his Old Phoenix multiverse;
his increasingly elaborate Time Patrol series;
his amalgamation of two series, about the Polesotechnic League and the Terran Empire, into a single long future history series.
The Kith trade between Earth and colonized planets but do not explore new planetary systems. Ricardo Nansen explores at Epsilon Eridani, then at 61 Cygni, and finds that everything is different on Earth after his second return. Then he embarks on a ten thousand year round trip so of course everything is going to be even more different after that. Thanks partly to the Kith, we are shown something of the changes on Earth during Nansen's third and longest absence. However, there is room for a novel about an explorer who departs for decades or centuries at a time and about what he finds on Earth each time he returns.
Kaor, Paul!
ReplyDeleteIt was a serious weakness, however, that Anderson had metals being vanishingly rare in the original Maurai stories. Even after the War of Judgment metals should still have been fairly common, even if more expensive in the following centuries. Anderson walked back from that idea in ORION SHALL RISE and simply had metals being more costly in THE WINTER OF THE WORLD, thousands of years after an Ice Age brought down our civilization.
Ad astra! Sean
Yup. I talked with Poul about that.
ReplyDeleteSee, the reason industrial-era metals production shifted from small, dispersed deposits of ore to huge, centralized deposits no matter how remote (eg., the Mesabi Range in northern Michigan or more recently in the Western Australian deserts) is economics.
It's -not- that the small, dispersed deposits were worked out. They're still about as prevalent as they were in 1700.
Big industrial smelting plants require -concentrated, huge- ore deposits because the cost of 'bulking' small deposits would be overwhelming.
But the -small- dispersed iron-smelting operations of preindustrial times could have gone on for 100,000 years or more.
So the post-industrial world would have plenty of iron. It would be more expensive (as iron was before the industrial revolution) but there would be plenty for knives, rifles, etc.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! And I liked how you had the survivors of the Change in your Emberverse books "mining" abandoned cars, refrigerators, washing machines, or just stainless steel tableware for metals. Sources like these would provide plenty of metals for many uses.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: yes, and would require less fuel than smelting ore.
ReplyDeleteKaor, Mr. Stirling!
ReplyDeleteThat would be esp. necessary when you keep in mind how few of the survivors of the Change would even know how to mine and smelt metals. Years would go by before anyone relearned such skills. All those abandoned cars and appliances would be a godsend!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: not to mention ferroconcrete buildings. Nice concrete, keeping the rebar from rusting!
ReplyDeleteKaor, Mr. Stirling!
ReplyDeleteHa, I agree! I did think of things like steel framed buildings, but my thought was that Survivors of the Change would focus on all those abandoned cars, appliances, and tableware first. More easily accessible than demolishing ferroconcrete buildings.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: yes, easily available stuff first. Then targets of increasing difficulty; eventually the costs would exceed those of smelting ore. In WINTER OF THE WORLD, the Rognaviki mine a city in the far north, dismantling steel frames.
ReplyDeleteKaor, Mr. Stirling!
ReplyDeleteExactly! Very likely decades would go by before post-Change successor states would need to resume mining and smelting.
And one reason Captain General Sidir was so eager to conquer the territory from Arvanneth to Roong for the Rahidian Empire was to get control of the metals in the latter (which I think was the site of ancient Chicago).
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: Yes, Chicago occurred to me too. Certainly enough skyscrapers -- they were invented there.
ReplyDeleteKaor, Mr. Stirling!
ReplyDeleteA bit surprised, skyscrapers invented in Chicago, not New York City.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: Chicago was more 'open' to new ideas at the time. They were -imitated- in NYC fairly quickly!
ReplyDeleteKaor, Mr. Stirling!
ReplyDeleteGot it! NYC was not always so dominant.
Ad astra! Sean