What Readers Contribute

Readers' imaginations embellish fiction. Let us consider:

Poul Anderson

Neil Gaiman

CS Lewis

HG Wells

Poul Anderson Appreciation appreciates Anderson in the context of other fantasy and sf writers and indeed of literature in general.

When I reread that passage about Old Phoenix guests "...fully of small starlike sparkles..." (see here), I began to think that maybe I had seen those same beings in Gaiman's Inn of the Worlds' End. However, a check through The Sandman: Worlds' End confirmed that, although the hostess, who is Kali, deals with some non-human guests, they do not include such starlike sparklers.

Near the end of Anderson's A Stone In Heaven, Dominic Flandry and Chives would have died in space if Miriam Abrams had not disobeyed Flandry's orders and returned to rescue them. While drifting in space, Flandry reflected on his life. I had imagined Flandry as alone at this time. That seemed appropriate. However, Chives' silent presence is also appropriate. Stories exist in different versions, sometimes just in our heads.

When we had read to the end of CS Lewis' seventh and last Narnia book, my daughter said that she had seen an eighth Narnia book with Aslan and soldiers on the cover somewhere around the house and that we would read it when we found it but there was no hurry. The story continues...

When rereading The Time Machine, I expected the Time Traveller to see a black object flopping on a sandbank. Instead, he fancied that he saw such an object but then judged that he had been deceived and that the object was only a motionless rock. I thought that I had misremembered. Then, a page later, he sees it again and it is indeed moving. I was making the imaginative journey with the Time Traveller.