Saturday, 15 August 2026

Comparisons And Future Histories

We have compared James Blish's "Bridge":

first, with Poul Anderson's "Call Me Joe" because both are about exploration of Jupiter remotely controlled from Jupiter V;

secondly, with "Nothing Succeeds Like Failure," the first story collected in Anderson's Tales Of The Flying Mountains, because both are about the discovery of antigravity despite resistance from political bureaucracy.

See also:

Humor

Humor II

Humor III

"Bridge" is part of Blish's major future history series whereas Tales Of The Flying Mountains is in itself one of Anderson's eight future histories, which in turn reminds us of their diversity, e.g.:

the Maurai History, set almost entirely on Earth and linked to past history by time travel;

the Kith History, two versions, the second version a single long novel showing millennia of societal and civilizational change on Earth;

the Rustum History, eight stories focused on a single extrasolar colony planet although one other story about one other such planet is also set in this timeline.

This has given me an idea for a post on James Blish Appreciation. I will link to it from here when it is published.

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