-Poul Anderson, Cold Victory (New York, 1982), p. 119.
Anderson's character does not mention "The Green Hills of Earth" but could have done especially since this phrase was not original with Heinlein. The song is mentioned in a much later "high frontier" story by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. That story is in our future so its characters could have been quoting Heinlein.
The interplanetary period of Anderson's Psychotechnic History is like the "Green Hills of Earth" period of Heinlein's Future History transposed to a nearby timeline. Both fictitious histories have:
hard sf treatment of interplanetary flight;
Luna City;
a future Revolution on Earth;
an oppressive colonial regime overthrown on Venus;
colonized asteroids;
the peace guarded by monopolized nuclear weapons (the Patrol/the Guard);
an interstellar generation ship;
psychodynamics;
longevity;
off-stage Martians;
a later period of faster than light interstellar travel.
Heinlein, implausibly, has several other intelligent species within the Solar System but keeps them also off-stage so that the main impression generated is that of a realistic account of near future space travel by human beings. He sets several of his stories in Luna City, giving the future a daily life, as someone said, whereas Anderson concentrates more on the political conflicts leading to the Humanist Revolution and its aftermath.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Not quite on topic, but your mention of Larry Niven reminds me of how Greg Bear cameos that writer in THE FORGE OF GOD as "Lawrence van Cott." Niven's full and complete name is Lawrence van Cott Niven. I don't think Bear alludes to his father in law in FORGE, however. But an "Acknowledgment" at the end of the novel thanks PA for assisting Bear in writing the book.
Sean
Sean,
Welcome back and thank you for all your comments since your return from Hawaii. I have been spending less time online, therefore concentrating on adding posts.
Greg Bear is quoted praising Blish on the front and back of ASK.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I checked my paperback copies of the ASK books, but they did not have any blurbs by Greg Bear. Since these were printed in 1980 or 1982, I don't think that's too surprising. Greg Bear was still a fairly new writer only beginning to make his mark in those years. So he would not yet be asked very often to offer his opinions of many books by other authors.
Sean
Sean,
I refer only to the one-volume ASK.
Paul.
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