Past Descendents of Future Ancestors

Who was first to write of cultures we read, With their trans-galactic real estate greed? The Greeks were dreamers of heaven above Where the gods and their men fought wars for love. The Asian myths were clever old stories: Supernatural ancestral glories. The Mayan drawings fulfill that desire To dream of ships and men propelled by fire. The Saxons gave us warriors and more By wrath and raw maternal spiteful gore. Hawthorne and Rappaccini’s human bud Pollinated Shelley’s electric stud, But Wells was first to say it straight and plain: Perhaps to think we are alone is vain. Before that Verne took us down in a ship, And later Huxley’s World loosed brother’s grip. Now Ray Bradbury’s chronicles of Mars And Philip K’s Mars with cars and geek bars, Are “you must read” or “you just gotta see,” Like 2001: A Space Odessey. Asimov built up a firm Foundation For Herbert’s arid alien nation. Cult fans know Vance, Wilhelm and Bova, Too, But of Gloss or McElroy they ask “Who?” Not all writers have what Card has to show: Hugo-Nebula two years in a row! Seasoned are LeGuin and Michael Critchton; Deux maîtres dans le genre they write in.