Stapledon shows us the Last Men on Neptune.
Stapledon's Cosmic Mind witnesses the creation of many universes.
A Poul Anderson time traveler circumnavigates time.
An Anderson spaceship crew survive this universe and colonizes the next.
Another Anderson crew traverses space and time and sees a monobloc.
Anderson shows us inorganic intelligence re-creating extinct humanity in a geological future.
I have not kept up with more recent cosmological sf. However, this brief list shows us Poul Anderson fulfilling and enhancing the legacies of both Wells and Stapledon.
12 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Plainly, you meant Anderson's book TAU ZERO when you wrote: "An Anderson space ship crew survives this universe and colonizes the next." But I can't be sure which story you had in mind when you wrote "Another Anderson crew traverses space and time and sees a monobloc" if it was not TAU ZERO. I thought of "Requiem For A Universe" (to be found in ALL ONE UNIVERSE), but I'm sure you did not have that in mind. Or was it THE AVATAR or STARFARERS?
Sean
Sean,
I think they see a monobloc or something like it on the last space-time jump in THE AVATAR?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I did some quick browsing of THE AVATAR, and this is what I found on page 360 of the hard back edition: "-Here and now, our burnt out cosmos, fleeing from itself, has intersected another. From this union, when it is complete, will arise an entire new world of worlds." But other passages in THE AVATAR may be more appropriate.
Sean
Sean,
http://poulandersonappreciation.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/avatar-vii-jumps-5.html
Hi. It is late for me here but here is a link.
Paul.
11th
The Chinook is enclosed by a vast globe of moving colours containing the T machine, a white-hot sphere with lesser shapes moving around it and a curved ellipsoid extruding a delicate webwork like those seen at the neutron star and black hole observatories. A point of light moves from the ellipsoid to the Chinook. Something stirs in crew member Caitlin Mulryan... Another craft comes from the T machine to the Chinook. Two of the Others enter in the forms of Aengus mac Og and Brigit. Caitlin is an avatar.
Delicately balanced forces artificially maintain the place where they have met "...here at the end and the beginning of a universe...." (2) So the "...white-hot sphere..." must be a monobloc before its big bang?
A hyperdimensional ocean brings forth universes. Our expanding, dying universe intersects another. Their union will bring forth a new universe with different laws and constants of physics that the Others aim to understand.
(1) Anderson, Poul, The Avatar, London, 1985, p. 347.
Kaor, Paul!
I actually read the passages from THE AVATAR you quoted, but I wasn't sure it described Anderson's speculations about monoblocs. But, yes, it does look a lot like "...the end and the beginning of a universe.."
Sean
Sean,
I thought that the "...white-hot sphere..." was a monobloc.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
It only goes to show that THE AVATAR, like the vast majority of Poul Anderson's works, is amply worth rereading. And I at least USED to think that book was one of Anderson's weaker novels.
Sean
Kaor, Sean!
I think that THE AVATAR is one of Anderson's weaker novels, and that it still repays rereading.
Best Regards,
Nicholas D. Rosen
Kaor, Nicholas!
The recent discussion we've been having about THE AVATAR and my looking up of various texts in that book has made me unsure I can still call that one of Anderson's weaker books. Which means I probably should soon reread it!
I think Anderson's WAR OF THE GODS is definitely one of his weaker books. NOT because it was badly written, not at all! But because I think WAR was too obviously merely a retelling of Scandinavian myths and legends. HROLF KRAKI'S SAGA was much better, IMO.
Best regards, Sean
Kaor, Sean!
I agree, WAR OF THE GODS was well enough done, but HROLF KRAKI'S SAGA (also a retelling of Scandinavian legends) was resplendent.
Best Regards,
Nicholas
Kaor, Nicholas!
I'm a zealous enough fan of PA that my copy of WAR OF THE GODS is hardback, rather than paperback! Despite us both agreeing it's one of Anderson's few weaker books.
I'm glad we both agree that HROLF KRAKI'S SAGA, by contrast, is one of Anderson's best books!
Best regards, Sean
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