Wednesday 17 January 2018

Jovians

There are more Martians than any other kind of fictional alien. Which is the second most numerous kind? Maybe Venerians and, after them, Jovians? Poul Anderson has half a dozen kinds of Martians and, in Three Worlds To Conquer, Jovians. In Anderson's History of Technic Civilization, no Solar planet apart from Earth has native inhabitants although both Mars and Jupiter have been colonized by extra-solars for whom these planets provide comfortable environments.

The owl-like colonists of Mars have come to be called "Martians" while human colonists of the extra-solar planets, Hermes, Avalon, Dennitza etc, are called Hermetians, Avalonians, Dennitzans etc. It follows that the Ymirite colonists of Jupiter might be called Jovians.

ERB has Moon Men, Venerians, Martians and, in the last John Carter story, "Skeleton Men of Jupiter." Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: The Doll's House has, in a fiction within the fiction, Jovian Fish-Men and Skeleton Men from Pluto. (ERBian influence?) Sometimes writers develop an idea in detail. At other times, they tantalize with a throwaway phrase.

1 comment:

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Kaor, Paul!

While I agree with what you said about humans being called after the planets they colonized (such as Hermetians, Aeneans, Dennitzans, etc.), non-humans tended to call all humans Terrans, as was the case with the Ythrian editor of THE EARTHBOOK OF STORMGATE.

Sean