Well, if your just asking for how we rationalized it when we read Nightworld, here's mine. (remember you asked for it )

I had read Nightworld before alot of other FPW books. I've read most of them now, and when I reread Nightworld not to long ago, a reason for this anomaly occured to me.

Warning, minor spoilers for Barrens, Freakshow, Gateways, Crisscross, and Conspirocies below!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!















In both The Barrens and Freakshow, They both end at a nexus point. In both they pierced the "veil" into the Otherness. We kinda got a look behind the curtain. Through the looking glass. Etc. But it only happens at night.

In Gateways, Crisscross, and Conspirocies, We find these nexus points are not just in the barrens.

Now becasue the nexus points are only active at night, (and actually need a certain something to be activated) I would say the Otherness has a good hold on the night side of the world. Boring I know, but bare with me.

As it is, on a normal day, approx. half the world is in dark, and half in the day. Of course this happens at the half way point on the earth.

When Rasalom went to the mountain and started Nightworld, I thought he was telling the Otherness that the time had come to make it's move.

This is when the Otherness started to bring the world through the veil. Starting with the half already in darkness, it started to draw the rest of Earth through the veil, inch by inch and mile by mile, making the area outside the veil smaller and smaler.

Since the earth rotates, each day would see a sunrise and a sunset, but each days light would get shorter as the Earth was drawn through the veil and sunlight would not be able to land on the areas inside the veil. It would also explain why the days became shoerter and shorter as it progressed, because the world is round. The more it was drawn in, the shoerter the arch.

Made sence to me anyway, and it stays within the rules of FPW's world.

By the way, I consider the Advesary cycle as Dark Fantasy. Not Sci-Fi.


KRW

Well put. I never thought of it that way, but that's exactly what appeals to me about sci-fi.

Actually, let me clarify that... I like that sci-fi allows you to BEND the rules.

Exactly. Sometimes it's nice to have problems and solutions that are "other worldly" and not so familiar.

I agree with what each of you say, and I'm a pretty soft reader. I want to make it clear that I'm not one of those pedants/literalists who'd try to argue the Himalayas down to a nub. I know what you mean about sci-fi/fantast boards where people will just go nuts and ruin a pleasurable imaginative scenario by arguing about it as if it's last month's telephone bill (what... a.... drag.....), and that's not what I meant. I really was just curious about my own thoughts with respect to what may be happening in Nightworld (which I'd never pursued), and if anyone else has any thoughts on the subject. Still am!

-oss

Well, to me it seems like it's just a cheat. I don't think it could work, the way it's written, in real life. The days getting shorter. I think things would fall apart (in a different way than intended). It doesn't bother me in this case, since most Science Fiction works under the same types of cheats. I can suspend disbelief, in this case, because I want to see this scenario played out as written. It's like the Back To the Future deal. I'm not concerned if you can travel into the future or only into the past (since the future isn't written yet). I like to see the story where they go into the future, so the cheat doesn't bother me.

I know. I don't make no sense!!!

I think that SciFi has to adhere to the rules of science, and if it doesn't there needs to be a logical reason for it. I give it some leeway, but that line is dynamic depending on the quality of the story.

Yeah, I guess that's about right. If I really dig the tale, I'm less likely to be bothered by impossibilities. (Like 130lb Bruce Lee beating up 20 or 30 men. )

You've pretty much nailed it. I wanted to pull the reality rug from under the characters' feet -- "This can't be happening!" -- "It's impossible!" Well, obviously it's possible because it IS happening. The rules have been changed. Up is now down -- sometimes (you can't even rely on that). As the creep says to Jack: "School's out, man. No more rules!" (or something like that.)

Tossed into this crucible, the good folks will hang on to their values. Why? Because values aren't dependent on circumstances. Yeah, you might steal food if you're starving, but under no circumstances will you steal a TV. You'll feel bad about stealing the food, and when things are better you'll try to make amends. Dire circumstances might make you break from your code, but that's not the same as denying the code's existence.

As for the rest of humanity . . . well, we saw what happened in NO.

Good explanation. That helps with the perspective quite a bit.

