Poul Anderson's Martians: The Makeshift Rocket And Captive Of The Centaurianess

One Martian:

gray hairless head-body cupola as high as an Earthman's waist;
four walking tentacles;
two writhing arm tentacles;
flat nose;
large brow;
wide mouth;
no lips;
bulging eyes.
(See Poul Anderson, The Makeshift Rocket (New York, 1962), p. 15.)

Another Martian:

gray body cupola, 120 centimeters tall;
four strong walking tentacles;
two thin, boneless, three-fingered arms;
wide mouth between the arms;
no lips;
elephantine ears;
flat nose;
horn-rimmed glasses.
(See Poul Anderson, "Captive of the Centaurianess" IN Anderson, The Gods Laughed (New York, 1982), pp.149-232 AT pp. 155-156.)

Yes, I think that these are the same Martian race - and another that is not to be taken seriously.

The Makeshift Rocket II

I did not read anything else last night because of the TV coverage of Nelson Mandela's death.

Poul Anderson's The Makeshift Rocket (New York, 1962) has the gyrogravitics of his Tales Of The Flying Mountains and, I think, the same fictitious Martian race as his "Captive of the Centaurianess," although it does not belong in the same timeline as either of those works.

With gravity control, it would theoretically be possible to terraform the asteroids, as in Flying Mountains and here. First, it would be possible to give them enough gravity to hold a breathable atmosphere. Then, if there were also an adequate source of heat, soil and plants could be imported. However, this does read like a fantasy rather than a hard sf version of the Solar System:

"Beyond the little spacefield was a charming vista of green meadows, orderly hedgerows, cottages and bowers, a white gravel road. Just below the near, sharply curving horizon stood Grendel's only town; from this height could be seen a few roofs and the twin spires of St George's. The flag of the Kingdom, a Union Jack on a Royal Stuart field, fluttered there under a sky of darker blue than Earth's, a small remote sun and a few of the brightest stars. Grendel was a typical right little, tight little Anglian asteroid, peacefully readying for the vacation-season influx of tourists from Briarton, York, Scotia, Holm, New Winchester, and the other shires." (pp. 8-9)

This sounds as if it belongs in a magical realm of broomsticks and flying carpets. A very sharply curving horizon, I should think. Some blue in the sky, because of the atmosphere, but not much. Imagine what would happen if the gravity control failed. And who brought the Stuarts back? A worldlet with only one town but with easy transport to and from several other worldlets.

As always, Anderson thinks through the physics of his fictional technology. In order to hold the atmosphere, the gyrogravitic generators at the center of mass maintain one gee to an altitude of 2000 kilometers but thereafter the artificial attraction drops to zero within one kilometer. It is not easy for a spaceship with its negative force to cross this boundary - although HG Wells' Cavor might have felt at home here.

Centaurianess II

According to one internet reviewer, Poul Anderson updated "Captive of the Centaurianess" for its appearance in the first issue of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Adventure Magazine, so it must be the updated version that we read in the collection The Gods Laughed (New York, 1982) although, as the reviewer also remarked, "...it still reads dated."

Having read to the end of "Centaurianess," I do not have much more to say about it. It contains:

the Golden Age sf idea of plants and animals on Ganymede;
yet another description of a first faster than light (FTL) interstellar journey;
the problem, occasionally encountered in sf, of re-locating the Solar System after crossing an interstellar distance;
yet another dictatorship overthrown by the end of a story.

I would guess that the update includes part of the description of the FTL flight:

"The starbow of science fiction song and story pinched out into invisibility; he flew through total blindness." (pp. 203-204)

But, if anyone has Planet Stories March 1952, they might like to comment?

I think that this story would fit better in a collection of stories from that era. It does not really belong with the later, more serious speculations collected in The Gods Laughed. Which, if any, is the superior race in this story?

Captive Of The Centaurianess

Although Poul Anderson's "Captive of the Centaurianess" (The Gods Laughed, 1982) was published in 1978, it reads like Golden Age sf and was probably written in that style to reflect the fact that it was being published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Adventure Magazine. (Later: See correction in Comments.)

There is:

an italicized introduction about heroes taken from Origins of the Galactic Era;

a World Union on Earth;

a breakaway Confederated Satellites of Jupiter resulting from a "Symmetrist Revolution" (p. 153);

an intelligent tentacled Martian race, excelling at mathematics;

slower than light travel with suspended animation between the Solar System and Alpha Centauri A III;

humanoid Centaurians resulting either from coincidence or from parallel evolution, still practicing animal sacrifice;

Martian mathematics proving the possibility of faster than light travel so that we indeed seem to be at the origin of a Galactic Era.

Since the story is 85 pages long, I will have to read the rest of it later. Meanwhile, there is one surprise, although maybe I was at fault for misreading the title - a Centaurianess is not a female centaur but a female Centaurian biped.