HG Wells' Men Like Gods involves travel to an alternative Earth.
Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker presents multiple universes.
We have recently considered CS Lewis as occupying a pivotal position between Wells and Stapledon earlier in the twentieth century and Blish and Anderson later in the century.
Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia feature parallel universes.
In Lewis' Ransom Trilogy, Volume I, Ransom visits an inhabited Mars with a breathable atmosphere called Malacandra.
In Lewis' "Ministering Angels," other characters visit an uninhabited Mars with an unbreathable atmosphere.
In Lewis' "The Dark Tower," an acquaintance of Ransom visits an alternative Earth.
Thus, Malacandra and the more authentic Mars can be alternative versions of that planet in the multiverse.
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And there's ERB's stories set on the habitable Mars of his Barsoom series.
And I can see different writers handling similar concepts/ideas/tropes in different ways.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
ERB fitted his Barsoom, Amtor, Moon, Pellucidar, Africa and Poloda all into a single timeline.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Africa??? ERB tried to fit in even his Tarzan into a single timeline???
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Definitely. TARZAN AT THE EARTH'S CORE is both a Tarzan book and an Earth's Core/Pellucidar book. The Gridley Wave, an obscure radio wavelength, is used to communicate both with Barsoom and with Pellucidar. The first Venus/AMTOR book, PIRATES OF VENUS, begins with a reference to Tarzan's return from Pellucidar.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
That bemuses me! While I've read a few of ERB's Tarzan books as a boy, it was his Barsoom stories which appealed most to me, so I did not know of how he linked up his varied series.
I did read, too long ago, ERB's BEYOND 30, and two of his THE LAND TIME FORGOT books.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
BEYOND 30 and the Moon MAID Trilogy are alternative future timelines.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I definitely would like to reread BEYOND 30. And the very idea of a terrestroid Moon reminded me of Anderson's "Strange Bedfellows," where he examines the idea of just how the Moon could be made habitable in a shirt sleeve, open air way. A beautiful idea I love!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
In THE MOON MAID, the Moon, like Earth, is hollow. On the Moon, only the inside surface has an atmosphere and is inhabited.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I sit corrected! I thought ERB was assuming the Moon was like his Barsoom, having a breathable surface atmosphere.
Ad astra! Sean
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