The Process Forum - View Single Post - Transformations in John Ringo Novels (Dragon, Mermaid, Half-Elf, Orc, more)

Xodiac · 02-02-2009

Dragon carriers are large wooden ships that carry a number of dragons into naval battles. Aircraft carriers in a fantasy milieu, in other words.

Dragons and elves are two races (and so far, the only two mentioned) that were created from scratch rather than from Changed humans. As such, it is illegal to Change into a dragon or an elf.

There's tons of other things you can become, though - pretty much anything you can imagine. When the war hit and everyone but the ruling council was essentially stripped of their abilities to use Mother (the supercomputer that runs the world and essentially runs the technology that allows "magic") there were a lot of people stuck in nonhuman forms. Most of them are not used as part of the plot, however; the cast is almost entirely human. The second book, Emerald Sea, is an exception, but even there all the mer and the orcas and other sea sentients are NPCs. Important NPCs, but still not really part of the core cast.

As for process, there isn't all that much. I can really think of only one scene that has transformation in it, and there might be a second that I'm remembering less clearly. The Change is essentially a poof that takes a couple of seconds and is obscured by a cloud of nanites as they remake the person. I don't recall any happening to one of the core cast, so we never get a description of what it's like from the inside, either.

Not that these aren't good books. But from a transformation viewpoint, there's not a whole lot there, especially not on-screen.

You can read my thoughts on the four books of the series (which isn't complete, by the way) at http://xodiac.fo.cx/rev/listbooks.ph...es&seriesid=87.

02-02-2009	#7
Xodiac Process Fan Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 88	Re: Transformations in John Ringo Novels (Dragon, Mermaid, Half-Elf, Orc, more) Dragon carriers are large wooden ships that carry a number of dragons into naval battles. Aircraft carriers in a fantasy milieu, in other words. Dragons and elves are two races (and so far, the only two mentioned) that were created from scratch rather than from Changed humans. As such, it is illegal to Change into a dragon or an elf. There's tons of other things you can become, though - pretty much anything you can imagine. When the war hit and everyone but the ruling council was essentially stripped of their abilities to use Mother (the supercomputer that runs the world and essentially runs the technology that allows "magic") there were a lot of people stuck in nonhuman forms. Most of them are not used as part of the plot, however; the cast is almost entirely human. The second book, Emerald Sea, is an exception, but even there all the mer and the orcas and other sea sentients are NPCs. Important NPCs, but still not really part of the core cast. As for process, there isn't all that much. I can really think of only one scene that has transformation in it, and there might be a second that I'm remembering less clearly. The Change is essentially a poof that takes a couple of seconds and is obscured by a cloud of nanites as they remake the person. I don't recall any happening to one of the core cast, so we never get a description of what it's like from the inside, either. Not that these aren't good books. But from a transformation viewpoint, there's not a whole lot there, especially not on-screen. You can read my thoughts on the four books of the series (which isn't complete, by the way) at http://xodiac.fo.cx/rev/listbooks.ph...es&seriesid=87.