I keep being surprised to find new descriptions of the Milky Way in Poul Anderson's works. (Somebody tell me if I am repeating one that I have quoted before.)
"Stars glittered in their prismatic colors and multiple thousands, Beta Crucis little more than the brightest among them; the Milky Way spilled around crystal darkness; the far cold whirlpools of a few sister galaxies could be seen, when the League ship made contact with the strangers."
-Satan's World, XIV, p. 464.
I have quoted the entire opening single-sentence paragraph rather than just the descriptive phrase:
Beta Crucis is the closest star;
what is happening in those sister galaxies?;
Anderson could extend the Technic History indefinitely without ever having his characters leave this galaxy;
the League ship meeting the strangers reminds us that we are in a particular kind of sf future where FTL spaceships representing interstellar civilizations can meet and clash;
like Star Trek but much better.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
VASTLY better than STAR TREK or STAR WARS! Reading the works of Anderson, Asimov, Bradbury, Clark, Heinlein, Norton, etc., as a boy spoiled TV and movie SF for me. I couldn't help but see how trite, shallow, superficial, and thin so much of TV and filmed SF was when compared to the written texts of the masters I listed.
Sean
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