Friday 15 January 2016

Early Interstellar Travel II

(The first edition of Heinlein's Orphans Of The Sky.)

Here, I began to reflect on early interstellar travel in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History. Since then, I have profitably reread "The Troublemakers" as far as here.

Of the three lost FTL ships:

one became the first Nomad (see first link);

one founded a women only colony;

the crew of the third ship were stranded on an inhabited planet, as recounted in "Star Ship."

As I had suspected, the crew of the Star Ship in "Star Ship" are a small exploratory team, not the nucleus of a colony.

In the FTL period of the Psychotechnic History:

"Gypsy," "Star Ship" and "Virgin Planet" are a trilogy about lost starships;

"Teucan," "The Pirate" and The Peregrine are a trilogy about human-alien interactions;

"Star Ship" is also about human-alien interactions;

"The Acolytes" and "The Green Thumb" remain uncollected as yet;

"The Chapter Ends" is a far future culmination of mankind's conflicts with itself and its environment.

I must now return to SM Stirling's Draka History when I can establish how far I have read in The Stone Dogs.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And one interesting point I remember from "Star Ship" is how the descendants of the human crew which got stranded on the non human planet were becoming ASSIMILATED into the culture of the aliens they lived among. As quite inevitable, given the small number of humans.

Sean