Lilisaire's agent will:
"'...take a room at the Hotel Clarke.'" (p. 251)
Is this the single reference to Arthur C. Clarke in Poul Anderson's works? And what do we think of Clarke? Like Heinlein and Anderson, he addressed Lunar colonization. He is supposed to have been one of the Big Three. My "Big Three" might be Heinlein, Anderson and Blish - but they came after Wells and Stapledon.
Clarke reasoned that material brains are conscious, therefore material computers can be conscious, thus not realizing the difference between a brain and a computer. Likewise, Asimov said that a robot is just a mobile computer.
I endlessly reread Anderson but not Asimov or Clarke.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I think that "Hotel Clarke" was meant by Anderson as a friendly inside allusion to a fellow SF writer.
I was never a big fan of Sir Arthur, and his short stories appealed more to me than did his novels. I did enjoy his TALES FROM THE WHITE HART.
I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday, and I was irritated to see nice reprint editions of many of Asimov's overrated works but not a single one of Anderson's far superior stories in the SF section!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
It beggars belief. Why so much Asimov and no Anderson?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Galling and frustrating indeed! Simply as a writer, Anderson was so much better than Asimov!
The Anderson estate needs to be more active in keeping his works available to SF readers.
At least NESFA Press has been keeping many of PA's shorter works available in nice reprint collections. That helps a bit.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Because of Mr. Stirling's fascinating comments on anthropological matters, I might go back to Barnes and Noble soon to buy a copy of Kermit Pattison's FOSSIL MEN. About the discovery of "Ardipithecus," another possible ancestor of the human race.
Ad astra! Sean
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