The Last Planet

The last planet explored by Laure in the Cloud Universe:

unlike the others, it has an atmosphere - thin, mainly noble gases;

he wants to check element distribution on the surface;

the charged ionosphere prevents him from radioing the orbiting Jaccavrie;

nebular friction causes the planet to spiral towards its primary;

surface temperature is about 50 degrees Centigrade;

very little water;

large red dust storms;

a fiery ring of refracted light;

a jumbled plain;

chaotic terrain;

bare mountains;

gleaming black and brown rock;

deep purple sky;

hard ground;

1.22 Gs caused by planetary density;

strong wind;

high radiation;

heavy metals and radioactives -

- suddenly an exploding sky. Our old friend, the lethal unexpected.

As on Satan and Mirkheim, Poul Anderson creates drama in an uninhabited and uninhabitable environment.

Lochlann

While on Gwydion, Raven, a Commandant of the Oakenshaw Ethnos in the Windhome Mountains on Lochlann, remembers his home planet:

red sun;
sheer mountains;
incessant winds;
gnarled, dwarfed trees;
moorlands;
ice plains;
salt oceans too dense for bodies to sink;
a peasant's house with a rope holding the roof against the gales;
his father's castle above a glacier;
hoofs in the courtyard;
bandits;
burned villages;
dead men;
smashed cannon.

Oh well, let's hope humanity does spread among the stars even if it takes burned villages and smashed cannon with it.