How likely is interstellar travel, let alone FTL, in the foreseeable future? Neither HG Wells's The Shape Of Things To Come nor Anderson's Maurai future history in Maurai And Kith has space travel. However, continuing the Maurai history, Orion Shall Rise adds eventual interplanetary travel while There Will Be Time adds both time travel and interstellar travel.
Olaf Stapledon's Last Men history has both interplanetary travel and mental time travel while its sequel, Star Maker, adds both interstellar and intergalactic travel. However, I return to the question: how likely is any of that? What will the next thousand years really be like?
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Because of the work of Elon Musk and others, I think space travel within at least the Solar System to be more likely than not.
What you said about the Maurai stories and the two novels linked to them reminded me of the preface Anderson wrote for ORION SHALL RISE. In that preface he wrote ORION does not QUITE fit into the earlier stories. Which raises the possibility the Maurai of ORION belongs to a different timeline!
Two Maurai timelines: one including the three earlier stories plus THERE WILL BE TIME; and the other being ORION SHALL RISE.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
According to THERE WILL BE TIME, the three Maurai stories are a fictionalized account. Poul Anderson invented the name "Maurai" and sometimes got it wrong when he filled in the gaps between bits of information that Robert Anderson had given him.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I forgot about that! And the "fictionalized" Maurai stories makes it even more complicated. THREE, not merely two possible Maurai timelines.
Ad astra! Sean
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