The Wikipedia article on Epsilon Eridani informs us that:
Epsilon Eridani appears in science fiction stories and has been suggested as a destination for interstellar travel.[28]
Maybe Poul Anderson intended to acknowledge previous works of sf that had featured Epsilon Eridani while also differentiating this new work of his from them?
After returning from a relativistic interstellar round trip, Joshua Coffin says:
"We expected to return to the Astronautic Society, at least, our own spacemen's nation within the nations - do you understand that? But the Society was so dwindled.'" (p. 18)
- and:
"'...I'd have to marry within the Society. I couldn't find a decent home life anywhere else -'" (p. 21)
So the Society might have become like the Kith if this history had gone differently.
After eighty-seven years, Coffin has returned to:
"'...the people and mores changed almost beyond recognition.'" (pp. 17-18)
One long sf novel could show a relativistic spaceship making two circuits of several extra-solar colonies, beginning and ending on Earth with Earth also at the mid-point of the novel. Such a narrative would show social change on each of these several planets. The same theme could be covered, although just on Earth, with a futureward time traveler stopping once every century or a Wellsian Sleeper waking up once every century.
2 comments:
The last 88 years have certainly seen great changes. Someone who left, say, Germany or China in 1934 and returned in 2022 would have a lot to contend with!
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And an even sharper contrast could be drawn comparing the Russia of 1914 to the Russia of today. In almost every way the 1914 Russia was better off than the menacing but shambolic wreck we see now!
Ad astra! Sean
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