I said that I might post about the conclusion of SM Stirling's
The Sky People (New York, 2006) but, now that I have read it, I am not quite sure what to say. I lost the sequence of events a bit but, in any case, the narrative does not reach a conclusion. Instead, it points towards a continuation in the following volume. The "'...Crimson Dynasty...'" (p. 308) must connect with ...
The Crimson Kings (p. 311) of the title of the second novel. There are a few more to me unfamiliar words but maybe we have had enough of those for a while?
Stirling has written an authentic account of an inhabited Venus and I look forward to his account of Mars. "Authenticity" means conformity not to twenty first century science but to Golden Age pulp sf. There is a scientific Venus and a literary one. Stirling has made a major contribution to the latter. We need not, after all, say, "Farewell, fantastic Venus!"
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Drat! My first attempt at depositing a note here failed to show up. I'll have to repeat.
You wrote about THE SKY PEOPLE: "...the narrative does not reach a conclusion. Instead, it points towards a continuation in the following volume." Exactly! That is why I recommended reading SKY first before IN THE COURTS OF THE CRIMSON KINGS.
I would also argue that THE SKY PEOPLE is "authentic" in two ways. First, as SF, it is authentically in the literary tradition of Golden Age science fiction. Second, it is authentically scientifically plausible in Stirling showing us HOW Venus could have been made so terrestroid that humans could live there. It makes me wonder if Stirling has read Jerry Pournelle's article "The Big Rain," wherein JP outlines, very plausibly IMO, how Venus could be terraformed. To say nothing, of course, of how Poul Anderson's story "The Big Rain" (a title Pournelle adopted) shows us Anderson coming to a sounder scientific understanding of that planet (and how it might be terraformed).
Yes, I do think we can say Stirling's THE SKY PEOPLE can show us how he was influenced or inspired by Poul Anderson (as well as the Golden Age of SF).
Sean
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