one another with their minds from across the stars. But, this was never stated as such in the books.

[Multi-Facets]

Then again, Sodan also said "In my own fashion I have loved you." Is it possible to love one's rivals?

[D. M. Domini]

Wow. I wasn't actually drunk when I posted my previous post, but that grammar is horrible. Sorry about that! Must've been half asleep...

Multi-Facets - Yes, I think so. I feel he felt her as his rival, but reluctantly, as if he wished he could have met her in other circumstances (such as when the fate of his entire race didn't depend on him, or whatever was actually going on with him).

I wonder if Afra and Damia ever wonder if they destroyed the last of an entire species.

[Lady Maelin]

I have always thought that in his way yes Sodan really loved Damia...but his duty to his race and his mission was more over powering that any love he could feel for her as a compatible intellect. I felt sorry for all of them, that were in that awesome battle of power.

[Maximillian]

To quote a classic movie line:

Carl Denham: "Oh no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast."

<---Sodan

[Lady Maelin]

Max.....................

[granath]

We don't really know enough about Sodan's people to judge. Why he picked Aurigae rather than an uninhabited world (or one inhabited by Hivers) that couldn't defend itself against it, we'll never know.

[T2KincaidDano]

I seem to recall that Sodan volunteered to become a "brain ship." Of course, Sodan is an alien in the Talent universe, which is a different universe than the Brain Ship universe, as others have noted. I also wanted to mention that Damia described Sodan's mental powers as similar to the human Talents, and he, like the Talents, used powered machinery to augment his mental powers, as he communicated via telepathy with Damia and to send a telekinetic and telepathic strike against Damia, which killed her brother Larak.

[granath]

Yeah, and he purposefully fostered Damia's crush on him to make the Talents less of a threat.

[GinnyStar]

That special link between Damia and Larak kick in with the Merge, and both Jeff and the Rowan were over taxed too. Sorry some of this is from memory and the part about Sodan remind me more of Spock seeing V'Ger memories