Book 3 “Not at all. When we jump, we are traveling in a different dimension. So matter from this dimension would not react with us while we were in transition.”
Book 5 “Scan ahead first,” Cameron reminded the navigator, “make sure the path is clear. We can’t jump through solid objects.”
This bothered me the first time I read through the series, but as I didn't remember where I read the first quote I am re-reading. I don't know why that bothers me so much, that initially they have no worries about jumping "through" something, only exiting "inside" something, then later, in book 5, out of no where, they can't. This then seems to carry true for the rest of the series.
Love the series btw. Recommend it to everyone I know would appreciate a good read.
iirc the first instance tried to explain why aurora can jump through ship shields, while the second was when i tried to jump through the point defense "wall".
Here is one that is bugging me is the plasma torpedos..
On pages 405-406 of book 7 "The Expanse," when the plasma torpedo is fired it several (dozen) balls of red plasma in each shot. In later books it is a single shot until book 12 when they rebuild the tubes with better materials and they can rapid fire the tubes.
Did anyone else notice this change?
This was discussed in the following thread.
https://www.frontierssaga.com/forums/topic/ep-10-inconsistency-with-series-spoilers/
There was no clarification, but I think it was a prototype for the plasma cannon. The naming is discussed in Ep 8 page 434 - 435. I think that the slower firing plasma torpedo was designed to be more like a torpedo it was replacing. Thus giving it the ability to do heavy mounts of alpha damage to fit in with the Aurora's jump style combat, while only putting the nose of the Aurora on target for a short period of time. The fast firing system was later put into place in the plasma cannon (turret-mounted plasma cannon).
Most of the issues that were brought up about the inconsistencies in how the plasma cannon worked, was in regards to the effects on the enemy ships. Ryk briefly discussed that in the above thread (its below).
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I normally would not get involved in these discussions, as it’s too easy for a “spoiler” to slip into the conversation. But I’d like to point out one thing that you all seem to be forgetting. Tanna was about 45 light years from Sol, and it was on the ‘edge’ of the fringe. The Tannans said the Jung homeworld was on the other side of the core. One might easily conclude from that statement that the ‘core’ (fringe included) might be as large as 100ly in diameter. Considering the time involved in building a ship that can travel such distances at FTL speeds, do you think every ship is going to be equipped the same way? Are not many of today’s military ships equipped differently? Some with better systems than others?
I can't remember where its written, and I will go back and try to find it, but its mentioned that the first ship constructed was the Reliant... and that she was the oldest ship... Reliant BV-04???
I think I read that the Defender and the Valiant were "Lost" and then the others were built, and that's fine but what happened with the Intrepid that she jumped the number system (in the Concept Art if not sure if they are numbered in the Books at all)
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Also the fighters of the Corinari were modified to be launched from the Aurora's Launch tubes. Looking at the Art I have no idea how that could be possible. Unless the Eagles were launched in atmospheric configuration... and that doesn't make since, all that extra stress on the craft and time to reconfigure after launch. I'm glade that now we have the big Plasma cannons its no longer an issue. 🙂
I like how you write, your story is great, as is the art, but they are clashing!!!
I can’t remember where its written, and I will go back and try to find it, but its mentioned that the first ship constructed was the Reliant… and that she was the oldest ship… Reliant BV-04???
Your thinking of Ep 1 location 407. They are talking about the orbital assembly platform, and the Reliant was the first one built. The number is odd though. I would assume that either the numbering scheme was added in after the first 3 ships were built, or the names were predetermined and Reliant was built first due to politics.
I think I read that the Defender and the Valiant were “Lost” and then the others were built
Ep 1 and Ep 9 has some information on this. Captain Roberts, the first captain of the Aurora, was the old XO for the Valiant. No information is out on what happened to Defender and the Valiant, except that they were lost without so much as a single engagement (Ep 9, location 4073).
If your interested in everyone's thoughts as to what became of the Defender and Valiant. Check out the below thread.
https://www.frontierssaga.com/forums/topic/the-defender-class/
It was not the plasma cannon prototype in book 7, that was never installed on the Aurora, but on the Cv-02 Celestia, after that found her on Metis. I have been rereading the series again and again while waiting for the new book. I have been finding typos and other inconsistencies that I've missed the last 6+ times I've read the books. I've lost count the number off times I've read some of the books. I read all of them again before the new book comes out.
Your right, the prototype turret-mounted plasma cannon that was mounted on Celestia, wasn't built in Ep 7. But the difference between the plasma torpedo and the turret-mounted plasma cannon, is simply the scale when you remove the turret. Based on that, it should still be possible to rapid fire plasma bolts from the plasma torpedo system, but the damage would be really low, compared to a full torpedoes worth of plasma.
