Cirrus@Austlit

Having finished The Way Back, his follow-up to The Dark Dimensions, Chandler considers his next project. Topics include an earlier Rim Worlds novel, The Big Black Mark, and the lack of authenticity in many stories and films either set at sea or which use sea settings within the plot. In offering his opinion on the significant differences between the Poseidon Adventure novel and its film adaptation, along with Lawrence of Arabia (film), Chandler suggests that only authors of the calibre of Conrad and C. S. Forester were capable of writing truly authentic seafaring stories.

In the wake of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's expulsion from Russia in 1974, Chandler recalls some of his experiences with the country and its people, and in particular the response to several of his stories.

Inspired by Alvin Tofler's Future Shock, Chandler considers the current state and possible future regarding energy usage.