129:...this is story that had its roots in song – in this case a song called "Brandy," which was about a woman waiting for her man to return from the sea; always knowing, and accepting, that the sea would always come first for him. I had remarked to Vernor that a similar kind of story set in space would have terrific potential for descriptions of the beauty of deep space. He made the suggestion that it ought to be the woman who went into space, the man who stayed behind... The story grew from there, and somewhere in the planning stages, I noticed the parallels between my story as it was developing, and the Andersen fairy tale "The Steadfast Tin Soldier." ...so I decided to make use of the symbolic aspects of the Andersen story within the framework of my own. Recently I became aware of another uncanny parallel to this story – George R. R. Martin has written a story which was also inspired by the song "Brandy," and also involves a woman who goes into space and a man who stays behind. Much to our mutual relief, the resemblances end there, and the basic stories are very different.
60:"Tin Soldier" tells the story of Maris—an ex-soldier who, following wounds sustained in battle, has received cybernetic implants that, as a side effect, slow his aging to "about five years for every hundred" (he is 115 years old as the story begins, though physically he looks "about twenty-five")—and the story of Brandy (short for Branduin), a female starship crew member.
90:"Tin Soldier" was the first story I ever seriously sat down to write... Although it was my first story, it seems to be the one a lot of readers like the best. (I may wind up someday feeling like Isaac Asimov, who complains that after all these years, people still like his first story best – everything has been downhill ever since.)
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Only women are allowed to crew starships, since male bodies cannot handle the stresses of space travel. Since trips between star systems require decades (while the female crew do not age due to relativistic effects), Soldier does a brisk business among starship crews because, apparently never ageing,
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Brandy is "maybe eighteen" and assigned to her ship which only visits
Soldier's planet every 25 years, when she first meets Soldier. Because of the relativistic effects of space travel, she only ages a few years between visits, while Soldier ages even less.
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Maris has started a bar named "Tin
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The novella follows the relationship that develops between two people who fall in love, but through circumstances can only see each other for a few days every 25 years.
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As the author said in the introduction to "Tin
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he is the only familiar face they can see, decade after decade, whenever they come into port.
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According to Joan Vinge, "Tin
Soldier" had two primary inspirations. The first was the song "
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also wrote a story inspired by "Brandy", titled "Fast-Friend" and collected in
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Baltimore, or, The
Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire
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198:Eyes of Amber and Other Stories
186:Eyes of Amber and Other Stories
84:Eyes of Amber and Other Stories
33:It was originally published in
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161:"Joan D. Vinge's Bibliography"
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16:1974 novella by Joan D. Vinge
158:Joan D. Vinge Bibliography.
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101:Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)
26:novella by American writer
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258:The Steadfast Tin Soldier
242:The Steadfast Tin Soldier
188:, Signet, 1979, page 246.
120:The Steadfast Tin Soldier
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277:Tin Soldier
95:Inspiration
349:Categories
269:Literature
171:2013-06-28
146:References
78:Popularity
139:Sandkings
110:Billboard
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305:" (2005)
279:" (1974)
261:(ballet)
244:" (1838)
320:Related
112:Hot 100
287:(2007)
295:Songs
250:Stage
36:Orbit
240:'s "
56:Plot
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