Showing results by author "Poul Anderson" in All Categories

No longer a brash, young ensign, Captain Dominic Flandry has risen in rank but now appreciates fully that the Terran empire is old and tired, wanting to be left in peace. But the enemies it has made and the competing empire of Merseia will give it no peace. Too evenly matched for open warfare not to destroy them both, the opponents engage in subtle thrust and counter-thrust, feint and counter-feint, with Flandry in the thick of it.

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!)

From Nebula Award winner Gregory Benford comes this ambitious hard SF anthology that collects five original novellas. Each one takes the very long view - all are set at least ten thousand years in the future. The authors take a rigorously scientific view of such grand panoramas, confronting the largest issues of cosmology, astronomy, evolution, and biology.

Far into the reaches of space, Anson Guthrie and a band of colonists have forged a new existence on Amaterasu not as physical beings but as downloaded consciousness watched over by the benevolent Life Mother. Yet as idyllic as their lives may be, back home on Earth the situation is growing grim.

Artificial intelligence has been developed to a point where human intelligence can be uploaded into a computer, achieving a sort of hybrid immortality. Astronaut Christian Brannock welcomes this technology, technology that will make it possible for him to achieve his dream and explore the stars.

By the end of the 21st century, a deep-state human-systems organization, the Psychotechnic Institute, has begun melding neuroscience and psychoanalytics to create the foundation for generations of more peaceful, more powerful, more "sensitive" human beings. In Poul Anderson's 1954 science-fiction thriller, The Sensitive Man, one such human, Simon Dalgetty, is on the trail of brutal men who kidnapped Michael Tighe, keeper of the keys to the Institute's secrets, and, thus, to the fate of world order.

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.

Sci Fi Shorts is a collection of classic science fiction stories from the golden age of space stories. This group of five unabridged short stories by various authors covers such adventures as space-going disasters, culture-shocked Martians, minds being stolen, alien flying cities and ancient artefacts being discovered in the far future.

An action-packed and knowledgeable sci-fi tale by multi award-winning and prolific author Poul William Anderson. The story is set in the not too distant future. Earth has been conquered and the rather too humanoid new rulers extract heavy taxes, control the industry and even reproduction... Something has to be done! But there are those who are against this.

This collection of classic science-fiction stories from the 1950s and 1960s features three imaginative novellas from some of the pioneers of the genre.

An enterprising company has set up a mining endeavor on an asteroid to collect, process, and sell atmospheric gas products. The company, called Sword, is initially successful until an unnamed government tries to stamp out freedom and free enterprise in the Belt so the gases and minerals can be sent back to Earth, essentially trying to establish the business as a colony. Early Poul Anderson with a great finish.

A man, capable of 1 million things, is unhappy without a job, without a goal and purpose in life but he is not necessarily unique…

After many years, eons, mankind has advanced and populated space to the extent that the home planet Earth, is being abandoned. This is the story of closing down our planet. How would you like to be left behind, not only the richest but the only man on earth.

Michael Tighe of the Psychotechnic Institute has been kidnapped by Thomas Bancroft, a politician with ties to an authoritarian movement called the Actionists. Tighe's adopted son, Simon Delgatty, sets out to find him, but is himself captured by Bancroft and taken to his base on an island off the coast of Mexico.

Riordan, a ruthless and wealthy hunter, needs one more kill to fill out his bucket list. He's faced down and brought home the wildest beasts on Earth, Venus, and even Neptune. But what he really craves is the hide of a Martian, and he'll pay any price, endure any obstacle, to hang that trophy on his wall.

He was the last of his race, and although he was wiser, stronger, and more intelligent than the earth men who had invaded his planet and exterminated the rest of his race, he was no match for their weapons. He survived by placating his tormentors. This Poul Anderson short story is a great study of humanity that will leave you with a lump in your throat at the end.

X Minus One premiered in April 1955 on NBC and ran until January 1958. Like its predecessor series, Dimension X, X Minus One featured stories by the greatest names in modern science fiction: Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Robert Bloch, and many more.

Hell hath no vengeance like a woman scorned. But how about when a man is suddenly scorned by a woman? Suppose the woman was manipulated? And for what nefarious purpose? And by whom? Colin Fraser is the recipient of the scorn but can't let go of the fact that something just doesn't seem right by the sudden jilting by his girlfriend. There's something bigger than a lover’s breakup and he aims to find out what it is.

One man against the limitless wastes of time, he fought the strange, inhuman civilizations of Earth's unguessable future, searching hopelessly among the never-ending tomorrows-for the road to one unforgettable yesterday!

Poul Anderson began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. He also authored several works of fantasy, and many short stories. He received numerous awards for his writing, including seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards. The Virgin of Valkarion first appeared in the magazine Planet Stories in 1951.