Just finished "The fourth Bear". Loved it. Brilliant stuff although I think there might be one major flaw in it:
The room where Jack gets rid of the Gingerbread Man is supposed to be some kind of computer room, did I get that right?
Now, these kind of rooms never, ever have a sprinkler! In case of fire they are flooded wit carbondioxide gas or "Halon".
If my observation should be correct all Jasper has to do is to change the room description a little bit and everything should be honky dory. No harm to the plot done.

Well, if you send Jasper an e-mail with that comment (he does check the forum, I believe, but e-mailing him will mean he definately sees it), he'll probably find a way to change it in his Upgrade page.

Welcome, by the way (I don't believe I've seen you around elsewhere...)

----

Well, because it is submersed in a marine environment, I've always called it the Going-Under-The-Water-Safely-Device.

A few years ago while researching data centers in the US, I noticed they all had sprinklers. I thought they used Halon also. I asked about that, and was told that they couldn't use Halon because in the event of fire, the Halon's effect would kill any people who might be in the center at the time. My understanding was that Halon works by replacing all oxygen in an area, which would definitely be bad for people.

Right, there you can see how backwards in technology the US are. Indeed the use of Halon is very rare these days and mostly restricted to older existing facilities, carbon dioxide replaced it rather eficciently. One of the backdrops of Halon is that it causes severe damage to the ozone layer, another seldom noticed problem is that at very high temperatures it splits to chloride products, which are even more "lovely".

I couldn't write an email to Jasper then because this website is so vast, it took me ages to find an adress. ( I think that's sorted now )

Hey Gerhard,

I have just to add that Mr. Fforde did get his details right. I work in a "computer room" and they do have sprinklers all over the place - one right on top of my PC actually. They're required to do that to keep to safety requirements. I'm guesssing the assumption being that there kinds of places never catch fire so the sprinklers will never be used...unless ofcourse the next generation gingerbread man plans to visit - and if so I know exactly what to do about that! ;)

Here in the U.K. I once worked in a computer room where the sysem was changed from Halon (for the reasons Gerhard stated) to water. The other options of inert gas were discarded on the grounds that suffocating the staff was only marginally better than letting them fry.

And before you ask, yes, there was an automatic power cut-off built into the system!

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

My computer beat me at chess, but I won at kickboxing

I'm so relieved this thread isn't asking where the character Major Flaw showed up in the book. Thought I had overlooked something for a minute there.

Ok to be honest I imagined that scene in a theatre...maybe I just got really screwed up but I saw it as some sort of movie watching area in the lobby of Sommeworld. Does anyone think so or am I just crazy?

Hello,

I'm new...so Hi, I'll introduce myself in Nextian chat in a minute.

Realise that this is an old thread but I've just read the Fourth Bear and am slightly confused by something - this seemed a good place to raise it. In TBOE Mary Mary asks Jack whether they "know they are nursery characters" and Jack says "I think they sometimes suspect, but for the most part they have no idea at all. To the Billy Goats, Jack and Jill and the Gingerbreadman, it's all business as normal". later on when he sells the painting for the beans he says to Mary "i got this really weird feeling, Like it felt kind of familiar...a feeling of inevitability". So from this I assumed that Jack didn't really know that he was a nursery character, there are other references which appear to support this.

But in TFB he seems fully aware of his PDR status and it is implied that he has always known and triedto hide it. was he just fooling himself in TBOE? Had he hit it so well that he's almost forgotten himself?

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere. Any thoughts?

Good point--especially since Punch and Judy definitely know they're PDRs as well. On the other hand, Jack's first wife may not have known, and his current wife Madeline doesn't know (she's from The Fall of the House of Usher). Mary also doesn't know.

I think the best explanation would be that Jack is fully aware (though he tries to suppress it) that he is the real Jack Sprat, but he doesn't make the connection that he is also fufilling the role of Jack from "Jack and the Beanstalk".

Maybe. Though by TFB he has realised as he mentions something about taking on other roles (Jack and The Beanstalk and the giantkiller) for economy or something..?

You've actually answered one of my other questions too about where Madelaine was from. I guessed she would turn out to be a PDR but couldn't place her! So thanks.

Hi pba. Have some pie. I will offer different flavours in Nextian

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

My computer beat me at chess, but I won at kickboxing

Nother flaw, small one though, In the Sommeworld during the test sequence just after DS Mary nearly gets blown up, they have Sopwith Camels being used, the battle of the Somme was July - ? 1916, the Camel prototype flew in december 1916 and didn't properly enter service till June 1917, The somme would have either seen the Sopwith Strutter or the Pup.

Sorry Lymond, but as they are at Sommeworld, not the Battle of the Somme the flaw is with the theme park designers.........................

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

My computer beat me at chess, but I won at kickboxing

Just about any flaws like these can be explained by the "this is all set in an alternate universe" card.

I do believe I'll have to rely on that card more than I'd like to. XD