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Heinlein's Fauna...

Atolm

Commodore
Commodore
This is a thread to encompass designs of the fauna incepted by Robert A. Heinlein. If anyone has any descriptions of the creatures that he describes, I will draw them up. All you have to do is either PM me the description, or just pop it in this thread, and I will do my best to get them drawn right away.

First up Is the Venerian from "Space Cadet", submitted by @fireproof78

Here she is:
dix7fu7-602fcc37-fb8c-475c-acf6-4c64c9fd48f7.jpg
 
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NP... got any more? I'd like to fill this thread with more than her. ;)
Working on digging out my books from moving but here's an excerpt from "Between Planets" and describes a "Venerian Dragon."

Beside the queue was sprawled the big, ungainly saurian form of a Venerian
"dragon." When Don progressed in line until he was beside it, he politely
whistled a greeting.
The dragon swiveled one fluttering eyestalk in his direction. Strapped to the
"chest" of the creature, between its forelegs and immediately below and in
reach of its handling tendrils, was a small box, a voder. The tendrils writhed
over the keys and the Venerian answered him, via mechanical voder speech,
rather than by whistling in his own language. "Greetings to you also, young
sir. It is pleasant indeed, among strangers, to hear the sounds one heard in
the egg." Don noted with delight that the outlander had a distinctly Cockney
accent in the use of his machine.
He whistled his thanks and a hope that the dragon might die pleasantly.
The Venerian thanked him, again with the voder, and added, "Charming as is
your accent, will you do me the favor of using your own speech that I may
practice it?"
Don suspected that his modulation was so atrocious that the Venerian could
hardly understand it; he lapsed at once into human words. "My name is Don
Harvey," he replied and whistled once more-but just to give his own Venerian
name, "Mist on the Waters"; it had been selected by his mother and he saw
nothing funny about it.
Nor did the dragon. He whistled for the first time, naming himself, and added
via voder, "I am called `Sir Isaac Newton.' " Don understood that the
Venerian, in so tagging himself, was following the common dragon custom of
borrowing as a name of convenience the name of some earthhuman admired by the
borrower.
Don wanted to ask "Sir Isaac Newton" if by chance he knew Don's mother's
family, but the queue was moving up and the dragon was lying still; he was
forced to move along to keep from losing his place in line. The Venerian
followed him with one oscillating eye and whistled that he hoped that Don,
too, might die pleasantly.

Except 2:
flatbed truck drew up and let down a ramp. The dragon reared up on six sturdy
legs and climbed aboard.


ETA: further reading is that the dragons have six pairs of eyestalks and armored plates over or as their skin
 
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Martians from "Double Star"

Excerpt 1: He threaded his way gracefully through the room and passed a table of four Martians near the door. I didn't like Martians. I did not fancy having a thing that looks like a tree trunk topped off by a sun helmet claiming the privileges of a man. I did not like the way they grew pseudo limbs; it reminded me of snakes crawling out of their holes. I did not like the fact that they could look all directions at once without turning their heads-if they had had heads, which of course they don't.

Excerpt 2: He switched them on and I watched and wondered. Martians were not disgusting, if one looked at them without prejudice; they weren't even ugly. In fact, they possessed the same quaint grace as a Chinese pagoda.

Excerpt 3: There were almost as many Martians as humans in sight. We ground hogs get the impression that Martians are slow as snails- and they are, on our comparatively heavy planet. On their own world they skim along on their bases like a stone sliding over water
 
if I am not mistaken, these are the same Martians that were also in "Red Planet"...
I believe so but haven't read either book in a decade.

Interestingly, both Double Star and Space Cadet describe Martians as not having a head.
 
Aye not a structure that we readily identify as a "head"...
Excerpts from Red Planet:

They had gone perhaps a mile and me towers of the city were higher in the sky when they encountered a
Martian. He was a small specimen of his sort, being not over twelve feet tall. He was standing quite still,
all three of his legs down, apparently lost in contemplation of the whichness of what. The eye facing them
stared unblinkingly.
Jim and Frank were, of course, used to Martians and recognized that this one was busy in his "other
world"; they stopped talking and continued on past him, being careful not to brush against his legs.
Not so Willis. He went darting around the Martian's peds, rubbing against them, then stopped and let out a
couple of mournful croaks.
The Martian stirred, looked around him, and suddenly bent and scooped Willis up.

