one of the founders of modern science fiction, HG Wells;
a current sf writer, John C. Wright;
between these, no less than three relevant works by Poul Anderson -
- while at the same the post omitted the equally relevant but slightly more complicated human-AI interactions in Anderson's mammoth Harvest Of Stars Tetralogy, my point as always being that we applaud Anderson not only for original contributions to sf but also for a body of work displaying both quality and quantity.
(And grammatically this post was a single sentence - until I added this one!)
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
IMO one of the TWO modern founders of SF were Jules Verne, as well as H.G. Wells. Here I had in mind his 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA and FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON, and several other works. Truth to say, Verne was better at then contemporary science than was Wells.
A major problem has been the lack of really satisfactory translations of Verne's works into English from the original French. Plus, I would need to read more of his books to get a better idea of how he worked and thought.
I would argue that the very best SF writers tended to lean more to Verne's mindset than that of Wells. And, altho he was anti-Wells, C.S. Lewis wrote his SF more in the Wells tradition.
Sean
The way I heard it the contemporary of Verne who did the first English translations was a hack who also edited out any anti-British sentiments Verne included in the novels. Thes gave Verne and undeservedly poor reputation in the English-speaking world, while he is well regarded in the rest of the world.
I *have* heard there is a late 20th century translation of "20000 Leagues Under the Sea" by someone else that is well done.
Kaor, Jim!
Good! I would like to see more of Verne's books translated carefully, competently, and accurately into English.
Ad astra! Sean
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