Poul Anderson, Genesis (New York, 2001), Part One, VII.
A planet is so far from Earth that Sol is not visible in its night sky;
the day sky is green with red-tinged clouds;
the atmosphere is humanly unbreathable;
the planet's sun is small and dazzling;
low hills are covered with primitive life - purple, ruddy and gold mats, stalks, fluttering membranes and spongy turrets;
Intelligence Prime has studied this life and transmitted information to other intelligences across the known galaxy for seven hundred years;
the furthest intelligence have not yet received the transmissions.
See also:
The Christian Brannock Uploads
Genesis, Part One, Chapter VII
Van Rijn And Brannock
The Christian Brannock Uploads II
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I did wonder how plausible it was of Anderson to have shown no other intelligent races in the galaxy in GENESIS. My view is that a galaxy with at least 100 billion stars must very likely have many intelligent races. It would feel almost artistically offensive to know ours was the only such species in the Milky Way!
I also thought it odd that NO planets were mentioned in GENESIS as being habitable by human beings. Even allowing for MOST planets being very likely to be humanly uninhabitable, I would expect SOME to be terrrestroid.
If I was criticizing GENESIS, the two points discussed above would be the points I would focus on.
Sean
Post a Comment