James Blish, The Triumph Of Time
Fred Hoyle & Geoffrey Hoyle, Into Deepest Space
In all three works, the monobloc expanded as gas which condensed as stars which congregated as galaxies.
Comparisons
(i) In Blish's cosmology, spiral galaxies, connected by bridges of stars, congregate as spiral metagalaxies which in turn spiral around a common center. Thus, there are three levels of spirals.
In Anderson's cosmology, clusters of galaxies congregate as widely scattered "clans," completely unlike Blish's spirals within spirals within spirals.
(ii) Blish's mobile planet flies from the Greater Magellanic Cloud to the metagalactic center, occasionally sighting a faint, remote galaxy. The journey is inwards, towards a center.
Anderson's relativistic spaceship continually accelerates through vast volumes of dark inter-clan space by revolving around the centers of galaxies, clusters and clans until the universe visibly ages, then contracts. The journey is ever outward until there is no longer any outward direction because the universe has collapsed.
The Hoyles' relativistic spaceships accelerate up from the galactic plane towards the quasar, thus intensifying incoming radiation until the earliest stellar condensations become visible.
(iii) Anderson's universe oscillates.
Blish's universe collides with its antimatter counterpart.
The Hoyles' universe has an inverse counterpart.
Blish's characters briefly survive the collision.
The Hoyles' characters survive a black hole-white hole transition.
(v) The Hoyles' characters witness the beginning of this universe.
Anderson's characters enter the next universe.
Blish's characters create new universes.
(vi) Blish's characters occupy the site of the monobloc where they become new monoblocs.
Anderson's characters orbit the new monobloc, then fly outward with it.
The Hoyles' characters enter the inverse universe.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Cosmic indeed! Altho I've read only Anderson's TAU ZERO and Blish's Flying Cities books. And I would consider Anderson's STARFARERS to also be cosmic, even if set in a far, far shorter time scale.
Ad astra! Sean
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