Three Ideas

In his The Science Fiction Of Isaac Asimov, Joseph F. Patrouch, Jr, lists time travel, FTL and parallel worlds as three ideas that have very little scientific basis but that have come to be accepted as if they were scientifically plausible because they have been so well established by many good writers.

We notice that Wells gives us space travel in The First Men In The Moon, time travel in The Time Machine and parallel worlds in Men Like Gods but no FTL whereas Poul Anderson excels at all three of these ideas and some sf writers, notably Harry Turtledove and SM Stirling, specialize in parallel worlds.

Shortly, we will address another of Patrouch's remarks specifically in relation to some of Poul Anderson's works.