- Poul Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (New York, 2012), p. 44.
In Isaac Asimov's Galactic Empire, the capital, Trantor, is both a city covering a planet and a planet covered by a city. Both city and planet are named "Trantor." As far as I can remember, the only green growth is in the (large) garden of the Imperial Palace and there are no oceans or at least none left after the total urbanization of the planet.
In Poul Anderson's Terran Empire, the capital, Archopolis, is "...a nexus..." in a city covering the land areas of the planet Terra. Large open spaces do not prevent the Terran continents from being a single city any more than Central Park negates New York's status as a city. However, Terra is not completely urbanized like Trantor and there is a forest in the High Sierra.
3 comments:
Hi, Paul!
Yes, I agree, Terra during the age of the Empire had become de facto one world wide city. And I would not surprised if some of those huge open spaces owned by members of the Imperial aristocracy were devoted to growing food. You know my view is that the Imperium would have encouraged or mandated this so Terra would not be dependent SOLELY on imports of foodstuffs from off planet.
As for how MUCH of Terra was urbanized, we might find a hint to answering that question by reading "The High Ones." This what I found in Section 3 of that story as Eben Holbrook and his two companions were nearing the planet Zolotoy: "Grushenko looked through the viewport. This close, the golden shield was darkly streaked and mottled; here and there lay a quicksilvery gleam. "Well, about twenty percent of the total area is built over," he replied. But the city forms a unified network, like a net spread across the entire oceanless globe. And the open areas are likewise used--plantations, mines, landing fields, transmission stations, I suppose."
So, at least twenty percent of the land area of Terra should be thought of as being urbanized in Flandry's day. This seems to bear out my view that much of the rest of the land was set aside as wilderness areas, like the High Sierra, or as private parks and agricultural regions, etc.
Sean
Trantor is dependent on the produce of twenty agricultural planets per day...
Hi, Paul!
Indeed, I remember that from reading the three original Foundation books. And other text in those books (probably in FOUNDATION) said that by Hari Seldon's day Imperial policy had come to be dominated by the anxious need to make sure Trantor was able to obtain the food it needed.
Which means Anderson's Terran Empire was wiser, since it apparently strove to make sure Terra did not become as thoroughly urbanized as was Trantor.
Sean
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