Ridenour And Nature

"Outpost of Empire."

John Ridenour climbs a hill and looks across trees that stretch to the horizon. Like other Poul Anderson characters, Manse Everard and Dominic Flandry, Ridenour reflects that nature is vigorous before civilization. He also sees that the local equivalent of grass is silvery-green and trilobed. Anderson never assumes that the ground cover on other planets will look exactly like Terrestrial grass. Film adaptations of his works will have to reflect this. We should see instantly that the characters are somewhere else.

There are many descriptive details:

leaves moving and murmuring in the breeze;

stars glistening in plum-dark sky;

distant snowpeaks;

sparkling dew;

sapphire blossoms.

Every planet is a world. I did not say that but Poul Anderson regularly reminds us of it.