I remember reading a duology of books where Mars and Venus were as people thought they were in the 1800s. Venus was swampy with dinosaurs and Mars was a desert world housing an ancient civilization. They were from the 90s or early 2000s. Does this ring a bell for anyone? Thanks.
Anthologies?
I think they were books by SM Stirling.
Yeah, Stirling wrote two novels: “In the Court of the Crimson Kings” and “The Sky People” about Venus
Yes! The books by SM Stirling were the ones I was thinking of. Had lost them in my move and was thinking of rebuying them.
Are they any good, in your opinion? Stirling creeps me out, but he’s entertaining.
The Mars one was good (didn’t read the Venus one - they are pretty independent as far as I can tell)
I might check them out. Was kind of curious when I saw them in the bookstore, but forgot about them till this thread.
There is in fact a short story tied to the novels in one of the anthologies I suggested:
Stirling later wrote a short story prequel, “Sword of Zar-Tu-Kan”, which was published in the 2013 anthology Old Mars
I’ve read the Venus one, and found it interesting. I’ll have to track down the Mars one.
I remember liking the Venus one. I am not 100% sure I read the Mars one. Unfortunately several of my books disappeared when I moved including those.
Some of Heinlein’s early stories had Venus as hot and swampy, with some reptilian lifeforms but no dinosaurs IIRC.
I don’t think this is what the OP is looking for, but the descriptions of Mars and Venus were also a big part of the proto steampunk RPG Space 1889.
The steampunk versions of Venus and Mars was exactly what those books were trying to emulate and as it happens I have the Space 1889 rule book just to read about the setting 