Friday 9 November 2018

Elves On The Moon

In Poul Anderson's Operation Luna, evil supernatural beings from Earth haunt the Moon. Thus, Valeria Matuckek is the first human being on the Moon in her timeline.

In Anderson's Harvest of Stars future history:

Neil Armstrong was the first human being on the Moon;

Kyra Davis compares the Selenarch Rinndalir's stronghold of Zamok Vysoki to Elf Hill;

on the Lunar surface, Rinndalir capers about in a thin individually fitted suit like an athlete's garment with an almost invisible helmet, a cloak for insulation and radiation shielding, wings for solar energy collection and cooling and a wand as a communication antenna;

he laughs when a meteoroid that would have killed him or Kyra impacts nearby.

We have already seen that Lunarians are reckless.

Here is an excellent contrast that displays Anderson's range from hard sf to fantasy: the Harvest of Stars Tetralogy and the Old Phoenix Sequence. The latter comprises:

Three Hearts And Three Lions
Operation Otherworld (the two Operation... volumes)
A Midsummer Tempest
The Old Phoenix And Other Universes (proposed)

The Moon is visited in both series which however could not be more different.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Just off the top of my head, I read an article either by Jerry Pournelle or in a collection edited by him that space suits doesn't have to always be as heavy, awkward and bulky as we see them now. They should be as light and easy to use as what Rinndalir wears. Not always, of course, there will be times and places when thicker radiation armor is needed.

Sean