Excerpt 2:

Once their guide stepped over a ball about three feet in diameter. Jim could not make out what it was at
first, then he did a double take and was still more puzzled. He twisted his neck and looked back at it. It
couldn't be-but it was!
He was gazing 'at something few humans ever see, and no human ever wants to see: a Martian folded and
rolled into a ball, his hand flaps covering everything but his curved back. Martians-modem, civilized
Martians-do not hibernate, but at some time remote eons in the past their ancestors must have done so, for
they are still articulated so that they can assume the proper, heat-conserving, moisture-conserving globular
shape, if they wish.
 
WHOAH. I don't know what I was imagining but this exceeds it. Honestly, I wouldn't mind putting these in a "field journal" idea that tackles the various fauna because the sketching and coloring are so good.

Reminds me a bit of a mushroom.
 
WHOAH. I don't know what I was imagining but this exceeds it. Honestly, I wouldn't mind putting these in a "field journal" idea that tackles the various fauna because the sketching and coloring are so good.

Reminds me a bit of a mushroom.
Thanks!
In Red Planet (I actually read that one) It hinted aspects of "Floral or Fungoid" aspects to the Martians... although I do believe I might have opted too many eyes... lol
 
More from Red Planet, a Martian "round head."

Excerpt 1: The ball developed three spaced bumps on its lower side and followed after him, in a gait which
combined spinning, walking, and rolling. "More correctly, it careened, like a barrel being manhandled
along a dock.

Excerpt 2:

"Willis, eh? He looks pert enough to me." The doctor stared down at the creature. Willis was at his feet,
having come up to watch the dressing of Frank's thumb. To do so he had protruded three eye stalks from
the top of his spherical mass. The stalks stuck up like thumbs, in an equal-sided triangle, and from each
popped a disturbingly human eye. The little fellow turned around slowly on his tripod of bumps, or
pseudopeds, and gave each of his eyes a chance to examine the doctor.
"Get me a cup of Java, Jim," commanded the doctor, then leaned over and made a cradle of his hands.
"Here, Willisupsi-daisy!" Willis gave a little bounce and landed in the doctor's hands, withdrawing all
protuberances as he did so. The doctor lifted him to the examining table; Willis promptly stuck out legs
and eyes again. They stared at each other.
The doctor saw a ball covered with thick, close-cropped fur, like sheared sheepskin, and featureless at
the moment save for supports and eye stalks.
 
More from Red Planet, a Martian "round head."

Excerpt 1: The ball developed three spaced bumps on its lower side and followed after him, in a gait which
combined spinning, walking, and rolling. "More correctly, it careened, like a barrel being manhandled
along a dock.

Excerpt 2:

"Willis, eh? He looks pert enough to me." The doctor stared down at the creature. Willis was at his feet,
having come up to watch the dressing of Frank's thumb. To do so he had protruded three eye stalks from
the top of his spherical mass. The stalks stuck up like thumbs, in an equal-sided triangle, and from each
popped a disturbingly human eye. The little fellow turned around slowly on his tripod of bumps, or
pseudopeds, and gave each of his eyes a chance to examine the doctor.
"Get me a cup of Java, Jim," commanded the doctor, then leaned over and made a cradle of his hands.
"Here, Willisupsi-daisy!" Willis gave a little bounce and landed in the doctor's hands, withdrawing all
protuberances as he did so. The doctor lifted him to the examining table; Willis promptly stuck out legs
and eyes again. They stared at each other.
The doctor saw a ball covered with thick, close-cropped fur, like sheared sheepskin, and featureless at
the moment save for supports and eye stalks.
Aye that's an easy one ;)
Damn nice work Atolm! :mallory: :techman:
Thanks!
 
Aye that's an easy one ;)
I try to be nice sometimes.


Don't tell my kids ;)

ETA: BETWEEN PLANETS has a different description of Martians than the others, but it's far more scant because we never see them on Mars.

it was a Martian's "perambulator," a portable air-
conditioning unit to provide the rare, cold air necessary to a Martian
aborigine. The occupant could be seen dimly, his frail body supported by a
metal articulated servo framework to assist him in coping with the robust
gravity of the third planet. His pseudo wings drooped sadly and he did not
move. Don felt sorry for him.
As a youngster he had met Martians on Luna, but Luna's feeble field was less
than that of Mars; it did not turn them into cripples, paralyzed by a gravity
field too painful for their evolutionary patter

Excerpt 2:
Don's eyes widened when he saw that it was a
Martian's "pram" -- the self-propelled personal environment without which a
Martian cannot live either on Earth or Venus. The little car wheeled in and
joined the circle; the figure inside raised itself to a sitting position with
the aid of its powered artificial exoskeleton, tried feebly to spread its
pseudowings and spoke, its thin, tired voice amplified through a speaking
system. "Malath da Thon greets you, my friends."
 
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