In the post before that, we compared Anderson to Larry Niven and James Blish regarding faster than light interstellar travel.
We can also make the following comparisons -
Mary Shelley: the creation of life.
HG Wells: time travel to the future; Martian invasion; future society.
Olaf Stapledon: cosmic history.
Robert Heinlein: future history; immortality; generation ships; circular causality; magic as a technology.
Isaac Asimov: robots; a science of society; detective fiction.
James Blish: historical fiction; fantasy.
Hal Clement: extraterrestrial organisms.
Neil Gaiman: an inter-universal inn.
Nothing that we have not said before. Poul Anderson deserves to be promoted and not just by me. He was a visionary of the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. His values were freedom and diversity. He looked backward, forward and outward - to history, the future and the universe. We move forward with Andersonian vision, to learn about exo-planets and receding galaxies.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Jules Verne should also be listed because several of his works, such as FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON and 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, were prototypes of what came to be called hard science fiction. I agree with what you said about Anderson and his works in the last paragraph.\
Ad astra! Sean
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