Heinlein's Fauna...
- Thread starter Atolm
- Start date
The pesudo-wings were kind of interesting to me, indicating a different form, plus little is made of their size, while in the other two works their size is quite remarkable.v
But, as I said, it's scant so I'll be moving on to my next book.
There were a couple of alien species in Methuselah’s Children, IIRC… Jockarians, which were humanoid(ish) and another one that was like a teddy bear/Ewok. (Can’t remember the species name, though.)
Descriptive details on both were scant, though.
Cheers,
-CM-
Descriptive details on both were scant, though.
Cheers,
-CM-
I took the term "wings" as just another descriptive of their frond-like arms... At least that is how I read it. Heinlein does that a lot.
Scan details aren't too bad... but there needs to be something to draw (no pun intended) upon... Like a situation, or action... something that can help extrapolate and give hints to them and their physicality... that is how I did the first image.
That's completely fair.
I am rereading Podakyne of Mars and the Venerian fairies, which have a good description but my phone is being uncooperative for typing haha
I'd like to see your take on Lummox from "The Star Beast". With and without arms.
Venerian fairy from Podkayne of Mars description, described as a pseudosimian, in a one brief line.
Excerpt 1: That door isn't much use to me as there is a fairy perched over it. She's a cute little thing and the green part of her fur looks exactly like a ballet tutu. She doesn't look quite like a miniature human with wings-but they do say that the longer you stay here the more human they look. Her eyes slant up, like a cat's, and she has a very pretty built-in smile
I call her "Titania" because I can't pronounce her real name. She speaks a few words of Ortho, not much because those little skulls are only about twice the brain capacity of a cat's skull-actually, she's an idiot studying to be a moron and not studying very hard
Most of the time she just stays perched and nurses her baby-the size of a kitten and twice as cute. I call it "Ariel" although I'm not sure of its sex. I'm not dead sure of Titania's sex; they say that both males and females do this nursing thing, which is not quite nursing but serves the same purpose; they are not mammalians. Ariel hasn't learned to fly yet, but Titania is teaching it-tosses it into the air and it sort of flops and glides to the floor and then stays there, mewing piteously until she comes to get it and flies back to her perch
Excerpt 2: Because fairies have very sharp teeth and claws; they're carnivorous. I have a nasty bite and two deep scratches on my left arm to prove it-red and tender and don't seem to want to heal. If I get close to that door, she dives on me.
Excerpt 3: I checked all these things at once after learning the hard way that Titania was not just a cutie with gauzy wings.
Excerpt 1: That door isn't much use to me as there is a fairy perched over it. She's a cute little thing and the green part of her fur looks exactly like a ballet tutu. She doesn't look quite like a miniature human with wings-but they do say that the longer you stay here the more human they look. Her eyes slant up, like a cat's, and she has a very pretty built-in smile
I call her "Titania" because I can't pronounce her real name. She speaks a few words of Ortho, not much because those little skulls are only about twice the brain capacity of a cat's skull-actually, she's an idiot studying to be a moron and not studying very hard
Most of the time she just stays perched and nurses her baby-the size of a kitten and twice as cute. I call it "Ariel" although I'm not sure of its sex. I'm not dead sure of Titania's sex; they say that both males and females do this nursing thing, which is not quite nursing but serves the same purpose; they are not mammalians. Ariel hasn't learned to fly yet, but Titania is teaching it-tosses it into the air and it sort of flops and glides to the floor and then stays there, mewing piteously until she comes to get it and flies back to her perch
Excerpt 2: Because fairies have very sharp teeth and claws; they're carnivorous. I have a nasty bite and two deep scratches on my left arm to prove it-red and tender and don't seem to want to heal. If I get close to that door, she dives on me.
Excerpt 3: I checked all these things at once after learning the hard way that Titania was not just a cutie with gauzy wings.
@Atolm
Excerpt 1:
Lummox remained reared up, watching the dog but making no move. He did add to his earlier remark a truthful statement about the dog’s ancestry and an tmtruthful one about his habits; they helped to keep the mastiff berserk. But on the dog’s seventh round trip he cut fairly close to where Lummox’s first pair of legs would have been had Lummox had all eight feet on the ground; Lummox ducked his head the way a frog strikes at a 7fly. His mouth opened like a wardrobe trunk and gobbled the mastiff.
Excerpt 2:
‘Everything!’ He gradually drew out of her some of the details. Lummox had gone for a stroll; that much was clear. John Thomas hoped without conviction that Lummox had not got any iron or steel while he was out; iron had such an explosive effect on his metabolism. There was the time Lummox had eaten that second hand Buick__
Excerpt 3:
Lummox shifted into high gear and got underway in the direction he was heading. Ordinarily he used a leg firing order of 1,4,5,8,2,3,6,7 and repeat, good for speeds from a slow crawl to fast as a trotting horse; he now broke from a standing start into a double-ended gallop, moving legs 1, 2, 5, 6 together, alternated with 3, 4, 7, 8. Lummox was through the three greenhouses before he had time to notice them, leaving a tunnel suitable for a medium truck.
Excerpt 4:
Lummox complied eagerly; the viaduct again trembled as he brushed against it. ‘Make me a saddle.’ Lummox’s midsection slumped down a couple of feet. He thought about it very hard and his upper surface shaped itself into contours resembling 4 chair. ‘Hold still,’ John Thomas ordered. ‘I don’t want any mashed fingers.’ Lummox did so, quivering • little, and the young man scrambled up, grabbing at slips folds in Lummox’s durable hide. He sat himself like a rajah ready for a tiger hunt.
