Saturday 13 April 2019

Ganymede III

In William Dexter's Children Of The Void, Denis Grafton and his fellow space travelers visit Ganymede which, they discover:

has an atmosphere with clouds;

is mostly land but with four seas;

has sharp mountains and sparse lichens;

is inhabited by friendly wallaby-like animals.

Poul Anderson presents more plausible accounts. See:

Ganymede
Ganymede II

7 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I don't think I had ever heard of William Dexter before you started commenting about some of his stories here. How would you rate his books? Are they worth reading, in your opinion?

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
He only wrote these 2 sf novels, long out of print - although I got them easily on Amazon. Maybe they are not quite living up to my memories of them. I have only just started to reread the 2nd book and so far it seems to ramble. Fascinating out-dated ideas of an exotic Solar System very unlike the real one.
If all animal life ended, this would surely end the production of carbon dioxide so that plants would die as well?
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

So you would say William Dexter is MODERATELY worth reading? But not EXTREMELY so?

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
That description suffices!
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

There are other writers that interests me more: such as Julian May or S.M. Stirling. And it's starting to get close to when I can buy a copy of Stirling's THEATER OF SPIES!

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
You can write an article about it for the blog.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I might, esp. if I can tie in Stirling's THEATER OF SPIES with one of Anderson's books. I have the example of my "Was The Domination Inspired By Merseia?" as a precedent. Something to keep in mind.

I finished May's THE MANY COLORED LAND and have already reached Chapter 3 of Stirling's SNOWBROTHER. And one thing I've already tentatively concluded is that the Mintzans attacked by the Kommanza do depend largely on agriculture for supporting their culture.

Sean