Tag Archives: Poul Anderson

H. Beam Piper

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Today, March 23, is the birthday of H. Beam Piper (1904-1964). Piper was one of  John W. Campbell’s stable of authors from the late 1940s until his death.

Piper wrote two major series. The first is the Paratime Police, consisting of a collection of shorter works (collected in Paratime!) and the novel Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen. As you can probably tell from the series title, it concerns an organization dedicated to preserving the timeline across multiple dimensions.

The seond series is sometimes called the Terro-Human Future History. This series contains much of Piper’s best known works, including the Fuzzy books and the novel Space Viking, as well as a few lesser-known novels and a number of shorter works. It was by reading Piper when I was in high school, that I really got interested in knowing more history.

Piper wasn’t the only author who ignited my interest in history. The other was Poul Anderson. Continue reading →

I’m Thankful for Poul Anderson

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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. Continue reading →

Catching Up I: Catching up on the Classics

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So lately I’ve been catching up on some of my TBR pile, or in many cases by TBRR (to be reread) pile. There’s not a huge amount of new fantasy and science fiction being published these days that appeals to me. There’s some, just not a lot. I went to B&N last night and left without buying anything.

I’ve been spending a good deal of this year trying to get caught up on books that fall into two broad (and occasionally overlapping) categories, classics of the field and series I’ve either started but not finished/series I’ve bought but not started at all. Many of the latter haven’t been finished because I started them when they were only one book and never worked later books in. Then there are the stand-alones I got distracted while reading and haven’t finished yet. So I guess there are three categories.

The focus of this post is what would be considered classics in both the science fiction and fantasy fields. Much of my catch-up reading has been science fiction the last half year or so.  Not all of it has been titles I’d not read. Some of it has been rereading things I read so long ago but have little to no memory of now. I’ll list a few things I’ve been reading and then solicit suggestions. Continue reading →

Happy Birthday, Poul Anderson

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Today, November 25, is the birthday of Poul Anderson (1926-2001). Anderson was a master of both fantasy and science fiction.  I’ll have a review of some of his sf going up at Futures Past and Present in a day or so.

The quote above is one I hadn’t seen before getting ready to work on this post. It is a perfect encapsulation of Anderson’s work. He was always entertaining, first and foremost.  And what he’s saying there is spot on. There’s too much dull message fiction being published these days, where the message is more important that the entertainment.

So if you want entertainment, in either science fiction or fantasy, check out some Poul Anderson.

Poul Anderson’s Birthday, Belated

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Yesterday, November 25, was Poul Anderson’s 92nd birthday.  I was traveling and didn’t get a chance to post anything.

This year I want to briefly mention to of his fantasy novels.  The first is The Broken Sword.  I read this one a few years ago, back when I was doing the posts on the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series over at Black Gate.  For the most part, I was reading the series in order of publication, and The Broken Sword was the next on the list.  For a number of reasons, not the least of which was time, I never wrote the post.

I’ve thought from time to time about restarting those posts here, but time constraints aside, it would just be too much like work.

I do intend to reread The Broken Sword next year and blog about it here.  When exactly that will happen, I don’t know.  Things should slow down, as the faculty members who have been out with health problems this semester will be back, meaning I won’t be teaching the load I’ve had this semester.  On the other claw, I’ve just been added to two committees by the new department chair, so I hesitate to make any predictions or commitments I might not be able to keep.

I will say that I really enjoyed The Broken Sword, although I found it to be quite dark.  Since it’s inspiration was Norse legend, that was quite fitting.  It’s got that tragic tone to it that’s found in so much of the Northern folklore.  I’m looking forward to reading it again.

The other work is one I don’t know a whole lot about and haven’t read.  It’s Three Hearts and Three Lions.  This is another fantasy, one in which, a modern man finds himself in medieval times or at least a medieval world in which the creatures of fantasy are real and magic works.  What little I’ve heard about it has been positive.  It’s another one I’m looking forward to reading.

Anderson also wrote some other novels and short stories set in the viking era.  I’ll try to work those in as I can.

 

C. L. Moore Channels Brackett and Howard

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“There Shall Be Darkness”
Miracle in Three Dimensions
Isle Press
Trade Paper, $16.95
Original publication, Astounding, February 1942

I meant to have this review posted a few days ago, but Real Life got in the way. (I am legally prohibited from discussing the situation; its a personnel matter.) I just finished reading the story a little while ago.

