Sunday 18 January 2015

Heinlein, Asimov, Blish And Niven

Like Robert Heinlein's Jetman Rhysling, Poul Anderson's Christian Brannock is a spacemen who writes and sings songs and plays an instrument.

Like Isaac Asimov's Powell and Donovan, he works with robots on Mercury and elsewhere in the Solar System.

Like James Blish's Robert Helmuth, he views another planet through a robot vehicle on its surface.

Finally, an astronaut and cyborg team explore Venus and Mercury in Larry Niven's Known Space future history.

Four future histories,conceptually linked. Science fiction always reflects the science of its period. Anderson's understanding of artificial intelligence and of places like the Mercurian surface is more sophisticated than that of his predecessors.

No comments: