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Candi Sorcerer in training Since: Aug, 2012
Sorcerer in training
Dec 18th 2012 at 12:03:58 AM •••

"Ambiguous Gender and Gender Neutral Writing - In order to avoid confusion, aliens are properly referred to as "it"; characters thus only have their gender specified if they appear in a novel written from the point of view of a member of their species."

Subverted in some of the short stories. They're written as letters from Murchison to a friend, and in them she specifically references some members of one species as male and female. (And possibly another, if 'queen' isn't just the term applied to the prime egg-layers of that particular race.)

It's one where Murchison assists in the care of a particular Very Important Alien, and he (being kind of loopy to begin with) somehow decides that makes it perfectly all right for him to haul her off to his home planet. (His hospital receipt is proof of purchase!) There, Murchison winds up giving their sacred oracle a filter mask to protect her from the fumes of her volcanic home/temple. It works VERY well, and the fume-free Oracle helps return Murchison to the station.

Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett
ArcadesSabboth Since: Oct, 2011
Nov 18th 2012 at 3:20:08 PM •••

This trope has been re-defined. I don't know whether this example is valid for the new definition — it can't be an Informed Attribute anymore. This may need rewording to show how it fits the new definition. If it's valid, please restore it here and on the trope page.

  • Loads and Loads of Races - The hospital was originally built for at least sixty species, and they keep discovering more. They have so many, they have a four-letter coding system to classify them. Even at that, humans have to share the "DBDG" classification with two other (vaguely humanoid) species.

Oppression anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere. Hide / Show Replies
Greenygal Since: Jan, 2001
Nov 18th 2012 at 6:37:58 PM •••

There are well over fifteen species with at least minor speaking roles in the series; restoring.

Freiberg Since: Jan, 2001
Aug 13th 2010 at 9:04:19 PM •••

For Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions, I seem to remember there being a human chaplain in one of the earlier books, and Conway going to him before a dangerous mission because "he believed in insurance". I changed the trope entry to reflect this, but if nobody else remembers this (I can't remember where I got it from), feel free to change it back.

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roxana Since: Jan, 2001
Nov 14th 2012 at 9:21:40 AM •••

I remember that too, only Conway decides not to confide his ethical qualms to the padre because the man is a Monitor chaplain and the Monitors ARE the problem. In that same book Conway meets a PVSJ chaplain who he addresses as 'Padre'. Apparently this chaplain is not the same as the human chaplain latter spoken of by O'Mara as a former member of his department since that one was an earth-human but both he and the PVSJ are killed when a runaway spaceship collides with the station.

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