A book forum... I shoulda looked for one a long time ago.
Anyways, I read some books a few years back, probably 4 or more years; these books are by the same author. All describe worlds which have been colonized, and not Earth. One book has a setting on an isolated world, where, when children are... fertilized in winter, when women are active they are genetic copies of their mother, while when fertilized in summer, when men are active, they show the mixing of traits we see in human life. The story involves a girl who discovers a man who is from Earth, probably the only invade in a long time, who is under some sort of danger. I can't remember exact details, but they have a competitive form of the game of Life there, on a 40*40 board, and she employs a strategy that bounces attacks back at the opponent. Also, the key to getting into a place (called Jellycan Beacon or something) required a person to move heaxgonal prisms, with symbols on top, so that the "bee" hexagon and the "jelly" hexagon both touched the "can" hexagon.
The author also wrote another series where a mix of races live on an isolated world. There are several races, including human, some lizard-reptile species, things formed by multi-colored rings, and dolphins. They live without electronics (except for a calculator/machine controlled by an old reptile) because they are not supposed to even be on that planet/galaxy, because it is sealed off. However, a ship crashlands and upsets everything. In the end, more of the story is revealed, in that the universe is connected by other space, which makes travel between distant areas possible. However, levels of the network of other space are collapsing, leaving the planets/systems of those levels unconnected by the other space, which is why the planet where most of everything happens was forbidden to be settled on. It's revealed that this collapse has happened before, and will probably continue. Among other tidbits of the books I remember, there's a human teenage girl who wants more than anything else to get off the story's planet, but ends up back there when the other space level collapses, and like many other ships, they must land on that planet, with no other place to go. Also, there are actually 2 species of creatures made of rings, one which has all rings working together democractically, while another "evil" one where a master ring controls all the other rings. One individual, which was a democratic one, has a master ring implanted, but then changes from both species into something different.
So... anyone know what I'm talking about? Thank you for your time.
Anyways, I read some books a few years back, probably 4 or more years; these books are by the same author. All describe worlds which have been colonized, and not Earth. One book has a setting on an isolated world, where, when children are... fertilized in winter, when women are active they are genetic copies of their mother, while when fertilized in summer, when men are active, they show the mixing of traits we see in human life. The story involves a girl who discovers a man who is from Earth, probably the only invade in a long time, who is under some sort of danger. I can't remember exact details, but they have a competitive form of the game of Life there, on a 40*40 board, and she employs a strategy that bounces attacks back at the opponent. Also, the key to getting into a place (called Jellycan Beacon or something) required a person to move heaxgonal prisms, with symbols on top, so that the "bee" hexagon and the "jelly" hexagon both touched the "can" hexagon.
The author also wrote another series where a mix of races live on an isolated world. There are several races, including human, some lizard-reptile species, things formed by multi-colored rings, and dolphins. They live without electronics (except for a calculator/machine controlled by an old reptile) because they are not supposed to even be on that planet/galaxy, because it is sealed off. However, a ship crashlands and upsets everything. In the end, more of the story is revealed, in that the universe is connected by other space, which makes travel between distant areas possible. However, levels of the network of other space are collapsing, leaving the planets/systems of those levels unconnected by the other space, which is why the planet where most of everything happens was forbidden to be settled on. It's revealed that this collapse has happened before, and will probably continue. Among other tidbits of the books I remember, there's a human teenage girl who wants more than anything else to get off the story's planet, but ends up back there when the other space level collapses, and like many other ships, they must land on that planet, with no other place to go. Also, there are actually 2 species of creatures made of rings, one which has all rings working together democractically, while another "evil" one where a master ring controls all the other rings. One individual, which was a democratic one, has a master ring implanted, but then changes from both species into something different.
So... anyone know what I'm talking about? Thank you for your time.
