![]() “Green Mars”, Kim Stanley Robinson - According to The Science Fiction Encyclopedia, this was Robinson’s first work in his series about transforming Mars into a habitable world via terraforming. The sadness of Howard Falcon, a cyborg alienated from the worlds of man and the future machines that will explore space, was nicely done, but, since it was an element only revealed at story’s end, not of major emotional impact. I liked this story for its emphasis on lighter than air technology – first, the Queen Elizabeth dirigible and then an exploration of Jupiter’s atmosphere and evoking the wonders of place by such simple (and hard sf techniques) as stating that sound octaves are shifted upward due to the composition of Jupiter’s atmosphere third, I liked Clarke mentioning (and he is fascinated by unexplained phenomena, particularly having to do with the sea) the mystery of spinning wheels – the so-called “Wheels of Poseidon” – and translating the mystery to Jupiter (and giving an explanation). Both works evoke emotions (more so in Hard Landing) and a sense of place and wonder (definitely more the case with this story) with sparse prose which merely seeks to sketch action and place yet still evokes more. ![]() ![]() It reminds me of another work that won a novel – Algis Budrys Hard Landing. ![]() ![]() My reactions to reading these two novellas in 1994. ![]()
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