I have read Hal Clement's Mission Of Gravity only once decades ago so I can only say that I think and strongly suspect that Poul Anderson's fictional planetary environments are more detailed and substantial than Clement's? Correct me if I am wrong.
An author planning a new novel exercises complete creative freedom. A novel about a planet like Ramnu could have been a one-off, non-series affair. It need not have been a late instalment of Anderson's Technic History although we are glad that it is.
Sound narrative moves by Anderson:
our hero is still Dominic Flandry, now a Vice Admiral;
our heroine is Max Abrams' daughter;
our villain is the current Grand Duke of Hermes;
Miriam Abrams stays with the Runebergs in Starfall;
the Emperor is a son of Hans, hostile to Flandry;
Chives is visibly aged;
we really think that Flandry and Chives will die in space - but they don't;
Flandry at last settles down with someone, Miriam;
"They walked on into the autumn." (XIV, p. 188)
All those names and surnames mean something if we have read the Technic History to date. A future history series has a cumulative effect.
3 comments:
"fictional planetary environments are more detailed and substantial"
I think Anderson & Clement are roughly equal there. I think Anderson does better at creating interesting characters to do things in those environments. Both humans and speculating about how non-human intelligences might think *differently*. For the latter, Barlennan in Mission of Gravity is an interesting character, but thinks a bit too much like a human.
My memory of MISSION OF GRAVITY is of something rather colourless but clearly it is my memory that is at fault after all this time.
Kaor, Jim!
I'm inclined to agree, Anderson was better than Clement at depicting characters.
Ad astra! Sean
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