Excerpt 5:
Lummox had grown an arm. TThe arm dried rapidly, lightened in color and seemed to firm. (Lummox did not have much control over it yet but John TThomas could begin to see its final form. It had two elbows, a ([distinct hand with thumbs on each side. There were five fingers, seven digits in all, and the middle finger was longer tand fully flexible, like an elephant’s trunk. The hand did not resemble a human hand much but there was no doubt that it was at least as useful - or would become so; at the moment the Idigits wiggled aimlessly.
Smaller details:
‘Cross my heart.’ “He hasn’t really got a heart,’ Johnnie went on. He has m uncentralised circulatory sysem. It” s like...”
Lummox was snoring gently, stretched half in and half out of his house. His sentry eye was raised above his neck, as it always was when he was asleep; it swiveled around at John Thomas’s approach and looked him over, but that portion of Lummox that stood guard for the rest recognised the youth; the star creature did not wake.
Instead of stepping over it as ■ horse might step over a lower barrier Lummox retracted pairs of legs in succession and flowed over it.
So now he rigged out his guardian eye, closed his others and shifted con trol over to the secondary brain back in his rump. Lummox proper went to sleep, leaving that minor fraction that never slept to perform the simple tasks of watching for road hazards and of supervising the tireless pounding of his eight great legs.
Thanks greatly!
More to do.
The face is fantastic. Very well done.Venerian Fairy:
Thanks! I'll be working on the Lummox today... keep an eye out
Who? The name does not ring a bell.
I am sure there are more Heinlein creatures, the man wrote a lot of books...
Last edited:
Thanks.Really impressive what you can do with just a description.
The more detailed the description the better the drawing, as without it it can become more of my thing than the writer's intent. Although, Heinlein seems to have a habit of purposefully not giving detailed descriptions to possibly have the reader fill in the blanks by themselves. At least it seems to be that way to me. The reason I believe this is that when he does want there to be little to no doubt as to what something looks like, his descriptions are very deep and rich, with very little wiggle room.
Here's one from "Have Spacesuit Will Travel"... the Wormface
Description:
They're bipedal creatures with purplish skin, and stand about five feet in height, though their shortness comes from the fact that their legs are very short and squat, and their feet are large and rather disc-like in shape. Despite that, they move with great speed. They also have a tail which helps support their weight when they stand, rendering them as basically tripedal. They have four arms, each very long and with far more joints that a human's arm. The face has a pair of bulging eyes and no visible nose - although they're known to breathe oxygen - and the mouth is triangular, made from three insectile mandibles. Inside the mouth there are rows of tiny teeth and numerous wriggling tendrils. An additional third eye is present on the back of the head. They're also described as having a "faint sweetish musky odor".
Description:
They're bipedal creatures with purplish skin, and stand about five feet in height, though their shortness comes from the fact that their legs are very short and squat, and their feet are large and rather disc-like in shape. Despite that, they move with great speed. They also have a tail which helps support their weight when they stand, rendering them as basically tripedal. They have four arms, each very long and with far more joints that a human's arm. The face has a pair of bulging eyes and no visible nose - although they're known to breathe oxygen - and the mouth is triangular, made from three insectile mandibles. Inside the mouth there are rows of tiny teeth and numerous wriggling tendrils. An additional third eye is present on the back of the head. They're also described as having a "faint sweetish musky odor".
I'm grabbing my copy of Starship Troopers to aid with the description.
ETA: @Atolm
Skinnies from "Starship Troopers.":
Excerpt 1:
These geezers are humanoid, eight or nine feet tall, much skinnier than we are and with a higher body temperature; they don’t wear any clothes and they stand out in a set of snoopers like a neon sign. They look still funnier in daylight with your bare eyes but I would rather fight them than the arachnids — those Bugs make me queasy
The Bugs:
Excerpt 1:
The Pseudo-Arachnids aren’t even like spiders. They are arthropods who happen to look like a madman’s conception of a giant, intelligent spider, but their organization, psychological and economic, is more like that of ants or termites; they are communal entities, the ultimate dictatorship of the hive. Blasting the surface of their planet would have killed soldiers and workers; it would not have killed the brain caste and the queens — I doubt if anybody can be certain that even a direct hit with a burrowing H-rocket would kill a queen; we don’t know how far down they are.
Excerpt 2:
Their soldiers can’t. Their workers can’t fight (and you can waste a lot of time and ammo shooting up workers who wouldn’t sayboo! ) and their soldier caste can’t surrender. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that the Bugs are just stupid insects because they look the way they do and don’t know how to surrender. Their warriors are smart, skilled, and aggressive — smarter than you are, by the only universal rule, if the Bug shoots first. You can burn off one leg, two legs, three legs, and he just keeps on coming; burn off four on one side and he topples over — but keeps on shooting. You have to spot the nerve case and get it... whereupon he will trot right on past you, shooting at nothing, until he crashes into a wall or something.
Excerpt 3:
We learned to tell the workers from the warriors — if you had time, you could tell from the shape of the carapace, but the quick rule of thumb was: If he comes at you, he’s a warrior; if he runs, you can turn your back on him.
Excerpt 4:
Those Bugs lay eggs. They not only lay them, they hold them in reserve, hatch them as needed. If we killed a warrior — or a thousand, or ten thousand — his or their replacements were hatched and on duty almost before we could get back to base.
Last edited:
