Monday 1 April 2013

Connections

The previous post, "Cadet Loftus And Ensign Flandry," (here) connects with "Parallel Blogs" on the James Blish Appreciation blog. I mention this because there are still consistently more page views here than there. I am currently considering Anderson and Blish in parallel. Both successors of Robert Heinlein, they nevertheless have more in common with each other than with their distinguished predecessor.

For many posts, I was content to remain with Anderson's pasts: his historical novels, historical fantasies and retellings of myths and legends. Having reread this entire long series as I think of it, although really it is several different works, I returned to his futuristic hard sf, finding there a close parallel with Blish. Consequently, I started to reread the latter, then to post more frequently on the appropriate blog. This will continue for a while.

I hope that blog viewers who want to read about Anderson will continue to find previous posts here of interest and will also check out James Blish Appreciation.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

Hmmm, "extinguished predecessor"? Don't you mean Robert Heinlein was the DISTINGUISHED predecessor of Poul Anderson and James Blish? To say nothing, of course, of how Heinlein outlived Blish by some 13 years.

More seriously, I have been reading your recent notes on the Blish blog. And found them interesting.

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Ok, I'll change it. I let the mistake, "extinguished" instead of "distinguished", stand for a while because I thought it was kind of appropriate to Heinlein's later decline. But it is rather disrespectful.

Poul Anderson Appreciation remains the most viewed of these blogs but that might chance if I stop posting regularly for a while.

We look forward to MULTIVERSE.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

Well, it is fair to say that, in a sense, Heinlein's genius did become "extinguished" after pub. STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, marking the beginning of his woeful decline as a writer. The latest Heinlein novel I would recommend, with some reservations, to readers being THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS.

And I'm very impatient to get that copy of MULTIVERSE which I preorderd over a year ago! I'm anxious to see how other writers handled Dominic Flandry, Nicholas van Rijn, Holger Danske, etc. I'm getting a wee bit peeved at George R.R. Martin, due to Subterranean Press needing to wait for his contribution.

Sean