Dinosaurs On Venus

Progress in reading SM Stirling's The Sky People has been slow. Bed-ridden today, I have not felt up to reading a new text that I would want to blog about. Making a start in the evening, I find that Stirling's Venus has a breathable atmosphere and dinosaurs used as draught animals in 1988.

Such a retro text invites comparisons with fiction that we read when it was thought that Venus might really be like that. I further expect to make some comparisons with the works of Poul Anderson. First, however, I remember that Dan Dare's Venus had dinosaurs. A sedated dinosaur was being transported by spaceship to London Zoo. However, a Treen crew member who was secretly a Mekon loyalist deliberately roused the animal, causing havoc inside the ship.

In past ages, the Treens had transported Terrestrial organisms, including even blue-skinned Atlanteans, to Venus. I suspect that Stirling's Venerian species are also connected to Earth but will have to read on to find out. Thus, this novel should evoke:

many memories of earlier sf;
also, of course, appreciation of Stirling's narrative in its own right.

Treens have some similarities to Anderson's Merseians.