Snarks
Names: SnarksBoojum makersQuinlansQuinlan
First appears in Book 4: Heaven’s River, chapter 8 (8. Survey Results)
Appearances
B1
B2
B3
B4
B5
What you know
Book 4: Heaven’s River
- Ch 8The Snarks are four-foot, otter-like semiaquatic beings with forearm skin flaps, a beak-like toothed snout and a fanning tail.
- Ch 8Everywhere surveyed, Snarks live in pre-industrial wooden villages using metal coins, and interior exits appear sealed to keep them in.
- Ch 9Snarks are talkative in large groups and use oiled paper for windows, defeating attempts to pick up speech via SUDDAR.
- Ch 11The Snarks label everything, have building codes with emergency stairs, and use screw heads like Robertson screws.
- Ch 12The natives call themselves Quinlans, and their topopolis is called Heaven's River.
- Ch 12Quinlans evolved on riverbanks, live near fresh water, and talk little about their history, which is heavily mythologized.
- Ch 14Quinlan females are slightly larger than males with the same teeth and claws, and their mating is seasonal.
- Ch 15Quinlans have independently movable eyes, go on all fours for distance, and loved art and embellishment in their architecture.
- Ch 17Quinlans wear no clothes except ceremonial decorations, commonly carry waterproof backpacks, travel on all fours and prefer to swim.
- Ch 17Quinlans use waterways like roads, with pedestrian docks; 'up-diving' straight out of the water onto a dock is considered rude.
- Ch 17Quinlans are quick-tempered and inclined to mob, with fights escalating fast.
- Ch 17Quinlans live in networked marriage groups; their children, called juniors, are non-sentient until about five and raised in crèches.
- Ch 18The Quinlans on Quin used rail for overland transport and waged multiple kinds of warfare on each other.
- Ch 19Quinlans are hair-trigger tempered; bystanders readily join in to grab a suspect for the police.
- Ch 19Some Quinlans know of higher technology but seem unwilling to mention it, suggesting a threat from management.
- Ch 25Quinlans sing beautifully and understand harmony, but their short legs make for unimpressive dancing.
- Ch 25Quinlan myth says Anec ended their fighting over finite Quin by giving them infinite bounded land, then took their weapons and wisdom and scattered them.
- Ch 29Long-distance communications and rapid travel once existed in Heaven's River but were taken away as retribution.
- Ch 32Losing their arm flaps would leave a Quinlan unable to swim properly, so threatening to cut them off is serious.
- Ch 37Metal knives are so prized among Quinlans that one is worth about a year's wages for an average Quinlan.
- Ch 42Many Quinlans know they live in an artificial megastructure held at a fixed tech level, but most don't care because life is good.
- Ch 48Quinlans keep the ground bones of their dead in funerary boxes, which Hugh suggests as cover for Bender's cube.
- Ch 54Bob fears the Quinlans could lose sapience within a few generations through back-to-nature living and myth replacing history.
- Ch 65Quinlans are ahead of the Bobs in megastructure design, artificial environments, fusion, Planck computer theory and materials design.
- Ch 67Quinlans still hesitate to use the newly opened transit stations after a lifetime under threat of scattering.
Book 5: Not Till We Are Lost
- Ch 4Quinlan juniors are non-sentient for about five years and never become intelligent unless properly socialized.
- Ch 25Quinlans skip posturing when angry and go straight to fighting, according to Theresa.
- Ch 39Quinlans hear a wider frequency range with finer discernment and can sing two notes at once.
- Ch 46Some Quinlan replicants and some ex-humans have been turning themselves off, finding eternity unbearable.
- Ch 49Bob describes Quinlans as social but not necessarily sociable, being mobile furred predators.
Connections
- intopopolis
- related toPlanet Boojumhome world
- createdtopopolispresumed builders
- related toQuinhome planet
- inQuin
- related toAnecAI charged with ensuring Quinlan survival
- has memberTheresa
- has memberHis Badgerness
- has memberHerbie
Key moments
- Book 4 · Ch 8Snarks discovered in the topopolis
SUDDAR scans reveal otter-like natives living pre-industrial lives along a river inside the topopolis, with exits apparently sealed.