It’s definitely a blend of Brackett setting and Howardian themes. James Douglas, AKA Jamie, is the commander of the Earth forces on the planet Venus. There’s some indication this may taken place in the future of the Northwest Smith series. In the first scene, Jamie comes in and asks for segir whiskey, the preferred drink of Northwest Smith. If it is the same future, it’s much later along the timeline.

You can’t blame him for wanting a drink. He’s in a bad situation. He’s just received his orders to evacuate Venus. The Empire of Earth is falling. Barbarians, the less developed races in the solar system in this instance, have conquered Mars and are in the process of invading Earth. There are overtones of ancient Rome in this setup. Jamie’s Venusian lover, Quanna, begs him to take her to Earth. He refuses, so she takes matters into her own hands.

Jamie is dealing with an outlaw chieftain, Vastari, who is the only person who can unite the squabbling Venusian tribes into a single unit. Vastari sees himself as a freedom fighter, a soldier struggling to throw off the yoke of tyranny. He’s also Quanna’s brother. Jamie thinks she’s a loyal lover. Vastari thinks she’s a loyal spy. Quanna is only loyal to herself. Continue reading →

Cross Genre-ing

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I got into a conversation on Twitter this morning with PC Bushi that grew to include several other individuals. Mr. Bushi initiated things by saying Leigh Brackett’s short story “The Woamn From Altair” demonstrated her range as a writer because it was a well-written story that wasn’t an adventure story.  I agreed. (If you’re interested, my review from a couple of years ago is here.)

Early in the course of the conversation, he linked to a post he had written about Jack Vance and Andre Norton, discussing their versatility as writers.  He says some good stuff, and you should check it out.

The conversation moved onto to all the genres Brackett wrote in.  In addition to space opera and science fiction, she also wrote detective stories (which is what got her the job writing for Howard Hawks on The Big Sleep) and westerns. This discussion got me to thinking… Continue reading →

Poul Anderson at 90

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Poul_AndersonPoul Anderson was born on this date, November 25, in 1926.  He passed away in 2001.  It’s hard to believe that he’s been gone that long.

Anderson was best known for his science fiction, but he was also an accomplished fantasy author.  I debated whether to post this tribute over at Futures Past and Present, but decided to go with the main blog.

It’s hard to go wrong with Anderson.  I grew up reading his future history and from there branched out to his other works.  In more recent years, I’ve read mostly his fantasy.

Unfortunately I’ve not read much of his work in recent years.  Too many other things demanding my attention.  The last thing I read by him was The Broken Sword.  It had been part of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, and I had been intending the review to be my next post in my look at that line for Black Gate.  Life got in the way, and I had to let some things drop.  The BAF series of posts was one of them.  Enough time has passed that I would need to reread the book before I reviewed it.  Too many details have faded.  Another project for a different day.

If you’ve not read Anderson, or not read much of his work, or not read him in a while (this would be me), do yourself a favor and check him out.  He was one of the giants of the field, and it’s a shame that he may be forgotten by the younger generation.  Much of his work is available in inexpensive ebook editions.  NESFA Press has a series of his collected short fiction available in hardcover (in case anyone was wondering what to get me for Christmas).

In the Deep and Dark December

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[cue Simon and Garfunkle]

I’m not a huge Simon and Grafunkle fan, but I couldn’t help but steal the title of this post from “I am a Rock”.  Here are my reading/writing/blogging plans for the last month of the year.

Leigh Brackett

Leigh Brackett

The big thing is that Leigh Brackett’s birthday is next Monday, December 7.  It’s her centennial, and I’ll be focusing a lot on her work this month.  I’m not the only one.  Howard Andrew Jones and Bill Ward will be discussing “The Moon the Vanished”, one of her novellas set on a swampy Venus next Monday on Howard’s blog.  Click here for details and join the discussion.  I’m not going to be discussing that particular story here, but I will take some detailed looks at some others.  I’m probably going to start with “Lorelei of the Red Mist”, which she began and Ray Bradbury finished when Howard Hawks offered her a job writing the screenplay to Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep with William Faulkner.  You can get electronic copies of both stories in Swamps of Venus from Baen ($4), or get the Solar System bundle for $20. Continue reading →