Sunday 6 July 2014

Lodestar II

A point I missed on Ythri:

underfoot, a red carpet unlike either grass or moss;
but the Ythrian equivalent of grass;
later in the History, imported to Ythrian areas of Avalon as grass and clover are to human areas, whereas uncultivated areas retain their native ecology;
not something every sf writer would think of;
but necessary for verisimilitude when imagining other planets in living detail.

But now we are in an Ythrian spaceship in "Lodestar." Ythrians, unlike human beings, need an otherwise extravagant viewport in a corridor. Sky dwellers cannot be enclosed in metal and remain sane. Anderson, having created the Ythrians, deduces that in this way their spacecraft would have to differ from those of other species.

And, since it is now 01.03 on this part of Earth, I will temporarily suspend my reflections on the Ythrians.

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