The sun, Mimir, five astronomical units away, is intensely blue-white. The giant planet, Regin, just over four million kilometers away, is over two and a half times the size of Luna seen from Terra. The Luna-sized moon, Wayland, is directly ahead:
stark peaks;
glaciers;
barren plains;
old, eroded craters;
new, raw craters;
thin air.
Inside the scout boat:
faint vibrations;
sound and odor of ventilation;
interior weight;
blood beating in Flandry's ear.
We have read such descriptions before but, in Poul Anderson's works, they are always new and fresh.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And Wayland, despite being so much smaller than Terra, had half a standard G. You know why!
I don't think many other SF writers often goes into the kind of careful but very plausible details you listed. That alone should modify how some critics dismiss his stories as only "average"!
Ad astra! Sean
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