Showing results by author "Poul Anderson" in All Categories

It is the twilight of the Terran Empire. The warriors who made it great are long gone now, and the traders of the Polesotechnic League who made it possible are the dimly remembered stuff of legend. Alien enemies prowl its outer precincts, and sector governors conspire for the Throne of Man. On Terra herself, those who occupy the labyrinthine corridors of power busy themselves with trivialities and internal politics, as outside the final darkness gathers. In this scene of terminal disarray one man stands like a giant: Dominic Flandry, agent of the Terran Empire.

Think self-congratulating Federation lackeys are going to be the ones to boldly go where no one has gone before? Think again! Now second-son of nobility David Falkayn, hot to prove his worth, leads a team of alien capitalists through deadly threat and gnarly interplanetary dilemma. The mission: to keep intergalactic trade forever free - and always profitable!

This volume contains a variety of imaginative stories from both famous and not-so-famous science fiction writers.

This volume is the definitive collection of the best science fiction novellas published between 1929 and 1964, containing 11 great classics. No anthology better captures the birth of science fiction as a literary field. Published in 1973 to honor stories that had appeared before the institution of the Nebula Awards, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame introduced tens of thousands to the wonders of science fiction and was a favorite of libraries across the country.

The second collection of science-fiction tales by Jimcin includes 31 stories.

The gathering forces of the Dark Powers threaten the world of man. The legions of Faery, aided by trolls, demons, and the Wild Hunt itself, are poised to overthrow the Realms of Light. Holger Carlsen, a bemused and puzzled twentieth-century man mysteriously snatched out of time, finds himself the key figure in the conflict. Arrayed against him are the dragons, giants, and elfin warriors of the armies of Chaos and the beautiful sorceress Morgan le Fay.

Nicholas van Rijn, the most flamboyant member of the Polesotechnic League of star traders, could see dark times ahead. Fellow league members were using tactics verging on outright piracy, and others were all too eager to sell starships and high-tech weapons to alien barbarians. A planet not previously known for interstellar commerce suddenly revealed a secret fleet of armed starships and started building an empire. Even if Van Rijn and his right-hand man, David Falkayn, could find a way to stop this blatant aggression, the glory days of the League were over.

This fourth volume of Favorite Science Fiction Stories contains 22 more gripping tales.

The virtual persona of a long-dead visionary entrepreneur threatens to incite a revolution from space that could topple Earth's powerful and repressive religious-technological dictatorship in this ingenious science-fiction classic.

From Heinlein's thought-provoking "Searchlight" and Clarke's dreamy "Reverie", to Asimov's ingenious "Super-Neutron", Bradbury's chilling "Zero Hour", and Zelazny's poetic masterpiece "A Rose for Ecclesiastes", each story explores deep questions of technology, humanity, and the unknown. Carefully curated to represent both iconic tales and lesser-known gems, this volume offers something for every science fiction reader—whether a newcomer or a lifelong fan.

The immortals are 10 individuals born in antiquity from various cultures. Immune to disease, able to heal themselves from injuries, they will never die of old age - although they can fall victim to catastrophic wounds. They have walked among mortals for millennia, traveling across the world, trying to understand their special gifts while searching for one another in the hope of finding some meaning in a life that may go on forever.

Poul Anderson's novel The Broken Sword draws on similar Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon sources as The Fellowship of the Ring. In his greed for land and power, Orm the Strong slays the family of a Saxon witch-and for his sins, the Northman must pay with his newborn son. Stolen by elves and replaced by a changeling, Skafloc is raised to manhood unaware of his true heritage and treasured for his ability to handle the iron that the elven dare not touch. Meanwhile, the being who supplanted him as Orm's son grows up angry and embittered by the humanity he has been denied.

Forget minor hazards like nuclear bombs. The discovery of time travel means that everything we know, anyone we know, might not only vanish, but never even have existed. Against that possibility stand the men and women of the Time Patrol, dedicated to preserving the history they know and protecting the future from fanatics, terrorists, and would-be dictators who would remold the shape of reality to suit their own purposes.

As Sir Roger Baron de Tourneville is gathering an army to join King Edward III in the war against France, a most astonishing event occurs: a huge silver ship descends through the sky and lands in a pasture beside the little village of Ansby in North East Lincolnshire. The Wersgorix, whose scouting ship it is, are quite expert at taking conquering planets, and having determined from orbit that this one is suitable, they initiate standard procedure. Their ship carries guided missiles and nuclear weaponry—but they have long since lost the art of hand-to-hand fighting.

On a far-future Earth, a linked system of artificial intelligences called the cybercosm runs the planet and the universe far more efficiently than any flesh and blood ruler ever could, in essence rendering the human race obsolete. On the Earth's moon, genetically engineered Lunarians carrying the DNA of Dagney Beynac - a descendant of the legendary Anton Guthrie, founder of the powerful and visionary Fireball Enterprises - struggle to preserve their lives, their freedom, and their satellite's resources in the face of threats posed by encroaching humans and controlling machines.

Think there's an unbridgeable gulf between human and alien thought? Not so! There's a common tongue, all right - and Nicholas Van Rijn speaks it fluently: trade. For behind the buffoonish blarney and bawdy bonhomie of the Falstaffian Van Rijn is a man who gets things done. A born wheeler-dealer who usually leaves both sides better off in the bargain. (While pocketing a hefty cut of the profits himself, of course!)

This science fiction novel describes the epic voyage of the spacecraft Leonora Christine. From practically the very first minute, Tau Zero sets scientific realities in dramatic tension with the very real emotional and psychological states of the travelers, exploring the effect of time contraction due to traveling at near-light speed on the human psyche. This tension is a dynamic that Anderson explores with great success over the course of the novel, as 50 crewmembers settle in for the long journey together.

The Interbeing League had been formed to make contact with new intelligent races in the galaxy and offer them membership. But when the League encountered the Hokas, furry creatures strongly resembling the teddy bears of Earth, the league's agent, Alexander Jones, could have been excused for wishing he had a simpler assignment than making sense out of the Hokas - such as singlehandedly stopping an interstellar war.

With "wonderfully logical detail...exciting storytelling and moving characterization" (Anthony Boucher), science fiction master Poul Anderson explores what happens when the next stage of evolution is thrust upon humanity and animals. As Earth passes out of a magnetic field that has suppressed intelligence for eons, the mental capacity for all mammals increases exponentially, radically changing the structures of society.

This ninth volume of Favorite Science Fiction Stories is a little unusual, in that it includes a few stories that are not really that short, bordering on novellas. Titles include: "The Concrete Mixer" by Ray Bradbury, "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates, "Bedside Manner" by William Morrison, "The Inferiors" by Mari Wolf, "The Aggravation of Elmer" by Robert Arthur, "Conquest over Time" by Michael Shara, "The Virgin of Valkarion" by Poul Anderson, "No Charge for Alterations" by H. L. Gold.