Reading SM Stirling's
Lords Of Creation series made me consider writing a post about Mars and Martians in works of sf, including, of course, those of Poul Anderson, but that is a big subject and maybe we have done it before? Consequently, I searched the blog specifically for the phrase "composite Mars" because I had remembered that two authors, Larry Niven and Alan Moore, had each constructed a Mars inhabited by a small number of the Martian races already created by other authors. (Moore has Gulliver Jones and John Carter watching the Wellsian Martians departing to invade Earth etc.) The
search result was beyond my imaginings and makes me want to regard the matter as having been adequately addressed at least for the time being!
In fact, see also the blog search result for:
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
While I have a preference for Stirling's IN THE COURTS OF THE CRIMSON KINGS, I still have a great liking for THE SKY PEOPLE. I loved the idea of a habitable Venus--and I believe that it can be possible, terraforming Venus. Jerry Pournelle wrote a long article in the 1970's discussing how that could be using even 1970's tech. It's my belief that essay is still relevant and should be studied, with current tech in mind, for how to begin that terraforming of Venus. This article, titled "The Big Rain" (a homage to Anderson's story of the same name) can most conveniently be found in a collection of Pournelle's shorter works called A STEP FARTHER OUT (Ace: 1979, 1980).
I would not be surprised to find out Stirling studied Pournelle's article for tips on how to make the humanly habitable Venus of THE SKY PEOPLE scientifically possible. I also think the title of that book was a homage to both Anderson's Maurai story of the same name and Pournele's essay.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: Yup, to all.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Ha, I thought so! I loved the dinosaurs we see in THE SKY PEOPLE. And I have a weakness for the Neanderthals, albeit I think real ones were not as "beast man like" as seen in the book.
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