LAST UPDATE
12/31/24
Trader to the
Stars by Poul Anderson, Berkley, 1964
This
is a fix-up novel that consists of three long stories about Nicholas Van
Rijn. I never much cared for this series and the character is abhorrent.
The first involves figuring out which of the exhibits in an interstellar
ark is actually the crew. In the second, he makes a rather obvious
observation about a primitive alien society that was missed by a team of
scientists who spent years studying them. The stories are about average
for Anderson, but not among my favorites. 12/31/24
The Corridors of
Time by Poul Anderson, Lancer,
1966
I
disliked this when it first came out and liked it even less this time. A
man from our time is enlisted in a battle through time by two rival
groups. The motives for their war – history is unchangeable so it is not
that – is never made clear and their tactics do not seem to make any
sense to me. It was just an excuse for Anderson to tell a story set in a
different historical period. There is also entirely too much puerile
political rambling about the stupidity of seeking world peace, etc., and
a disturbing selection that the worth of a human being is determined by
genetics. The end really is not the end. Our hero decides which side he
is on, but the conflict continues. 12/31/24
Three
Worlds to Conquer by Poul Anderson, Pyramid, 1964
A
relatively minor Anderson novel in which reactionaries upset with a
change of government on Earth seize the colony on Ganymede and demand
that it build nuclear weapons for them. The colonists have been
communicating with Jovians, who are having a war of their own and the
stories alternates between the two conflicts. The protagonist manages to
come up with an inspiration that changes the balance of power on
Jupiter, and then destroys the warship menacing the colony by causing
another ship to collide with it. Okay, but the Jovians did not seem
like aliens to me. 12/21/24
Let the
Spacemen Beware by Poul Anderson, Ace, 1963
Aka
A Twelvemonth and a Day. And aka Night Face. A starship
is engaged in re-establishing contact with a lost colony whose
population seems to have some mystery kind of universal harmony. One of
the visitors suspects something is wrong, particularly when he learns
that many people disappear during a periodic religious festival. It
turns out that they have mutated and developed a reaction to a native
plant. When it pollinates, they all go murderously insane for a few
days, but when normality returns they cannot remember anything that
happened. 12/21/24
Agent of
the Terran Empire by Poul Anderson, Ace, 1979
The
novella previously published as We Claim These Stars dominates
this collection of Flandry stories. The others include an account of
Flandry’s first encounter with Aycharaych, his nemesis, and his
discovery that the alien can read his mind. The plot is a bit too
contrived in this case. The remaining two stories deal with efforts by
smaller powers to destabilize the empire. In one case, a near barbaric
space traveling race kidnaps Flandry, who manages to manipulate them
into a civil war. In the other, a human subject to the empire begins a
subtle plot to enhance his own power, but Flandry foils the plot and the
rebel dies. 12/12/24
Shield by Poul
Anderson, Berkley, 1963
The
story in this one is mostly a prolonged chase sequence interspersed with
lectures about various political points, usually oversimplified and with
a libertarian viewpoint. The hero has the prototype of a personal shield
that is impervious to everything except laser beams. It was invented by
the hero while working with Martians. The secret police of a repressive
American superstate are after him, as well as horde of Chinese agents
who want to overthrow the global hegemony. He is captured by a crimelord,
almost murdered by self professed liberals who are actually fascists,
eventually makes the details public, while providing an excuse for the
genuinely liberal President to stamp out the secret police. The long
lectures spoil this one. 12/12/24
Time and Stars
by Poul Anderson, MacFadden, 1965
Six
stories, the best of which by far is “No Truce with Kings.” A
post-apocalyptic state erupts into civil war over the question of
whether or not to conquer their neighbors. A secret group of aliens adds
a twist. The others include a humorous story about castaways that did
not work at all, a satire about literary fiction that obsesses a robot –
the story is rather mean spirited, a future Earth where machines have
evolved into a new ecology – this is a very good story, a routine
problem story about stranded astronauts, and a completely implausible
one about the discovery of a race of geniuses and the way humans prevent
them from becoming ascendant. 12/12/24
After Doomsday
by Poul Anderson, Ballantine, 1962
Aka
The Day After Doomsday. Earth has been destroyed by an unknown
alien race. Only a few hundred humans who happened to be out of the
solar system survived. There are three races who might be responsible,
one of which seems unlikely because of their friendly relations – which
automatically makes the reader suspect – correctly – that a faction of
that race is responsible. Two starships with substantial human crews are
out of the system. One carries only men, the other only women. They have
little chance of finding one another until the men come up with a new
form of military device that allows them to substantially affect the
outcome of an interplanetary war, with consequence publicity.
12/5/24
The Makeshift
Rocket by Poul Anderson, Ace, 1962
Aka
A Bicycle Built for Brew. Anderson was never very good at
prolonged humor but this is as close as he got to succeeding. A tramp
spaceship is quarantined as part of a political maneuver in a war
between terraformed asteroids. The engineer knows that he has a large
cargo of beer aboard and he uses the fermentation process to generate
enough energy to escape in a makeshift spaceship which he operates by
means of a bicycle’s equipment. Heavy handed accents and exaggerated
characters do not help. 12/5/24
Un-Man and Other
Novellas by Poul Anderson, Ace 1962
Despite
the title, two of the three stories in this collection are not novellas,
or even novelettes. The title story is the exception. It involves a
secret group of cloned secret agents who are trying to prevent various
nationalists from interfering with the formation of a world government.