I recently read a SciFi book where some outside entity changed the flow of time on Earth. It was called Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson (must be something about "Wilson"). The author wanted to keep a firm foothold in physics and had to constantly invent work-arounds which distracted from the story and made it less fun. But if you want to think about General Relativity and distorting time as an explanation, remember that there are several passages in Nightworld where it is noted that the stars are different, and fewer.

If Nightworld were real, there would be a lot of exciting new physics to be studied and understood -- for those who survived. For the sake of the story, sometimes you just have to buy into it. As Jack says on page 206 of Nightworld: "I don't understand any of this. But then, I'm not supposed to. That's the whole point."

Thanks, though I don't think I'm missing the point as that pretty much falls under the first explanation I offer.

Kinda sorta. Perhaps the Otherness can do whatever it wants as your first hypothesis states. But it could also be that there are rules that do apply to the Otherness that are simply different rules than those that comply with our experience. The end result would be the same from our perspective: unexplainable events. It's a bit like Arthur C. Clarke's law that "any sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic" (though only superficially).

There's obviously a temperamental difference at work here.

Not really. I think you may have taken my comments as hostile when they weren't intended to be. I'm not ridiculing your ideas. I'm just stating my own opinion that, in the end, we're not meant to understand it and therefore never will. That doesn't mean it isn't fun to think about it and discuss it. I'm actually struck by the idea that this thread really shows you to be a very empathic reader. Just think of all the people in that fictitious universe who, one imagines, may have thought of all the things you did and more trying to explain what they were going through. They would never be able to figure it out, of course, which brings us back to my original comment.

By merely broaching the notion of what may be happening in Nightworld I don't mean to try to diminish it in any way, make it mundane . . .

Don't worry about people perceiving you as criticizing FPW's work (or any of our views on it). I don't get the impression that's something anyone around here is afraid to do, and I doubt the man himself would have it any other way.

Blake

If I really dig the tale, I'm less likely to be bothered by impossibilities. (Like 130lb Bruce Lee beating up 20 or 30 men. )

You take that back!!!

Blake

Well, if your just asking for how we rationalized it when we read Nightworld, here's mine. (remember you asked for it )

I had read Nightworld before alot of other FPW books. I've read most of them now, and when I reread Nightworld not to long ago, a reason for this anomaly occured to me.

Warning, minor spoilers for Barrens, Freakshow, Gateways, Crisscross, and Conspirocies below!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!















In both The Barrens and Freakshow, They both end at a nexus point. In both they pierced the "veil" into the Otherness. We kinda got a look behind the curtain. Through the looking glass. Etc. But it only happens at night.

In Gateways, Crisscross, and Conspirocies, We find these nexus points are not just in the barrens.

Now becasue the nexus points are only active at night, (and actually need a certain something to be activated) I would say the Otherness has a good hold on the night side of the world. Boring I know, but bare with me.

As it is, on a normal day, approx. half the world is in dark, and half in the day. Of course this happens at the half way point on the earth.

When Rasalom went to the mountain and started Nightworld, I thought he was telling the Otherness that the time had come to make it's move.

This is when the Otherness started to bring the world through the veil. Starting with the half already in darkness, it started to draw the rest of Earth through the veil, inch by inch and mile by mile, making the area outside the veil smaller and smaler.

Since the earth rotates, each day would see a sunrise and a sunset, but each days light would get shorter as the Earth was drawn through the veil and sunlight would not be able to land on the areas inside the veil. It would also explain why the days became shoerter and shorter as it progressed, because the world is round. The more it was drawn in, the shoerter the arch.

Made sence to me anyway, and it stays within the rules of FPW's world.

By the way, I consider the Advesary cycle as Dark Fantasy. Not Sci-Fi.


KRW

Hmmm! Nicely done! I like your explanation best of all. Actually, the creatures coming over from the Otherness suggested to me the existence of a parallel universe as well. I've come to believe in the existence of infinite parallel universes, and the existence of "past", "present" and "future" simultaneously as well. Some of Dean Koontz' works got me started on that (quantum mechanics are involved, I believe).

Yeah, I guess that's about right. If I really dig the tale, I'm less likely to be bothered by impossibilities. (Like 130lb Bruce Lee beating up 20 or 30 men. )

You mean that's not possible?