That being said, there is nothing in the books that reflect the why in the inconsistency. It is merely just passed over and forgotten. I don't believe any of the books have been edited since being released, so until editing happens, I don't think the inconsistencies will be resolved.
This was difficult for me when I started reading also -- It seemed like originally the jump drive was in a different dimension (much like the Battle Platform in 12).
It wasn't really explained if they found out their initial thoughts on how it worked changed.
Book 3 “Not at all. When we jump, we are traveling in a different dimension. So matter from this dimension would not react with us while we were in transition.”
Book 5 “Scan ahead first,” Cameron reminded the navigator, “make sure the path is clear. We can’t jump through solid objects.”
This bothered me the first time I read through the series, but as I didn’t remember where I read the first quote I am re-reading. I don’t know why that bothers me so much, that initially they have no worries about jumping “through” something, only exiting “inside” something, then later, in book 5, out of no where, they can’t. This then seems to carry true for the rest of the series.
Love the series btw. Recommend it to everyone I know would appreciate a good read.
It could be that we do not understand what a scientist working with Jump drives means by different dimension. Maybe just being enveloped in the field allows for a momentary displacement from this dimension and immediate re-entry when the fields go out of alignment. As I remember it, at the time no one had tried to jump trough something besides shields (which is annoying for its inconsistency too) (except for the fact the Aurora jumped into an asteroid belt that she had not mapped and seems even more dangerous then ever now I think about it... They should mention that at some point... how dangerous it was.)
It could be that the idea of jumping though something is to much of a gimme for the Aurora, and Ryk just changed his mind... I guess with a 3 month turn around for new books we just have to except refinement of the story on an ongoing basis.
I also have a Problem that Shuttles can Jump through atmosphere but Ships can not Jump through Solid Objects. In this case i can not see much difference between solid mass and gas.
I think the problem comes from not understanding what happens when they jump. When they jump, they are still traveling on the same course and at the same speed, only 'time' has been taken out of the equation, allowing them to make the transition instantly. The jump drive doesn't move the ship, it simply transitions it from our four dimensional space (X,Y,Z, & Time) into three dimensional space. (X,Y,Z only, no Time)
Think of it this way; If you could pass through it normally, then you can jump through it. For example, a shuttle can fly down into and through the atmosphere. Therefore, it can also "jump" through the atmosphere. It cannot fly through a solid object. The only reason it can fly through gases and fluids, is that those atoms don't have any cohesion. Solid matter does.
Another thing to remember is that in the beginning, the inventors of the technology had figured out how to make it work, even though they did not fully understand HOW it worked. They once believed that matter from one dimension would not react with matter from another. They learned that to be incorrect.
As for jumping through shields, the reason they were able to do that with the Takarans and not the Jung has to do with the types of shielding being used by either party, as well as how their own jump fields interact with those shields.
Remember, the jump technology, just like the situation and the characters, will evolve, just as any technology does. What it cannot do today, it may be able to do tomorrow.
Ryk
Its not that clear in the books, but it makes since that different characters would have different perspectives and different concepts of how the Jump drive works. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure its one person saying two different things with no real opportunity to look up what happened in the mean time.
If you could fly through gasses... is it possible to jump through a gas giant if the start point and the end point are far enough away or will the gravity issues mean the jump always fails like with the Black hole?
While not being able to go through solid objects is a good limiting factor to the jump drive for battles, it does make some of the early jumps even more miraculous... an accidental 1000 light year jump that happened to have nothing in its path... jumping into an uncharted asteroid field without hitting anything... It also makes long jumps (more than perhaps a few light minutes, maybe hours) dangerous in areas where human ships could be flying, since when planning a jump of distance you can calculate where natural space bodies will be, you wouldn't be able to know if a ship or other human made object might be in your planed jump path at the time you jump, and so every long jump you risk colliding with a ship, a com drone... yes space is big, but the risk is there, especially when you can't see where you are going...
I wrestled with this during the conceptual stage, but then I got to thinking. We drive in cars knowing that it only takes one guy to cross the double-yellow line and kill us. We fly in planes that can easily be brought down by a single bird strike. We send people into space on rockets that HAVE exploded and killed their crews...
Then my science guy did the calculations on the odds of hitting anything significant in size during a 10, 100, 1,000 ly transit. They were pretty low. Lower even than the odds of a bird strike in a plane.
Space my not be empty, but considering its size, it might as well be.
Besides, if you can suspend disbelief enough to accept the odds of accidently jumping 1,000 ly into the middle of a battle, then not hitting anything along the way is easy!
