Friday 22 May 2020

Into Deepest Space

Fred Hoyle & Geoffrey Hoyle, Into Deepest Space (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1977).

Rereading this book after many decades, we recognize some themes common to Poul Anderson's works.

When it is feared that the Terrestrial atmosphere will be burned off:

"Would anyone in the years to come ever visit this planet and wonder at the charred black earth? With the atmosphere gone no winds would blow. A deathly silence would replace the voices of the millions who had once inhabited this still golden world." (2, pp. 22-23)

(Wells' Time Traveler also describes the silence after all familiar sounds have ended.)

"Wandering around the galaxy might provide ample time for the development of new ideas, but I knew I would dislike the claustrophobic atmosphere of a spaceship. If it meant my survival I would surely go, but if there were a chance of remaining on Earth I would stay." (pp. 25-26)

"'In our experience multiple star systems don't have planetary systems.'" (3, p. 37)

"4 The Voyage Begins"

- but this voyage will have to continue tomorrow.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And we see the Earth destroyed in AFTER DOOMSDAY. And being gradually being rendered lifeless by an expanding Sun a billion years or more from now in GENESIS. I've also thought of Anderson's quasi-essay "In Memoriam."

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

The AFTER DOOMSDAY comparison is the most relevant, I think.

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I agree! I thought of the others in order to be more complete.

Ad astra! Sean