Land and Overland
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The Land and Overland trilogy is a group of three science fantasy novels by Bob Shaw.
The trilogy consists of the books The Ragged Astronauts (published 1986), The Wooden Spaceships (1988) and The Fugitive Worlds (1989). In the U.K, all three novels were originally published by Victor Gollancz(VGSF)
The setting for the trilogy is a pair of planets, Land and Overland, which orbit about a common center of gravity, close enough to each other that they share a common atmosphere.
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[edit] Plot
[edit] The Ragged Astronauts
In The Ragged Astronauts, the human population of Land travel to Overland via hot-air balloon to escape airborne creatures called the Ptertha. Shaw manages to deftly convey the intricacies of such a world, and in some regards could be regarded as a progenitor of the New Weird movement in British science fiction a decade later. It also, in its portrayal of a nascent developing technology, has elements of steampunk science fiction.
[edit] Translations
[edit] The Wooden Spaceships
In The Wooden Spaceships, conflict breaks out between the new inhabitants of Overland and those who stayed behind.( on Land The original inhabitants have developed an immunity to the ptertha, and intend to invade Overland. The inhabitants of Overland manage to defeat them by erecting a network of fortresses in low 'orbit' at the area where the two planets atmospheres meet. As bizarre as this summation of the plot appears, and given the allowance that disbelief must be suspended, Shaw does create an eminently plausible basis for the story, given that the wooden spaceships of the title are , literally made of wood ( albeit a super-hard alien wood called brakka which resembles metal in its properties).
[edit] Translations
[edit] The Fugitive Worlds
In The Fugitive Worlds, a strange object begins to approach the planets from outer space.
