Versions Of Venus

Robert Heinlein's Future History Volume II ends with "Logic of Empire," indentured servitude on an inhabitable swampy Venus that has yet to declare its independence from Earth, whereas Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic League Trilogy (earlier, incomplete edition) Volume I ends with "The Big Rain," political dictatorship on an uninhabitable desert Venus that has already declared its independence.

There can be a dictatorship on an uninhabitable planet because the colonists live in enclosed cities while gradually terraforming their environment. This Venus contrasts with Heinlein's version, with the (inhabitable?) oceanic Venus of Anderson's "Sister Planet," and with the also oceanic Venuses of Olaf Stapledon's future history and CS Lewis' Ransom Trilogy. (Posting over a hasty breakfast before a visit to the dentist, I hope that I can be excused from tracking down and checking the details in "Sister Planet.") There is a colonized Venus in Anderson's Time Patrol series and an incompletely terraformed Venus in his Technic History.

What are my points?

We appreciate Heinlein's Future History;
therefore, we appreciate reading something else like it, Anderson's early future histories;
however, we also appreciate Anderson's later future histories because these works go way beyond anything imagined by Heinlein and even surpass Olaf Stapledon's cosmic history.