-James Blish, The Triumph of Time IN Blish, Cities In Flight (London, 1981), pp. 466-596 AT CHAPTER THREE, p. 508.
Sf is often interstellar but not often intergalactic. I remembered only that Blish's character, John Amalfi, had identified the next galaxy beyond the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy by a number. I had to check whether it was the same one that is mentioned by Poul Anderson's Hugh Valland:
"'Beyond this galaxy? Like M 31?'"
-World Without Stars, II, p. 12 -
- but it is not.
In any case, both sets of characters have no problem about hopping to other galaxies which are usually described as unreachable in Anderson's Technic History.
Two parallels between Anderson's World Without Stars and his "High Treason":
the viewpoint character of "High Treason" narrates by thinking into a psychograph and Valland's prospective employer can consult his psychograph;
in "High Treason," a Cosmocorps Colonel has comets on his shoulders and Valland has "The comets of a Master's rating..." (p. 10) on his shoulders - and are comets on shoulders a sign of rank in the Terran Navy in the Technic History? (I am too indolent to look it up right now.)
We notice some of these parallels only if we have read or reread the relevant works in quick succession. They occupy a common imaginative space.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Even the satellite galaxies we call the Magellanic Clouds would be too far for all but the most determined explorers/refugees/settlers to attempt reaching using the hyperdrive of the Technic stories. IIRC, David Birr estimated years ago, using what was known of Technic FTL, that it would need 30 years to reach the Clouds.
And that was far more realistic, IMO, than the kind of FTL seen in WORLD WITHOUT STARS, where it was apparently easy to quickly go from galaxy to galaxy.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
A ship makes an instantaneous jump but first it must match the relative velocity of the planetary system that it is aiming for. That takes time.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And that makes for a more realistic touch.
Ad astra! Sean
As I noted in a comment on another post about "World Without Stars":
It would make more sense to me to jump to a point close (by astronomical standards) to the destination planet that the planet is moving toward, and adjust the relative velocity after the jump, so you get to zero relative velocity when you get close to the planet.
However, that would mean the near disaster early in the story doesn't happen, and Poul isn't able to write the story he wanted to.
Kaor, Jim!
Also, we have to allow for accidents, mistakes, errors in calculations, etc., sometimes happening.
Ad astra! Sean
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