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Poul Anderson

 
Poul Anderson

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Poul Anderson



 
 
Poul William Anderson (November 25, 1926, Bristol, Pennsylvania
Bristol, Pennsylvania

Bristol is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, 23 miles northeast of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania opposite Burlington, New Jersey on the Delaware River....
 – July 31, 2001, Orinda, California
Orinda, California

Orinda is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 17,599 at the 2000 census. The town is East of and just over the hill from Oakland and home to many affluent professionals who commute to downtown Oakland, California, San Francisco and Walnut Creek, California....
) was an American science fiction
Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
 author who wrote during a Golden Age
Golden Age of Science Fiction

The first Golden Age of Science Fiction ? often recognized as the period from the late 1930s through the 1950s ? was an era during which the science fiction genre gained wide public attention and many classic science fiction stories were published....
 of the genre. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy.

Anderson received a degree in physics from the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public university research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, Minnesota, United States....
 in 1948. He married the former Karen Kruse
Karen Kruse Anderson

Karen Kruse Anderson is the widow and sometime co-author of Poul Anderson, and mother-in-law of writer Greg Bear.She is noted as the first person to use the term filk music in print....
 in 1953. They had one daughter, Astrid, who is married to the science fiction author Greg Bear
Greg Bear

Gregory Dale Bear is an American science fiction and mainstream author. His work has covered themes of galactic conflict , artificial universes , consciousness and cultural practices , and accelerated evolution ....
.

He was the sixth President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Science Fiction Writers of America, or SFWA , was founded in 1965 by Damon Knight. The organization has since changed its name to Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc., but continues with the acronym SFWA after a very brief use of the acronym SFFWA....
, taking office in 1972.

He was also a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America
Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA)

The Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America is the name of a literary group of United States Fantasy author active from the 1960s through the 1980s, noted for their contributions to the fantasy subgenre of heroic fantasy or "Sword and sorcery."...
, a loose-knit group of Heroic Fantasy
Heroic fantasy

Heroic fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy which chronicles the tales of heroes and their conquests in imaginary lands. Stories tend to be intricate in plot, often involving many peoples, nations and lands....
 authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized in Lin Carter's
Lin Carter

Linwood Vrooman Carter was an United States author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H....
 Flashing Swords!
Flashing Swords!

Flashing Swords! was a series of fantasy anthologies published by Dell Publishing from 1973 to 1981 under the editorship of Lin Carter. It showcased the heroic fantasy work of the members of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America , a somewhat informal literary group active from the 1960s to the 1980s, of which Carter was the guiding...
 anthologies.

He was also a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism
Society for Creative Anachronism

The Society for Creative Anachronism , is a historical reenactment and living history group founded in 1966, which endeavors to promote the study and recreation of mainly pre-17th century Western European cultures and their histories....
.

Robert Heinlein dedicated his 1985 novel The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

The Cat Who Walks Through Walls is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1985. Like many of his later novels, it features Lazarus Long and Jubal Harshaw as supporting characters....
 to Anderson and eight of the other members of the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy
Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy

The Citizen's Advisory Council on National Space Policy was a group of prominent US citizens concerned with the space policy of the United States of America....
.

He died of cancer on July 31, 2001, after a month in the hospital.

rson is probably best known for adventure stories in which larger-than-life characters succeed gleefully or fail heroically.






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Poul William Anderson (November 25, 1926, Bristol, Pennsylvania
Bristol, Pennsylvania

Bristol is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, 23 miles northeast of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania opposite Burlington, New Jersey on the Delaware River....
 – July 31, 2001, Orinda, California
Orinda, California

Orinda is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 17,599 at the 2000 census. The town is East of and just over the hill from Oakland and home to many affluent professionals who commute to downtown Oakland, California, San Francisco and Walnut Creek, California....
) was an American science fiction
Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
 author who wrote during a Golden Age
Golden Age of Science Fiction

The first Golden Age of Science Fiction ? often recognized as the period from the late 1930s through the 1950s ? was an era during which the science fiction genre gained wide public attention and many classic science fiction stories were published....
 of the genre. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy.

