Friday 26 May 2017

From Mars

"...it was a blow, to be shown himself as alien as a castaway from Mars."
-Poul Anderson, Murder In Black Letter, Chapter 13.

"...alien..." and "...from Mars..." might remind us that:

Anderson is primarily an sf writer;
the idea of Martians exists in the minds of characters even in a contemporary novel;
even though such a novel usually avoids references to anything beyond Earth's atmosphere, the cosmic context of all life remains in the background. See here.

See also:

SF And Fantasy In A Detective Novel
Murder Bound, Chapters I-III
The Hadal Abysses
Cosmic And Historical Perspectives
Perish By The Sword

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Altho I seldom read much contemporary fiction set in the here and now (because of finding most of it boring) I don't recall much of what little I have read of such literature even mentioning SF. There does not seem to be much overlapping by these types of literature. Which makes the SF allusions you found in PA's detective novels all the more interesting!

Sean