The others two stories are “Margin of Profit,” in which Nicholas Van
Rijn finds a way to discourage a rogue race who have been enslaving
passing space travelers, and “The Live Coward,” in which an finds a way
to finesse an interstellar fugitive from a primitive kingdom with an
exaggerated sense of person honor. 12/5/24
Alibi by Sharon
Shinn, Fairwood Press, 2024, $19.99, ISBN 978-1-958880-25-8
I
am very fond of crossovers between science fiction and mystery novels,
which have to be well done to avoid cheating. Not surprisingly, Shinn
does not cheat. The protagonist becomes involved with a predatory
businessman whose son she has been hired to tutor. It becomes
increasingly difficult to avoid the father's unwelcome advances despite
her growing affection for one of his employees. Then the creep is
murdered. Our protagonist is in a distant city at the time of the
killing, so she should be home free, right? But the problem is that
teleportation machines are freely available and she had the code to
enter his home any time she wanted to. This is a solid and unpretentious
story that takes some extraordinary circumstances, fleshes is out with
the author's usual well described and realistic people, and then pursues
the story to its logical conclusion. 11/26/24
Twilight World
by Poul Anderson, Tor, 1983 (originally published in 1961)
This
is possibly Anderson’s least entertaining novel. It is set after a
nuclear war destroys most of civilization and mutations are on the rise.
The book consists of several incidents separated by years as humans
recreate governments, make the same mistakes, but find a new frontier
because some of the mutants are geniuses and develop interplanetary
space travel. Most of the book consists of arguments on various
philosophical subjects and there are only isolated and generally low key
scenes of violence. I was bored from beginning to end. 11/26/24
Orbit Unlimited
by Poul Anderson, Pyramid, 1961
Earth
is a repressive dictatorship with a small privileged class and a
downtrodden mass of people. Four stories – set at intervals in time –
describe the maneuvering to launch a colony on another planet, a crisis
en route when it appears Earth wants them to return, an accident in
orbit that might deprive them of the cargo they need to survive, and the
search for a wandering child who wanders off and gets lost. Frankly, the
two main characters are repulsive. One is a smug egotist who is
intolerant of disagreement and dictatorial with his family. The other is
an equally smug religious fundamentalist who does not seem to like much
of anyone. There are some additional stories in the series that
Anderson wrote later. 11/14/24
Mayday Orbit
by Poul Anderson, Ace, 1961
Aka
A Message in Secret. Dominic Flandry’s third outing is a visit to
an isolated planet with the usual repressive dictatorship. There has
been no direct contact with the Terran Empire in several centuries. The
colonists were descended from Mongols and largely live as nomads. He has
barely landed before he realizes that the alien Merseians are building a
base there. He has to escape and somehow convey a message back to the
Terran authorities without being detected by the locals, who would speed
up the project if they thought the empire might intervene. Fast paced
all the way through. I’m not sure I believe his solution would actually
have worked, but it makes a good story. 11/14/24
Strangers from
Earth by Poul Anderson, Ballantine, 1961
Eight
early short stories. The only robot on Earth is without a job. Colonists
on a distant planet succumb to an urge to return to space. An alien
stranded on Earth discovers that he can never go home. Rebels against a
repressive dictatorship prove to be just as bad. Nasty and resentful
colonists destroy the automated system that has turned Earth into a kind
of Utopia. A human hunts an intelligent Martian, but has the tables
turned on him in “Duel on Syrtis,” the best story in the collection, is
a hunting duel between a human and a Martian. There is a pretty good
story about interstellar intrigue, “Among Thieves,” as well.
11/3/24
The High Crusade
by Poul Anderson, MacFadden, 1960
One
of my favorite Anderson novels and the only one ever to be filmed. An
aggressive alien starship lands in 14th Century England and
is captured by a local ruler and his small army because the aliens no
longer know how to fight a non-technological war. They are tricked into
traveling to one of the aliens’ colony worlds, where they translate
their tactics so well that they end up conquering the entire planet. Not
always as realistic as it might have been, but always a lot of fun. The
plot never pauses for breath and the humans end up ruling a large
portion of the galaxy long before Earth ever develops starships of its
own. 10/24/24
The Mercy of Gods
by James S.A. Corey, Orbit, 2024
First
volume in a new series by the authors of the Expanse series, which I
enjoyed. This one, not so much. A human colony world - its origin is a
mystery - is invaded and taken over by a kind of intelligent alien
parasite which has already enslaved several other races. It plans to
enslave those humans which it finds helpful and kill off the rest. What
they did not realize is that humans are more tenacious than their
previous victims and the outcome is not going to be what they expected.
We don't see this yet, of course, but it is directly mentioned in the
foreshadowing. I might just have been in the wrong mood but the
characters were flat, the aliens rather pedestrian, and I never felt as
though I was not reading a story. 10/15/24
The Sunken City
by Tim Curran, Weirdhouse, 2023
This
very Lovecraftian thriller never really came to life for me. The premise
is that a sunken city is found under the ice, and it is still inhabited
by the weird looking race that built it, and which supposedly created
the human race. A team is sent to explore they city, which contains an
unknown power source that appears to be building toward some climax.
They have various encounters with the creatures, before their leader
takes the ultimate step of setting off a nuclear explosion. Some of the
encounters are surreal and it is not always clear what is real and what
is illusion. I never like that ambiguity unless it is really well done,
and it is not really well done here. The characters are largely
interchangeable and I didn’t care whether or not they survived. Some of
the descriptive sequences are very evocative. 10/9/24
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