In the underwater settlement, there is:
"...a slow growth outward as men learned how to go deeper into cold and darkness and pressure." (II, pp. 140-141)
That sentence draws us into wanting to read and learn more. The opposite of space exploration: the oceans are not infinite but they are vast, enough to involve lifetimes and generations of explorers and colonists, a potential extra series. There was one short story by Wells, a companion to The First Men In The Moon and The Time Machine: three directions of exploration.
Meanwhile, other planets are also explored:
"Venus was already visible, low and pure on the dusking horizon." (p. 141)
"Pure as yourself, your evenstar shines above the sun-set."
-Poul Anderson, "Star of the Sea" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, December 2010), pp. 467-640 AT IV, p. 640.
"Ave Stella Maris!" (ibid.)
This is appropriate since Venus is the setting of the next instalment in the Psychotechnic History and we saw something of Mars in "Un-Man": a comprehensive future history series.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
In Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium that shining star was the Silmaril borne by Earendil when he was placed in the heavens as a star by the Valar.
Ad astra! Sean
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