Can we get rid of hyperspace? Very fast relativistic travel with a lot of time dilation and antiagathics back on Earth so that space travellers would be able to make multiple trips yet return to find their friends and acquaintances still alive back on Earth? But do we really need interstellar space travel or even space travel? Yes, at least some space tech within the Solar System.
Poul Anderson has both used cliches well and made original contributions. His hyperspace is not like anyone else's.
Original Contributions In After Doomsday
Interstellar explorers returning to find that all life on Earth has been killed.
Civilization clusters: The superlight drive, discovered either once or many times, has been distributed among intelligent species by explorers, traders etc. Although it is possible to traverse the galaxy, there are so many civilizations that space travellers usually interact with the closest. There is no empire or federation but there are many civilization clusters which tend to adopt a single lingua franca. A few explorers travel between civilization clusters or further afield.
In Tau Zero
A relativistic spaceships accelerates indefinitely until it outlasts the universe.
In World Without Stars
A civilization with unlimited lifespans and instantaneous interstellar jumps.
An expedition to a planetary system in intergalactic space.
In The Shield Of Time
A causality violation that results not from extratemporal interference but from a quantum fluctuation in space-time-energy.
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