Dancer in a red flowing dress performing with a fiery backdrop — AI art by @panos

panos

Thank you very much, Cayla. These stories are called "Planetary Romances" My image here is an illustration of one om my most favorite stories, from one of my most famous authors. (Story name and author are given in the title). I don't know if you have read it, so I won't go into spoliers here, in case you'll want to read it. I;ll just say it's taking place on Mars. Mars and Venus were the scene of almost all the Planetary Romanxes of the early-to-mid 20th century. Mars depicted as a semi-desert planet (but habitable) home of a dying race as per the theories of astronomer Percival Lowell of the late 19th century that grew deep roots in pop culture and were even more so after Wells's War of the Worlds and E.R. Burroughs "Barsoom" (i.e.Mars) stories. Venus was depicted - as per the scientific theories of the times - as a wet, misty, swampy, watery, always cloudy world, inhabited by huge dinosaur-like monsters. Space-probes that actually landed there, though, early-sixties, showed that

panos

...the reality was totally different: these were dead planets, inimical to human life. So, their use as locale for stories was now untenable and - allmost in one night - Planetary Romances got a change of scenery on other planets of other stars. Roger Zelazny, a young then, just starting author, having grown up with these stories, wrote two tales, one set on Mars (this one) and one set on Venus ("The Doors of his Mouth, the Lamps of his Face) using the now-obsolete depiction of them. It was a kind of farewell, Swan Song to those great, fantastic tales. They were hugely popular, winning awards, justly so. Well, that's it. I hope I wasn't TOO tiring....

panos

@CaylaCatz Yes, that was the reason... THEN (they wanted their stories to have SOME scientific verisimilitude) NOW, wtih retro-futurism and strampunk and all these, it's absolutely OK to write stories in THOSE versions of the planets!! Which is, of course, excellent imo. (There were two anthologies, about a decade back full of such stories: "Old Mars" and "Old Venus" great stuff! see if you can find them at the library) It's possible you have read some of Roger's "Amber" fantasy series, the most popular of his works -though for me it's his early (1960-1970) SF that are my favorites

CaylaCatz

No worries. I do know Roger but not those books. I'm not sure which of his series I read. He wrote a lot! It's interesting that history of how the changing view of mars/venus changed scifi. I didn't know that. I remember novels setting mars and venus that way but I hadn't realized that was why.

panos

Thank you very much, my friend. Yeah, it happens to all of us. EternaSky told me that means, the image has already gotten enough matchups befor you vote. I find his explanation reasonable

panos

It is indeed and I am very pleased, though, it is not a game, it is a science fiction story (title, author name, publication date are given in the image title)

CaylaCatz

Congratulations! Very cool! Makes me think of those Sword-and-Planet pulp novels in the 50s & 60s where someone goes back in time or to a planet with a Conan-like world.

JMN

You are very welcome. It's great that an image inspired by a genre you obviously hold dear is recognised by others just by style alone.

DavidP

Maybe one day I shall pick up one of his - for now, as you know Malazan and Wheel of Time keep me busy

panos

He has weitten fantasy, too. His Amber series is very famous