Shades of Trantor

["Mark R. Leaman" <mleaman@sccoast.net>]

>Is anyone else thinking "But that's the plot to Lifehouse!"???

Martin:

I did think so when I first heard Stern speaking of it on his show, and I
also thought about the plot of Lifehouse when I saw The Matrix (which has
many Lifehouse elements as well), and being an Asimov fan I'm not even going
to tell you what I was thinking when I watched ST: Phantom Menace and saw an
Imperial "all-metal, one-city" capital planet. Shades of Trantor...no,
sorry, that WAS Trantor, exactly!
All elements "borrowed" from superior (IMHO) sources...however, Pete has had
over 25 years to produce some form of Lifehouse and by dragging his feet
he's left himself open to such things. Ditto with Asimov's Foundation
Trilogy (although one could hardly blame Asimov, especially at this point).
Last time I heard, you could change something 20% and it is no longer an
infringement on copyrighted material (at least in the US). Is there a lawyer
in the house, to confirm or deny? So by making it a post-apocalyptic world
and having completely different characters, Torme has probably covered
himself legally. More than Lucas did, certainly.
In the meantime, if Pete can keep to his announced schedule, we will have
Lifehouse before Doomsday and the chips will fall where they may.