Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. One of the things I’m thankful for today is Poul Anderson (1926-2001). It being his birthday (November 25), and all.
For today’s post, a few days ago I had decided to review Anderson’s “Son of the Sword”. It’s a straight historical adventure set in Egypt. Anderson did from time to time write historical adventure without any fantastic elements. This is one of those stories.
I didn’t do my due diligence on this one. “Son of the Sword” was originally published in 1951 in Adventure Magazine. The only reprinting was in A Light in the Void, back in 1991. It was this book where I read it. The copyright page in the book didn’t give any further detail than what I stated above, and the ISFDB on lists A Light in the Void under the story’s publication history. If I had realized that, I would have found a different story to feature today.
This novella is an early work, so it lacks some of the polish of Anderson’s later writings. It’s still worth reading.
The lost revolves around the Egyptian princess Akhsenamen. She’s the daughter of Akhnaton and Nefertiti, and the sister and wife of Tutankhamen. As the story opens, Tut has just been buried, and the princess is in fear of her life. Her father had removed the priests of Amen from their position of power and tried to convert Egypt to monotheism. But Akhnaton is dead, and so it Tut. Akhsenamen rightly expects to be killed in such a way as to make the assassination look like natural causes.
Her one loyal servant hires a Cretan trader and sometime pirate, Thoas, to her her escape to Cyprus. The story is a straightforward tale of rescue and escape, with a dash of romance thrown in.
This story is very much a product of its time. That’s not a bad thing. The 1950s saw a number of sword and sandal epics come to the big screen, and publishing tried to cash in on the trend. “Son of the Sword” fits very much into this mold. While it’s not one of Anderson’s best, it is worth a read. If you can track down a copy.
I read a collection of Anderson’s stories not to long ago, The Dark Between the Stars. The back cover suggested that they were a sci-fi/horror hybrid, but really they were just sci-fi though with some shocking ideas. The one exception would probably be Night Piece about a scientist who enhances his ESP and discovers a sinister world coexisting with ours. It is somewhat Lovecraftian.
When I was school boy I got a collection of science fiction stories
And one of writers was Poul Anderson with Time Patrol so I read it and was impressed
Later I remember I read it again and again
It left good memory
I have that one but haven’t read it yet.
The more I read Poul Anderson, the more impressed I am with everything he wrote*. Even his pulpiest fiction has stuff “in the background”, like that Virgin of Valkarion is set on ancient Mars. Although I am not sure who the virgin was, so perhaps thats an error.
The main issue with trying to read everything he wrote, is that there is just so much of it! I have pretty much managed to read everything Vance (albeit with the aid of Spatterlight Press) but I keep finding new bits of Poul Anderson here and there.
*Except I remember not liking the Boat of a Million Years when I read it 20-odd years ago.