When download Guthrie visits Guthrie House, he and the Rydbergs, Lars and Ulla, agree that Fireball should help the Lunarians to acquire a torchcraft even though for an unstated purpose. We know that the craft will be used to explore Edmond Beynac's planetoid and, if we are rereading the series out of order as I am now, then we also know that the Lunarians will later colonize that planetoid which has already been named "Proserpina."
Poul Anderson constructs a text that simultaneously looks both forwards and backwards. The series has four volumes covering five periods and anticipating an endless future.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I continue to be amazed by the daring and imagination shown by Poul Anderson in his later years! THE HARVEST OF STARS books, GENESIS, and STARFARERS (plus the posthumous FOR LOVE AND GLORY) shows us Anderson was not content to rest on the laurels gained by his previous achievements in SF, but was willing to strike out in strange new directions.
Ad astra! Sean
Unique among sf writers?
Kaor, Paul!
Very much so! I don't know of many, if any, SF writers who were as productive and imaginative as Anderson was during the last twelve years of his life, which I called his "late phase."
And readers should not overlook OPERATION LUNA, also a late Anderson book.
Ad astra! Sean
His technical skills were of a very high order by then, too.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree! When you compare the early stories of Poul Anderson (roughly, 1947-58) with those he wrote during his last years the qualitative differences distinguishing many of those early works from each other are plain. But, despite some not so good ones, many of those early stories of Anderson were and are very much worth reading.
I admit I was disappointed by the later stories of Larry Niven. They seemed lifeless compared to his earlier and better stories. But I was pleased by Jerry Pournelle's posthumous novel MAMELUKES. Admittedly, completed by Philip Pournelle and David Weber.
Ad astra! Sean
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