Babel Clash

As Robin mentioned in her introductory post (hi, Robin!), one of the major things she and Sara Creasy (hi, Sara!) have in common is an affinity for lush, rainforest-esque settings, much like the Pacific Northwest.  One major difference between Robin & Sara’s novels, though, is how they get to those settings. 

Robin’s Rain Wilds is a war-torn world that her readers will remember from her Liveship Traders trilogy.  It is a natural world with as much character as any of her, well, characters.

Sara’s Scarabaeus isn’t naturally occurring.  In fact, her main character’s job is to take this harsh world and turn it into something habitable.  She is charged with terraforming alien worlds.

So despite the fact that I hated this phrase whenever my teachers used it (Isn’t the contrast implied in the very fact of comparison?  Why the redundancy?) let’s compare & contrast, ladies.  I’ve only scratched the surface.  How are your worlds different?  How are they similar?  What made you choose the worlds you wrote?

Related posts:

• From alternate histories to dragons & terraforming
  It’s almost time to pass the torch to a new pair of author guests.  Thanks, Taylor, you’ve been great!  Want to get in a last what-if post (or a plug for Destroyermen) before you sign off? Tomorrow, we’ll be joined by Robin Hobb, who has returned to the Rain Wilds in Dragon Keeper...
• Greetings from Robin Hobb
  Hi! This is my test post to see if I can make all this work. It’s not too different from my own website, robinhobb.com which is also a wordpress one. I’m Robin Hobb, and I’ve been a fantasy novelist for 28 years now. Well, a published novelist for 28 years....
• Time flies!
  It is almost time for Robin & Sara to wrap up their time on Babel Clash.  I don’t know about you guys, but I have really enjoyed their time here!  Excellent discussion, ladies!  Who knew that a conversation about setting would evolve into such a cool discussion of the practice...
• A few questions for Sara
  Because I haven’t known her long, and I’m always curious about what makes other writers tick! So, as a writer, characters always come first for me. A character strolls through my mind first, and if I’m lucky, he’s dragging a plot behind him. But many SF writers I know tell...
• Our settings, our selves?
  Hi Sara (and everyone else!) I had a curious thought (I know, sometimes it’s curious that I have thoughts at all, but still . . . ) I’m wondering how significant a writer’s home ’setting’ is to what he/she writes. I do a lot of foresty backdrops, and a lot...