Armor Hunters #1 Discussion

[grendeljd]

How can a society (the Vine) maintain its society is various members of the population are zipping around and disappearing for hundreds of years? This works if it's a one-way journey to a new settlement where travelers are leaving everything behind, but if they're traveling around, seeding planets, and then returning home, as we've seen happen, we should see some evidence of problems with re-acclimating to a society that's advanced many hundreds of years.

That's a really good question. If Aric experiences time dilation when he returns to Earth, why don't the Vine when they return to Loam?

Bugsy just explained it above - the Vine do not travel at faster-than-light speeds while roaming & seeding the galaxy. But they probably travel at the speed of light (anything less and they would have to be 'generational ships' in order to get anywhere, which they did not appear to be). I'm not really well educated in scientific theory (Chiclo may be able to back me up on this), but I believe the concept of travelling at the speed of light means that time moves at a different rate for anything moving at that speed. Thus there is a time dilation, or difference in the rate of time passing, between the Vine colony ships and the rest of the galaxy.

Now this is maybe getting more into fictional territory, but if those ships have faster-than-light speed capabilities, then when they engage those engines/drives etc, they would counter the time dilation effects - like with warp drives in Star Trek.

So Aric was in a ship travelling at the speed of light while a slave. Subject to time dilation. Skipped 1600 years. Shanhara shot him to earth at faster than light speed. No further time dilation. The Vine ships engaged faster-than-light speed drives to catch up with him (maybe not quite as fast as Shanhara is capable of) - no further time dilation.

Why wouldn't they use those drives at all times? Don't need to? Don't want to? Can't due to energy consumption restrictions? Who knows - it's fiction at this point after all...

I'd be fine with the situation if they ignored time dilation altogether. So many science fiction novels, shows, movies, etc. do, and we just take it for granted that the people traveling have solved that particular problem. But that scientific fact is a key element in Aric ending up in modern times, so I think it needs to be addressed here.

I already explained it. Magnets.

Do you have one strapped to each ear with opposing polarities pointed inwards at your brain? That would explain a lot.

[lorddunlow]

How can a society (the Vine) maintain its society is various members of the population are zipping around and disappearing for hundreds of years? This works if it's a one-way journey to a new settlement where travelers are leaving everything behind, but if they're traveling around, seeding planets, and then returning home, as we've seen happen, we should see some evidence of problems with re-acclimating to a society that's advanced many hundreds of years.

That's a really good question. If Aric experiences time dilation when he returns to Earth, why don't the Vine when they return to Loam?

Bugsy just explained it above - the Vine do not travel at faster-than-light speeds while roaming & seeding the galaxy. But they probably travel at the speed of light (anything less and they would have to be 'generational ships' in order to get anywhere, which they did not appear to be). I'm not really well educated in scientific theory (Chiclo may be able to back me up on this), but I believe the concept of travelling at the speed of light means that time moves at a different rate for anything moving at that speed. Thus there is a time dilation, or difference in the rate of time passing, between the Vine colony ships and the rest of the galaxy.

Now this is maybe getting more into fictional territory, but if those ships have faster-than-light speed capabilities, then when they engage those engines/drives etc, they would counter the time dilation effects - like with warp drives in Star Trek.

So Aric was in a ship travelling at the speed of light while a slave. Subject to time dilation. Skipped 1600 years. Shanhara shot him to earth at faster than light speed. No further time dilation. The Vine ships engaged faster-than-light speed drives to catch up with him (maybe not quite as fast as Shanhara is capable of) - no further time dilation.

Why wouldn't they use those drives at all times? Don't need to? Don't want to? Can't due to energy consumption restrictions? Who knows - it's fiction at this point after all...

I'd be fine with the situation if they ignored time dilation altogether. So many science fiction novels, shows, movies, etc. do, and we just take it for granted that the people traveling have solved that particular problem. But that scientific fact is a key element in Aric ending up in modern times, so I think it needs to be addressed here.

I already explained it. Magnets.

Do you have one strapped to each ear with opposing polarities pointed inwards at your brain? That would explain a lot.

They're pointed outward...

Which I suppose doesn't make a difference.

[jmatt]

Traveling at the speed of light stops time for the travelers. Theoretically speaking, faster than light should make time go backwards. There's an old astrophysics joke:

And the bartender says "We don't serve your kind here!"

A faster than light neutrino walks into a bar.

[BugsySig]

Traveling at the speed of light stops time for the travelers. Theoretically speaking, faster than light should make time go backwards. There's an old astrophysics joke:

And the bartender says "We don't serve your kind here!"

A faster than light neutrino walks into a bar.

Haha

Faster than light is a bad term, what we really mean is instantaneous/worm hole/Einstein-Rosen Bridge travel.

[leonmallett]

The valid discussion about the potential flaw regarding Vine travel and society aside ( ), I enjoyed Armor hunters #1. It did feel like quite a brief read though, as other posters have mentioned.

A lot of universe-building is apparent in this book and the related stories so far: changing the status quo for earth with the destruction of Mexico City; the alien melting pot we have seen; the back-story of the extinction-level threat posed by other armors. So it is enjoyable so far for me.

Another poster said they felt it had a DC feel, and I totally get that, but maybe not a bad thing. There is a lot of mythos building going on at VEI: the immortal brothers; the Psiots and their future; the Houses; the Armor Hunters; Deadside and the Loa. And those kinds of thing seems very much influenced by the post-emotional spectrum GL era of DC books, where DC have expanded with stuff like the Red, Green and Black etc. No bad thing for VALIANT to have its own spines to have its own internal logic. What I hope for is that VEI picks up these strands and spins new materials further and further out. My worry is that by self-imposing the (silly IMHO) 9 book limit, that some stuff will fall by the wayside too quickly, which I hope is not the case.

[RogueJedi74]

Honestly when I first saw this announced I thought it might be corny. However, after ready everything that has been published, I am hooked. There is a lot going on here and the fate of the human race is in the balance.

Also one thing stood out to me was the fact that the X-O Suit is the ultimate weapon in the universe and the hunters understand that if it fell into the wrong hands complete races will be destroyed. Of course Aric lost the suit at one point so humanity has the ability to defeat the person wearing it but maybe not the armor itself.

[mkb28]

I am a little late to the party, but having just finished the June Armor Hunters books (AH #1, Unity #8, X-O #26,) I have to say that I really love the start of this series. It was helpful to read the backstory in X-O #26 to learn why they are pursuing anyone who wears the Armor. Great tie-in story and I can't wait to dive into the five books for July.

I remember reading about this series in Previews and it motivated me to start buying the monthly issues again. Nice work, VEI!

Michael
Mkb28