Feeling Naked on Titan Response

by Dylan
(Illinois, Wisconsin )

I must say, this addition excited me deeply! A NOSS story which exists on the border between NSS and OSS, which keeps the spirit of the OSS alive - well, it sounds like my kind of book. I'm a firm beleiver that the spirit of the OSS is the important thing, and any excuse to keep it alive is good by me.

I suppose we ought to add it to our NOSS list!

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Apr 09, 2016
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starstarstarstarstar 		1960's eh?
by: Dylan

I'd say you're right, it is most decidedly OSS; although based on your description, it sounds like OSS with a NSS feel. Does it have a tone like Arthur C. Clarke, or more Poul Anderson?

I know I mention them with frequency, but the "Lords of Creation" books have a NSS feel to them, while fitting nicely into the OSS. This is mostly because the astronomy and space travel are all realistic, the key difference being that Venus and Mars are habitable, and even that is explained with science that most SF readers today wouldn't have any trouble accepting.

I think books like Mr. Blish's are important, for their NSS flavor gives them an advantage other OSS books might sometimes lack: they might be easier to digest for SF fans who, up to the point of reading them, haven't discovered the treasure that is the OSS. They might serve as a gateway drug, so to speak, to help expand appreciation for this wonderful subgenre.
[Response from Zendexor re the tone of the Blish story: Blish's style is not serene like that of Clarke, nor a vigorous straightforward narrative like Anderson's; it is knotty and allusive, a sophisticated, intellectually reflective twining of the author's thought around the trellis of his plot. Yet if you can give into it, it can be an easy read. OSS with an NSS feel, as you say.]
Apr 03, 2016
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starstarstarstarstar 		NOSS or just plain OSS?
by: Zendexor

I was wondering about that, myself - what subgenre in which to put the Blish story. Maybe because of its date (1966, nearly a decade and a half before Voyager reached Saturn) it could squeeze into OSS...

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