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"Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today -- but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all."
- Isaac Asimov
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| High Kavalaan Aircar | ||
| Flying SUV equipped with laser weapons. |
I'm really tickled by this one, since it neatly reveals the form and intent of the modern-day sport utility vehicle. This aircar could eat Hummers for lunch.
| He had seen a lot of types of aircars in his travels, but none quite like this one; huge and steel-gray, with curved and muscled triangular wings, it looked almost alive, like a great aerial manta ray fashioned in metal. A small cockpit with four seats was set between the wings, and beneath the wingtips he glimpsed ominous rods.
He looked at Gwen and pointed. "Are those lasers?" ...Gwen laughed. "Get in," she told him. "It is a perfectly fine aircar of High Kavalaan manufacture. They've only recently started turning out their own. It's supposed to look like an animal, the black banshee. A flying predator... very big in their folklore, sort of a totem... Every car built on High Kavalaan has weapons of some sort. The culture demands it..." She threw on the gravity grid suddelnly, touched the stick an dthe aircar wrenched forward and left the ground... |
| Technovelgy from Dying of the Light,
by George RR Martin. Published by Baen in 1977 Additional resources -
|
Compare to air-car from A Matter of Size (1934) by Harry Bates.
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I'm hoping that this procedure becomes a normal part of medical practice!
'... nothing was perfected until M. Pantalon announced the completion of his automatic valet.'
'...its streets were of remarkable width, with few or no buildings so high as mosques, churches, State-offices, or palaces in Tellurian cities.'
'...it was all composed of tiny, identical cubes, carefully laid to form a tilelike surface.'
'He carried on his person a triggering mechanism sensitive to his heartbeat.'
'...Anything was possible in my imaginary environment.'
'Somewhere in space, a chrome and blue automobile raced the green light of Earth.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair...'
