At least three further points:
(i) On the beach, Wanda Tamberly questions reality. We addressed this issue in four previous posts.
(ii) In the Time Traveller's "Further Vision," he travels ever futureward on a desolate beach towards the end of life over thirty million years hence before returning to his old familiar laboratory.
(iii) A praised sf novel that I have never read is Dinosaur Beach by Keith Laumer so I have just ordered a copy on eBay. I expect that we will compare it with Poul Anderson's Time Patrol.
Beaches have become a sub-theme. See also:
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I fear I was never into "nature" the way Anderson was. Being just a city boy--but I can still appreciate nature to some extent.
Ad astra!
Note that when H.G. Wells wrote his time traveller story, physicists agreed that the universe was much younger than we know it is, and that it would end much sooner than we know it will.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I think I first came across that reading Asimov's book THE UNIVERSE in 1971. It took such a long time for astronomers and physicists to grasp how old and vast the cosmos is--and not everybody, even now, likes/accepts that.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: and we're still discovering things. Recently there's evidence that the expansion of the universe is slowing down, and will reverse itself -- no entropic death, but a collapse into a monobloc again.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And that would vindicate the cosmology Anderson used for TAU ZERO.
Another tidbit: Elon Musk/SpaceX plan to send at least two superheavy
Starships to Mars in March of 2026! Not manned, they will be used to test how the latest iteration of Starship will do, to find out what works and what does not. Hopefully, the first manned expedition will be sent to Barsoom in 2030.
This is truly exciting!
Ad astra! Sean
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: yup, we're finally getting the future SF predicted.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
At long, too endlessly long last!!! I was also reminded of the somewhat analogous situation in your THE STONE DOGS. That is, both the Alliance for Democracy and the Domination of the Draka were rapidly developing space travel and off Earth colonization by the 1990's of the Draka timeline. I've long wished something similar had happened in our 1990's. Yes, I realize mutual fear, hatred, and rivalry was a big motivator for what we see in that book.
Ad astra! Sean
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