Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"I suspect that religion is a necessary evil in the childhood of our particular species. And that's one of the interesting things about contact with other intelligences: we could see what role, if any, religion plays in their development."
- Arthur C. Clarke
 |
| Rod of Wrath | ||
| A sword made of light. |
This three-part serial was originally published in 1943. In the story, the device is presented as being a small rod, like a flashlight, which projects an energy beam.
| Like two ancient swordsmen, then, the warlock and the deacon duelled together. Their weapons were two endless blades of violet incandescence, but their tactics were those of sabreurs - feint, cut, parry, swift riposte. |
| From Gather Darkness,
by Fritz Leiber. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1943 Additional resources -
|
Sure, go ahead and compare it to the lightsaber from Star Wars. See also the entry for flashlight laser, which is essentially an indefinitely long light saber, from Ringworld, by Larry Niven. Niven mentions "light swords" in the book. See also the entry for Force-Field Penknife, from Foundation by Isaac Asimov.
Thanks to Stephen Jones for pointing this out in Dr. Hermes Retro-Scans.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 2 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Gather Darkness
More Ideas
and Technology by Fritz Leiber
Tech news articles related to Gather Darkness
Tech news articles related to works by Fritz Leiber
| ZKZM-500 LASER Assault Rifle |
| Drone Assassin Fails To Kill Venezuelan President |
| Musk's Boring Flamethrower |
| Poland Starts With 1000 Warmate 'Suicide Drones' |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Negligible increase in weight increased material strength by hundreds of times.
'All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.'
The number of different ways to span a thread between a larger number of hooks is astronomical.
'This is all coming to you courtesy of the simstim unit wired into your deck, of course.'
What's it like for autonomous trams when they're turned off at night?
'Merton... placed the electrodes of the sleep-inducer on his forehead.'
'... we can descend and live down there at one of those year-round aquatic resorts.'
'...she would have to be coaxed by another series of pats into a circular orbit.'
'The sleek, tapered space shuttle lay immobile upon the private landing field...'
