(ii) People who have the benefit of anti-age treatment. This is discovered in the above two works. There are also antiagathics in James Blish's Cities In Flight, the antithanatic in Anderson's World Without Stars and boosterspice in Larry Niven's Known Space future history.
(iii) People who have a supernatural advantage. Rereading Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, we are reminded of Hob Gadling who tells his friends that death is stupid and that he wants nothing to do with it. Of course, Hob really has no say in the matter but he happens to be overheard by the anthropomorphic personifications of Dream and, more to the point, Death...
As ever, Poul Anderson appears more than once on the list. Hob Gadling and Anderson's Hanno live through history. Historical fiction combines both with fantasy and with sf.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And questions about immortality, aging, longevity, etc., are also important in JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth legendarium. Which we see in THE LORD OF THE RINGS, THE SILMARILLION, and other works and fragments posthumously pub. by his son Christopher Tolkien and Carl Hostetter (who ed. THE NATURE OF MIDDLE EARTH).
Ad astra! Sean
For an interesting commentary on immortality:
https://existentialcomics.com/comic/353
Kaor, Jim!
I fear I had low brow tastes in comic books! As a boy I liked best the comic books about Donald Duck and his Uncle Scrooge McDuck. Nothing so sophisticated as Existential comics!
Ad astra! Sean
I think 'sophisticated' is something that was extremely rare in comics until recently, when webcomics cut the cost of publishing stuff with small audiences.
Read graphic fiction by Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman.
Kaor, Jim!
Actually, I was being a bit droll at my own expense! And I still have my ancient Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck comics.
Ad astra! Sean
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