Poul Anderson's Tales Of The Flying Mountains is a single-volume future history about people living on terraformed asteroids thanks to gyrogravitics, a technology not possessed by Heinlein's characters - who do gain control of gravity in one story set on Earth although this technology is not mentioned subsequently and later interstellar craft are spun to simulate gravity. A technology lost during the Interregnum of Volume III?
Interstellar travel has begun at the beginning of Tales Of The Flying Mountains. Indeed, it is the travellers themselves who review their asteroidal history for their own benefit and, of course, for ours.
There, if you want it, is a partial comparison between Heinlein's Future History and one of Anderson's eight future histories before I turn in for the night, looking forward to a morning of gardening. Good night.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Even if knowledge of gravity control was lost during that Heinleinian dark age, there should have been enough surviving hints about it for later generations to rediscover it. And thus, no need for complications like spinning spaceships to simulate gravity.
I think it should be stressed we see the beginning of STL interstellar travel at the end of TALES OF THE FLYING MOUNTAINS. Not, alas, FTL.
Gardening is one of the two passions of the British! The other being their love for dogs. Have fun!
Ad astra! Sean
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