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Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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MANY SKIES: ALTERNATIVE HISTORIES OF THE SUN, MOON, PLANETS, AND STARS, by Arthur Upgren, Rutgers University Press, 2005 reviewed by Tom Hamilton Prof. Upgren is an astronomer, and retired director of Van Vleck Observatory. He presents us with a slim hardcover which looks at some really basic AHs--what if there were no Moon, if the Sun were a different type of star, or a member of a binary, triple, or cluster, etc. He even considers putting the Sun and Earth together well outside any galaxy. At one point he notes that if Mars and Venus were switched, they would both be more habitable (a debatable point for Mars, but certainly true for Venus). This book is not fiction, but a scientist's look at how our physical world could have been different, with a few suggestions on the effects this might have had on terrestrial life. His speculations could be applied to AHs starting way back in the past, or simply as inspiration for some interesting SF set away from our Earth.
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