Sunday, 21 November 2021

Mars And Dune

The Fleet Of Stars, 27.

"Kinna had dreamed of years to come when Mars would again be alive, waters sheen by day..." (p. 346)

In Frank Herbert's Dune, the Fremen, desert dwellers on Arrakis/Dune, want the planet to be transformed into a well-irrigated paradise but the Empire preserves the planet-wide desert as the source of the spice. Later in the series, Arrakis has been terraformed although a small area of desert is still preserved. Kinna and her fellow Martians are opposed by the Terrestrial cybercosm which, for unconvincing reasons, wants to limit human activity off Earth.

In Anderson's The Winter Of The World, Mars is green although astrologers say that it used to be red but that is in a different timeline.

4 comments:

S.M. Stirling said...

WINTER’s timeline probably has humans on a terraformed Mars. Going to be a bit of a shock in a century or so…

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!

Both: I remember that mention of a blue Mars in THE WINTER OF THE WORLD. Which has to mean that, before the Ice Age we see in WINTER, our civilization survived long enough to reach Mars and found a permanent colony there. Thus, over thousands of years, the colonists on Mars managed to terraform the planet. A great achievement!

I'm reminded as well of the novel written by Jerry Pournelle, Michael Flynn (and a third co-author) called FALLEN ANGELS, set in what looks like the early 21st century as another Ice Age began. The authors speculated a cooler than normal output of energy from the Sun triggered an ice age.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Larry Niven.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Thanks. I wasn't sure if Larry Niven was the third co-author of FALLEN ANGELS. And I think that novel would interest you. I've read it at least twice.

Ad astra! Sean