tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post7769083064456773429..comments2024-03-28T07:57:49.338+00:00Comments on Poul Anderson Appreciation: Human MartiansKetlanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08588156788583883454noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-46738138536456072952015-06-07T22:00:12.336+01:002015-06-07T22:00:12.336+01:00Dear Mr. Birr,
I was very interested by your com...Dear Mr. Birr, <br /><br />I was very interested by your comments about H. Beam Piper's "Omnilingual." Piper is yet another SF writer I should read more of! And I think S.M. Stirling took some ideas from him on how to describe his own Martian hominids. Piper's Mars being a humanly settled world which became uninhabitable before "our" time rather than remaining so.<br /><br />SeanSean M. Brookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13973738112230622557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-20936887025836919572015-06-07T14:05:26.973+01:002015-06-07T14:05:26.973+01:00Yes, I was delighted to see his contributions to t...Yes, I was delighted to see his contributions to the discussion in that scene.David Birrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08973889429164886381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-33711813946362822412015-06-07T12:05:22.671+01:002015-06-07T12:05:22.671+01:00Beam says, "...they may have come to us first...Beam says, "...they may have come to us first..." in the Prologue of ...CRIMSON KINGS.Paul Shackleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04180596532266581425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-5051634048898243882015-06-07T11:25:12.996+01:002015-06-07T11:25:12.996+01:00H. Beam Piper mentioned human Martians in a number...H. Beam Piper mentioned human Martians in a number of his stories, although they were all extinct by the present day -- and, at least in his *Paratime* series, they were, as in Moorcock's version, our ancestors. <br /><br />There's a powerful scene in "Omnilingual" (NOT a *Paratime* tale) of Terran explorers in 1996 finding the bodies of several completely human-looking Martians who'd apparently tried to keep technological civilization alive in an otherwise deserted city 50,000 years ago -- and then their electrical generator had a breakdown they couldn't fix, and they gave up and committed suicide by asphyxiation.<br /><br />"Their power was gone, and they were old and tired, and all around them their world was dying. So they just came in here and lit the charcoal, and sat drinking together till they all fell asleep."David Birrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08973889429164886381noreply@blogger.com