• From: Denver, CO
  • Registered: 2005-03-27
  • Posts: 3,578

Topic: Venus?

My copy of "Worlds At War" arrived from Lulu yesterday, and it looks pretty durn cool, if I do say so myself.

I've been reading over War of the Worlds again, finding lots of little details that either escaped me the first time, or which my memory has expunged in favor of more salient facts (like where I left the remote to TiVo).

In any event, I just stumbled across this little tidbit:

"Lessing has advanced excellent reasons for supposing that the Martians have actually succeeded in effecting a landing on the planet Venus."

Does this get anyone else's wheels a-turnin'?

smile

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

mj12games's Website

  • Registered: 2005-03-30
  • Posts: 272

Re: Venus?

Oh sure, they might land all right, but between the reptile men, the carnivorous jungle plants, the pseudodinosaurs and the Venusian Devil Plague they sure won't last long.  smile

The real Venus is such a dull place, sadly...

Rich

  • Registered: 2022-11-15
  • Posts: 1,424

Re: Venus?

hundvig wrote:

Oh sure, they might land all right, but between the reptile men, the carnivorous jungle plants, the pseudodinosaurs and the Venusian Devil Plague they sure won't last long.  smile

Did we want to go the usual 'Steamy Jungles of Venus' route? It's 'pulpy' enough...

We could also go the 'Steamy crustacean paradise' route, the 'Giant Insectoids' route (but we have Selenites, that are insectoid IIRC)...

I'm rather partial to having the 'Tropical' regions be hot places where we'd be unable to venture, inhabited by 'crab analogs' of some sort. The 'Artic' regions up north (where tropical conditions exist in the winter) being the usual 'lizards in loincloth's' thing....

hundvig wrote:

The real Venus is such a dull place, sadly...

I forget the pressure, but the highly acidic atmosphere, along with tectonic activity that makes the ocean look Kansas prairie makes it REAL inhospitable...

  • Registered: 2005-03-30
  • Posts: 272

Re: Venus?

I think a warm, wet Venus is mandatory, but there's no reason it all has to be jungle.  Monstrous crab-things in the boiling equatorial seas are fine by me, as are wasp-man hive-villages in the high  mountain peaks and all sorts of reptillian types on the polar continents.  No matter how you slice it, not a great place to visit, and you'd hate to live there.  smile

Re: Martian invasion status, does anyone remember the old Devil Dinosaur comic?  One storyline featured high-tech alien invaders who come down, start slaughtering dinos and cavemen left and right, then get swarmed under by giant army ants.  Silly, but to the point.  Neolithic tech does not equate to harmless, especially when local animal husbandry skills involve dinosaurs and the like...

Rich

  • From: Denver, CO
  • Registered: 2005-03-27
  • Posts: 3,578

Re: Venus?

thedugan wrote:

I'm rather partial to having the 'Tropical' regions be hot places where we'd be unable to venture, inhabited by 'crab analogs' of some sort. The 'Artic' regions up north (where tropical conditions exist in the winter) being the usual 'lizards in loincloth's' thing....

One thing I really like about Wells' Martians is that they are alien, not humans with bumpy ridges on their foreheads or a Tolkienesque fantasy ripoff.

In keeping with this, I'm more partial to crab-like beings, rather than lizard-people (or anything-people).

Something you can describe as a "thing" or a "being", not a "blank-man".

Dan

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

mj12games's Website

  • Registered: 2022-11-15
  • Posts: 1,424

Re: Venus?

cricket wrote:
thedugan wrote:

I'm rather partial to having the 'Tropical' regions be hot places where we'd be unable to venture, inhabited by 'crab analogs' of some sort. The 'Artic' regions up north (where tropical conditions exist in the winter) being the usual 'lizards in loincloth's' thing....

One thing I really like about Wells' Martians is that they are alien, not humans with bumpy ridges on their foreheads or a Tolkienesque fantasy ripoff.

In keeping with this, I'm more partial to crab-like beings, rather than lizard-people (or anything-people).

Something you can describe as a "thing" or a "being", not a "blank-man".

Well....something like this maybe?

http://www.geocities.com/thedugan/pix/Venusian01.JPG

  • From: Denver, CO
  • Registered: 2005-03-27
  • Posts: 3,578

Re: Venus?

thedugan wrote:
cricket wrote:

Something you can describe as a "thing" or a "being", not a "blank-man".

Well....something like this maybe?

http://www.geocities.com/thedugan/pix/Venusian01.JPG

Nice!

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

mj12games's Website

  • From: Denver, CO
  • Registered: 2005-03-27
  • Posts: 3,578

Re: Venus?

cricket wrote:
thedugan wrote:

http://www.geocities.com/thedugan/pix/Venusian01.JPG

Nice!

Although, the 'claws' should perhaps be bigger...

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

mj12games's Website

  • Registered: 2022-11-15
  • Posts: 1,424

Re: Venus?

cricket wrote:
cricket wrote:
thedugan wrote:

http://www.geocities.com/thedugan/pix/Venusian01.JPG

Nice!

Although, the 'claws' should perhaps be bigger...

Well, we're after something that may be capable of 'tool use' - eventually.

Perhaps make the 'elbows' thicker was what I was thinking.

I was somewhat busy today, for a Friday. I owed Jim a pattern for a mech, but was too busy to get to it. The crab only took a few minutes, I already had what I wanted in mind - more or less.

I figured that my Geocities site could deal with the traffic, and spare you some bandwidth - as well as making it easier for both ends of the list traffic to see....

  • Registered: 2005-04-03
  • Posts: 7

Re: Venus?

I seem to recall reading a short story set on Venus which depicted it as a boiling muddy swamp.  Human prospectors had to galumph around in bowl-shaped boots and protective suits.  I wish I could remember who wrote that one.

H.P. Lovecraft did one story set on Venus IIRC, following a human explorer who becomes trapped in a mysterious maze of invisible glass walls.  Although the focus was not really on the environment, I think he depicted it as being more desert-like than jungle-like.

And hey, if we ever get to Mercury, can I suggest a little E.R. Eddison?  :twisted:

  • From: Denver, CO
  • Registered: 2005-03-27
  • Posts: 3,578

Re: Venus?

Chogokin wrote:

H.P. Lovecraft did one story set on Venus IIRC, following a human explorer who becomes trapped in a mysterious maze of invisible glass walls.  Although the focus was not really on the environment, I think he depicted it as being more desert-like than jungle-like.

Anyone know which story this might be?

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

mj12games's Website

  • Registered: 2005-03-30
  • Posts: 272

Re: Venus?

cricket wrote:
Chogokin wrote:

H.P. Lovecraft did one story set on Venus IIRC, following a human explorer who becomes trapped in a mysterious maze of invisible glass walls.  Although the focus was not really on the environment, I think he depicted it as being more desert-like than jungle-like.

Anyone know which story this might be?

"Walls of Eryx" if this site: 

http://voleboy.freewebpages.org/works/lovecraft.html

is correct.

Rich

  • Registered: 2022-11-15
  • Posts: 1,286

Re: Venus?

Cool venusian pic.  Like the concept of a hot and swampy Venus.  The leeches must be murder. *evil chuckles*