Midworld

Is contained in

Canonical title

Midworld

Original title

Midworld

Original publication date

1975-11

People/Characters

Born (hunter); Brightly Go; Celebes (biochemist); Chittagong (botanist); Jan Cohoma; Din (show all 23); Drawn; Geeliwan (Losting's furcot); Mr. Hansen; Jhelum (carver); Joyla; Kimi Logan; Leehadoon (Sand's furcot); Losting (hunter); Muf (Din's furcot); Nick Nearchose (guard); Reader; Ruumahum (Born's furcot); Sand; Suv (a furcot); Tailing; Talltree; Wu Tsing-Ahn (biochemist)

Important places

the Upper Hell, the World With No Name; the Home-tree, the Third Level, the World With No Name; the Lower and True Hell, the World With No Name; Midworld, Humanx Commonwealth

Epigraph

"...where highest woods impenetrable to star or sunlight, spread their umbrage broad."
- Milton, Paradise Lost

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"Who hears the fishes when they scream?"
- Thoreau

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".......!!!..??...O!!"
- Calathea insignis

Dedication

This book is dedicated to:
Saturn
Mittens
Calathea insignis
JoAnn
and all the rest of the breathren who inspired...

First words

World with no name.

Quotations

The furcot cub Muf tripped over its own stubby legs every third step. The third time he tripped, he lay down in the middle of the village and went to sleep, this being an appropriate solution to the problem.

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Still, it was to be considered that there had been only brave men in the little group, and that the wise Reader was not an idiot. There still existed the chance he was wrong and everyone else was right. He put aside this unpl... (show all)easant possibility and whistled once, softly.

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However, the orders came down from an enraged person at a large desk many parsecs away. They were not to be disputed.

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He had proved himself thrice now in a span of time no longer than a child's dream. This did not alter the belief among his fellows of his madness. They thought, as Losting did, that there is a peculiar bravery that is part of... (show all) insanity. Therefore they exhibited respect toward Born now - but not admiration. There is no recompense in admiring madness.

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As Born had predicted, the specially designed jungle-resistant fabric of the giant's clothing began to rot away under the steady assault of a forest which had failed to read the manufacturer's label.

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"Then why wouldn't it affect a silverslith?" Cohoma asked. "It's got to have some vulnerable points."
"When it comes you show me," Born muttered. "Anyway, silverslith has no nervous system, the tale says."
Logan's willi... (show all)ngness to credit the creature with the ability to go long periods without rest or sleep did not extend this far. "Oh, come on, Born," she said with the confidence of superior knowledge, "every animal has a nervous system."
"Has it?"
"An animal couldn't live without a nervous system, Born."
"Couldn't it?"
"At the very least," she added, "it must have some kind of rudimentary brain and central locomotor system."
"Must it?"
She gave up. Cohoma hadn't paid much attention.

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"All men can fly," Born mused, "but sadly only in one direction - down."

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So the eight marskmen remained at easy readiness and enjoyed the somnolent casualness of night duty, secure in the knowledge that angels with guts of silver and copper watched over them.
From within, mechanistic atheists p... (show all)lotted to deny these gunners' gods the ohmage due them.

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Colors flashed from turning, spinning organic prisms, giving the whole creature the appearance of a balloon trying to hatch a rainbow.

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For the forest dominated the-world-with-no-name. It evolved and changed and grew. It added to itslef. When the first humans had reached it, the world-nexus saw their threat and their promise. The forest had the streangth and ... (show all)resilience and fecundity and variety. It was adding to its intelligence now, slowly, patiently, in the way of the plant.

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Universe! Beware the child cloaked in green bunting.

Original language

English