Thursday 16 May 2013

Ace Double

A few more details that may be of interest about Poul Anderson's Ace Double comprising The Makeshift Rocket ("A Bicycle Built For Brew") and Un-Man and other novellas, the "others" being "Margin of Profit" and "The Live Coward." Anyone familiar with Anderson's works recognizes that "Un-Man" and "Margin of Profit" each belong to a different future history series but closer investigation reveals that "The Live Coward" also belongs to a series. It is one of three stories about Wing Alar of the Galactic League Patrol: neither the Polesotechnic League nor the Time Patrol but the League Patrol. These stories, of which two are in Kinship With The Stars, should form a single volume.

Rocket presents a fifth fictitious Martian race. (We had four before.) I think this fifth race is also in "Captive of the Centaurianess" but will confirm by rereading. Rocket also has gyro-gravitic asteroid colonization, familiar from The Flying Mountains.

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