Book Review: The Book of Poul Anderson edited by Roger Elwood
Poul Anderson (1926-2001) was an influential American science fiction author, first published in 1947 and winning seven Hugos and three Nebulas for his work. By the 1970s, he was well enough known, and had a large enough body of short fiction, that DAW Books was able to put together an anthology dedicated to Mr. Anderson. It was originally titled “The Many Worlds of Poul Anderson”, but the paperback edition was retitled to match other author-tribute collections they’d done.
“Tomorrow’s Children” was Poul Anderson’s first published story. A few years after World War Three, a pilot returns from a scouting mission to what’s left of the United States government. The news isn’t good; there are scattered communities of survivors in areas that weren’t glassed by the nuclear bombs, but they’re struggling at best, and Europe is even worse off.
More importantly in the long run, there simply isn’t any place the radioactive fallout hasn’t gotten. No amount of isolation or eugenics is going to help, so humanity is just going to have to learn to love its mutant children. A grim tale that finds hope in endurance.
“The Queen of Air and Darkness” takes place on the colony world of Roland. Barbro Cullen’s young son has vanished during an expedition to the dark polar region of the planet. After a cursory search, the authorities have concluded the child wandered off on his own and died of starvation or exposure. Happens all the time, very sad, but we just don’t have the resources to keep looking for the body.
Mrs. Cullen, a widow, isn’t convinced. The outwayers have stories of mysterious beings who live in the wilderness, never proven but often talked of. What if her son, ludicrous as it sounds, was taken by them? Thus she has come to the only private detective on Roland, Eric Sherrinford.
Sherrinford, who has modeled himself after tales of a purported ancestor back on lost Earth, recognizes that the tales and songs of the outwayers bear a strong resemblance to stories of the Fair Folk. Even in places too exact a resemblance. So he agrees to accompany Mrs. Cullen on their own mission north.
Despite Sherrinford’s habit of giving informative lectures at the drop of a hat, it’s soon evident that he’s been holding back certain information from his companion. Which information, and why, becomes important at the climax of the story.
This long tale took home both a Hugo and a Nebula. The parts told from the perspective of the Queen’s people add to the fantasy feel, but are somewhat deceptive.
“Her Strong Enchantments Failing” by Patrick L. McGuire is a critical essay focusing on “The Queen of Air and Darkness” as a good example of Poul Anderson’s work, and talks both about its many strengths (worldbuilding, use of legends and poetry, sense of wonder) and a few flaws (infodumps in the form of lectures even when there would have been more natural ways to introduce the data.)
“Epilogue” is set billions of years in the future. What we would consider machine life has evolved to sentience. Some of the last survivors of the human race (who’ve timeskipped due to the way their faster than light drive malfunctioned) land on Earth, and the two parties spend most of the story in mutual incomprehension. Bad things happen, but the humans learn what they need to.
“The Longest Voyage” takes place on a world seeded by humans then reduced to primitivism ages ago. Now, a ship is attempting to circumnavigate the planet. The voyagers are startled to discover that the local country’s tales of a god fallen from the stars are true. Well, kind of true. The “god” is actually a human from the advanced galactic civilization whose ship malfunctioned and stranded him here.
The voyagers realize that the substance the visitor needs to repair his ship is one that’s known to them, and they have a very good idea of where to get it. But should they? It’s not as easy of a choice for the captain of the voyagers as you might at first think.
“Challenge and Response” by Sandra Miesel is another essay, this time looking at Anderson’s work to that date as a whole. She sees a theme in the work as mentioned in the essay title. Challenge is important to humanity, and response to that challenge, whether success or failure, keeps humans growing. There’s rather more to the essay than that, but I don’t want to replicate it.
Both this and the previous essay are well-sourced with good footnotes.
“Journeys End” takes us back to contemporary Earth. A telepath who thought he was alone discovered that somewhere there was another telepath, and now he has finally tracked her down. What will happen when their minds meet? Some interesting use of telepathy.
“A World Named Cleopatra” was written specifically for this collection. It’s less of a story than an exercise in worldbuilding. Mr. Anderson needed particular conditions for a setting, and created a planet that would satisfy those needs, which we examine from the solar system level downwards.
“The Sheriff of Canyon Gulch” co-written with Gordon R. Dickson, is the first of the Hoka stories. Alexander Jones finds himself stranded on the planet of teddy bear-like people who are very imaginative and skilled at mimicry. The previous human expedition left behind a number of Western books and films to help the Hoka develop their civilization and defend against the reptilian Slissii.
These materials were more exciting than accurate, which has caused some peculiarities in the new Hoka culture. For example, the title of Sheriff is given to the stupidest person in town–Alexander Jones soon finds himself appointed Sheriff. Can he redeem himself and save the Hoka?
This is silly stuff, but both Anderson and Dickson were solid science fiction writers, so the underpinnings are set up well. A nice touch is telling us about Jones’ civilization through a book that was in his survival pack instead of the survival gear that should have been included.
“Day of Burning” has a star turn supernova. There’s a planetary system a few light years away that would be a great place to make observations from, if a deal can be struck with the locals to build the necessary equipment (and shield the locals from dying when the supernova’s radiation hits them.)
Local politics makes this more difficult than it has to be, and one of the mercantile crewmembers gets abducted by the local equivalent of the Mafia. At the end, there’s an agreement, but that doesn’t mean that no suffering results.
Overall, a good selection of stories from the first half of Mr. Anderson’s career. It’s out of print, but should be easily tracked down in the finer used book stores, and most of the material has been printed in other anthologies. Recommended to science fiction fans.
