Anderson always conveys the sense of a real natural environment. Thus, from the balcony of a lodge on the southern continent of Varrak, Flandry:
"...saw a mountainside drop steeply down to green sun-flooded wilderness."
-Poul Anderson, "The Warriors from Nowhere" IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight of Terra (Riverdale, NY, March 2012), pp. 303-337 AT p. 306.
I suspect, although someone might say otherwise, that Chandler's place names are more like convenient labels for locations of plot actions. However, despite their superficial similarities, the two authors wrote completely different kinds of fiction even though both labelled "science fiction."
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
That's what I remember about Asimov's stories as well. I mean he very seldom wrote in striking backgrounds in his fictions that readers would find interesting. Maybe that's one reason why Chandler's stories did not "grab" me.
Ad astra! Sean
Chandler did have a planet settled by ex space pirates with three towns - Dunrobin, Dunrovin and Dunleavin...
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
It helps if a writer is able to coin interesting place names, but that would not be enough to make his stories interesting. E.g., despite its weaknesses I still enjoy reading ERB's Barsoom novels.
Ad astra! Sean
What gives a setting vividness is not only the skill with which it is created, but the degree to which the writer -- at a level below conscious decision -- actually 'believes' in it.
R.E. Howard's fantasy settings are a historical pastiche on one level; medieval France, Imperial Rome and Ancient Egypt all coexisting with Spanish Main pirates and Mongols and Bedouin.
But at another level, they have a ferocious power, because deep down Howard, while writing them, believed in them.
Poul's work is more skillfully crafted, but he also tapped into some of Howard's raw power.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree! And that's why fans can be so passionate about the works of ERB, Howard, Tolkien, Anderson, or your own Draka/Emberverse series.
Ad astra! Sean
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