Poul Anderson
HG Wells
Olaf Stapledon
CS Lewis
James Blish
Neil Gaiman
SM Stirling
A few noteworthy points:
Lewis replied to the secularism of Wells and Stapledon;
Blish's After Such Knowledge is post-Lewis and even cites what that which called itself Screwtape let slip to Lewis!;
Lewis, Anderson, Gaiman and Stirling excel at journeys between worlds;
I particularly like Stirling's Conquistador with its Gates taking his characters to new adventures on unpolluted Earths;
Anderson fully develops Wellsian time travel, continues Stapledonian cosmological sf and respects Lewisian issues even in his hard sf.
What's not to like?
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
There is much to like in the works of the writers you listed. I would also argue that Anderson's work "descends" as well from the proto-hard science fiction of Jules Verne.
CONQUISTADOR, along with others of Stirling's books, such as THE PESHAWAR LANCERS and IN THE COURTS OF THE CRIMSON KINGS, are among my favorites of his works.
Ad astra! Sean
Oh, and SHADOWS OF ANNIHILATION is now open for comments!
Mr Stirling,
It is indeed although I commented when I read my Advance Reading Copy and will still avoid spoilers because other readers are still catching up.
It is good to have one of the Masters of the Imagination making guest appearances in the combox.
Paul.
I find more time on my hands now that I’m not moving as much... 8-).
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: I'm already half way thru SHADOWS, so it won't be long before I and other readers will be likely to worry about spoilers!
Mr. Stirling: and one thought I had about Luz O'Malley is that she seems too implausibly competent and sophisticated to be "real." But then I got to the bit where she mentioned how the Black Chamber were inspired by fictional works such as Kipling's KIM. Luz O'Malley is your idea of what the Kim of that book might be like, if American and a woman.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: there are plenty of people who've done equally implausible things. Real life doesn't have to be believable!
Teddy Roosevelt is a good example. How many American Presidents have stabbed cougars to death with bowie knives, shot grizzly bears at 6ft., arrested bandits and trekked 300 miles to a sheriff's office with them, keeping themselves awake by reading "Anna Karenina" aloud in French translation, lowered his own children out of White House windows on a rope of sheets as part of a game, won the Medal of Honor, and carried a lost kitten around the White House neighborhood to find it a new home?
Post a Comment