 February 12, 2014 - 6:34am | I've only read Adre Norton in passing and just now was mildly surprised to learned he was a she. Surprise, surprise, she wrote a novel called Judgement on Janus (1963) and a sequel called Victory on Janus (1966) Pemise is a man is changed by an alien artifact and decides to defend a planet. http://www.andre-norton.org/coverart_gallery/judgement_on_janus.htm the Star Frontiers Convention module Trouble on Janus which while officially set in the Star Frontiers universe actually reads like it came from the Traveller univers (until the sathar show up) but poking around I noticed other sci fi properties with the name Janus: The Janus Conjunction an original novel by Trevor Baxendale based on a long running British TV sci fi series Janus is a two faced Roman god and is the name of one of Saturn's inner moons. There is now a nano particle named Janus for the unique features it has . The convention module has a sathar plot to use the minds of primitives in its robots or something like that hence the two faced nature and Janus literary reference I suppose. But I also wonder if the author was also rifting from Norton or Baxendale? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 12, 2014 - 2:27pm | Isn't a human brain in a robot body the plot of the new Robocop movie? Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 February 13, 2014 - 6:11am | Yes, Janus is a name of a number of programs a whole computer language. Janus is the Japanese surname of Maximilian "Max" Sterling from Robotech/Macross. Janus (Jacky in Japan) is the US birth name of the anti-hero sorcerer Magus from the SNES video game Chrono Trigger. And Janus is an alias for the (literal) two-faced cyborg sorcerer Gemini from Thundarr the Barbarian, and Two-face form the Batman comics. So what is the connection here? You know Janus was the Roman god for beginnings and ending - the alpha and omega god, if you will. (...or the god Jupiter used to keep his books upright.  ) |
 February 13, 2014 - 12:35pm | Janus is popular because it represents the Roman god. "god of beginnings and endings" is actually an unattested forced interpretation based on one of several proposed etymologies. This would probably be why it is used in the word "janitor". Looking to the past and the future, is really the best description, which is likely the reasoning for the Janus financial firm, (hmm,) and Janus classic movies. Ever heard of the science fiction children's book Trouble on Janus by Alfred Slote? I would suspect, given the poor nature of the writing of the module, as well as the guy's disrespect for the player and the reader, that it is likely based on this book. (The story, not the writing.) View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
 February 13, 2014 - 4:58pm | I've had a download of that module for years, but had not been able to reconcile it with Frontier continuity. It seemed like the Sathar were just a cheap, generic replacement for some other group. There is nothing "Star Frontiers" about the module. |
February 13, 2014 - 6:20pm | I've had a download of that module for years, but had not been able to reconcile it with Frontier continuity. It seemed like the Sathar were just a cheap, generic replacement for some other group. There is nothing "Star Frontiers" about the module. Its a Traveller module written by someone who knew Traveller and couldn't be bothered to learn anything about Star Frontiers, IMO. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
