Questions

What are the Continuum Stories?
The Continuum stories were a four part series of books edited by Roger Elwood. Each book contained stories by the same authors set in the same universe, though the stories were stand alones.

Continuum 1 contains "Prelude to a Crystal Song." It covers Killashandra's interlude with Carrik up to the point where she leaves Fuerte with him in his catatonic state.
"Killashandra--Crystal Singer" in Contiuum 2 contains her trip to Trefoil that is later included in Crystal Line.
Continuum 3, "Milekey Mountain" picks up where Prelude left off in Crystal Singer chronology. Lanzecki oversees Killashandra's training and her shepherd Ardlor is the early version of Moksoon.
Continuum 4 "Killashandra--Coda and Finale" is the most deviant from the trilogy. Other than the overlying weight of a crystal emergency it bears little resemblance to the books. Most notable is that Killa dies at the end.

In my opinion, the stories are nowhere near as good as the books, lacking many of the things most enjoyed about them. Lars Dahl is mentioned only in passing and Lanzecki lacks anything other than his harsh "Guildmaster" persona. They're an interesting read if only to see how much the CS world grew between the original stories and the publication of the books.

Where can I find the Continuum stories?

They're out of print so you'll have to hunt through used bookstores or online sites.

What the heck is an inverted range?

Good question. I have two ideas on the subject. One is that it isn't inverted geologically, but looks like it has been. This could be caused by erosion (think steep desert canyons) or many canyons and valleys (formed by techtonic uplifts) that are rocky enough as to give the illusion of a bunch of mountains turned upside down.

The other theory is take a plateau (cut the top off a triangle and make it flat for those of you from non-desert areas) and turn it upside down. Normal plateus are wider on the bottom than the top. Not so in this case, the wider part would be on the top, resulting in all those overhangs that fall on sleds.

I heard Killashandra dies somewhere? What's with that?
Yes, Killashandra dies in the 4th of the original Continuum stories. Read the above entry on them. Where's Johnny Green?

Johnny Green appears in Crystal Line as Jaygrin. He was one of the crystal singers that Lars' was trying to convince to cut from coordinates.

There are Brain and Brawn ships in the CS books. Doesn't that mean they have to be in the same universe?
They are, but they aren't. Aspects of some universes inhabit others, or are mentioned in passing, but aren't in a position to interact. Helva is referred to in Crystal Line, but the CS books are not in "the same universe" as the Brainship books. Welladay Whales are mentioned too. Are there going to be more Crystal Singer books?
There's always a possibility that things will change, but its highly unlikely at this point. Anne has said as much when questioned on this subject at conventions. Anne is 80 years old and in my opinion, she's more than welcome to enjoy a break. Plus, when it comes down to it, people want more Pern, not more Killashandra. Why are all these questions about the Crystal Singer series? What about Pern?
Pern schmern. There's tons of sites out there about Pern. This will never be one of them. Check the links page for links to the better ones. Who is hotter, Lanzecki or Lars?

What a silly question. Lars of course.

Is there a crystal singer rpg?

There does seem to be one, but I'm not involved with it. Check the links page.

How long were Killa and Lars estranged?

The answer to this is not entirely easy, nor entirely accurate. It has been theorized that the reason its so confusing was deliberate, to help the reader truly understand what Killa was going through with this occupational hazard of Crystal Singing.

Here's what we know:

She left Fuerte in 2599 or 2699 (or so she mused in Crystal Line) (CL88)
The Intersteller Miners League number was for year 2766 (CL 88)
She had been a Crystal Singer for 197 years when she had her experience with Big Hungry Junk (CL 289)
She was together with Lars for 123 years (CL 294-295)
At the end of Crystal Line she was 215 years old (CL 300)
She mentions in Killashandra while on Optheria that she was only in her third decade.

With these numbers we get the following:

She was 18 when she left Fuerte.
74 of her years as a Crystal Singer were without Lars.

Lanzecki would likely have wanted more recent financial information from the Intersteller Miners League. Even though its likely not entirely accurate, we'll use 2766 as the year of Lanzecki's death. Let's say she left Fuerte in 2599. This gives us 167 years between 2599 and 2766. 167 plus the 18 years makes her 185 in 2766. Thirty years after that she was 215 years old, which would be shortly after she and Lars reunited.

This accounts for 30 of the 74 years. There would have been at least 12 years as she aged from 18 to "thirty something." We'll round it up to 20 years for ease. 50 years are now accounted for. Did it really take Lars 24 years to help clean up the mess on Optheria? It seems so unlikely, but possible.

I sent you an e-mail and you never responded. Why aren't I special?

The e-mail addy associated with this site gets an obscene amount of spam. I'll admit I tend to delete them if the subject isn't clear. If you have questions go over to A Meeting of Minds Bulletin Board and post them in the Crystal Singer forum. I'm a moderator over there so I'll see it.

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Site created by Topanya Meliora, copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. All references to worlds and characters based on Anne McCaffrey’s fiction are copyright © Anne McCaffrey 1967, 2006, all rights reserved, and used by permission of the author.

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Last updated April 2006