The View From Space

Poul Anderson, "The Saturn Game" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 1-73.

A small exploratory spaceship approaches the Saturnian moon, Iapetus.

Many brilliant stars drown the blackness. Among them:

"The Milky Way was a torrent of silver." (p. 3)

Saturn's dayside is pale gold with rich bands. Nightside shimmers with light reflected from clouds. The rings resemble jewelry.

Iapetus has bare craters and dazzling glaciers:

"...cirques, crevasses, caverns brimmed with blue." (ibid.)

In Poul Anderson's descriptive passages, we look for three or more senses but in space only one sense is possible. However, there can be several colors. The glaciers are not only dazzling white but also:

"...glittered in sparks and shards of color..." (ibid.)

- including the brimming blue that contrasts with the silver of the Milky Way and the pale gold of Saturn.