Anderson received a degree in physics from the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public university research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, Minnesota, United States....
 in 1948. He married the former Karen Kruse
Karen Kruse Anderson

Karen Kruse Anderson is the widow and sometime co-author of Poul Anderson, and mother-in-law of writer Greg Bear.She is noted as the first person to use the term filk music in print....
 in 1953. They had one daughter, Astrid, who is married to the science fiction author Greg Bear
Greg Bear

Gregory Dale Bear is an American science fiction and mainstream author. His work has covered themes of galactic conflict , artificial universes , consciousness and cultural practices , and accelerated evolution ....
.

He was the sixth President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Science Fiction Writers of America, or SFWA , was founded in 1965 by Damon Knight. The organization has since changed its name to Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc., but continues with the acronym SFWA after a very brief use of the acronym SFFWA....
, taking office in 1972.

He was also a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America
Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA)

The Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America is the name of a literary group of United States Fantasy author active from the 1960s through the 1980s, noted for their contributions to the fantasy subgenre of heroic fantasy or "Sword and sorcery."...
, a loose-knit group of Heroic Fantasy
Heroic fantasy

Heroic fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy which chronicles the tales of heroes and their conquests in imaginary lands. Stories tend to be intricate in plot, often involving many peoples, nations and lands....
 authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized in Lin Carter's
Lin Carter

Linwood Vrooman Carter was an United States author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H....
 Flashing Swords!
Flashing Swords!

Flashing Swords! was a series of fantasy anthologies published by Dell Publishing from 1973 to 1981 under the editorship of Lin Carter. It showcased the heroic fantasy work of the members of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America , a somewhat informal literary group active from the 1960s to the 1980s, of which Carter was the guiding...
 anthologies.

He was also a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism
Society for Creative Anachronism

The Society for Creative Anachronism , is a historical reenactment and living history group founded in 1966, which endeavors to promote the study and recreation of mainly pre-17th century Western European cultures and their histories....
.

Robert Heinlein dedicated his 1985 novel The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

The Cat Who Walks Through Walls is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1985. Like many of his later novels, it features Lazarus Long and Jubal Harshaw as supporting characters....
 to Anderson and eight of the other members of the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy
Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy

The Citizen's Advisory Council on National Space Policy was a group of prominent US citizens concerned with the space policy of the United States of America....
.

He died of cancer on July 31, 2001, after a month in the hospital.

Political, moral and literary themes

Anderson is probably best known for adventure stories in which larger-than-life characters succeed gleefully or fail heroically. He also wrote some quieter works, generally of shorter length, which appeared more during the latter part of his career. However, Anderson was seldom interested in psychological analysis.

Much of his science fiction is thoroughly grounded in science (with the addition of unscientific but standard speculations such as faster-than-light
Faster-than-light

Faster-than-light Superluminal communication and interstellar travel refer to the propagation of information or matter faster than the speed of light....
 travel). A specialty was imagining scientifically plausible non-Earthlike planets. Perhaps the best known was the planet of The Man Who Counts — Anderson adjusted its size and composition so that humans could live in the open air but flying intelligent aliens could evolve, and he explored consequences of these adjustments. His stories often depicted a shipwrecked or stranded hero's existential struggle to survive in the hostile environment of an alien world through ingenuity and sheer drive.

Space and liberty

In many stories, Anderson commented on society and politics. Whatever other vicissitudes his views went through, he firmly retained his belief in the direct and inextricable connection between human liberty and expansion into space — for which reason he strongly cried out against any idea of space exploration being "a waste of money" or "unnecessary luxury".

The connection between space flight and freedom is clearly (as is stated explicitly in some of the stories) an extension of the nineteenth-century American concept of the Frontier
Frontier

A frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a Border....
, where malcontents can advance further and claim some new land, and pioneers either bring life to barren asteroids (as in Tales of the Flying Mountains) or settle on Earth-like planets teeming with life, but not intelligent forms (such as New Europe in Star Fox).

As he repeatedly expressed in his nonfiction essays, Anderson firmly held that going into space was not an unnecessary luxury but an existential need, and that abandoning space would doom humanity to "a society of brigands ruling over peasants".

This is graphically expressed in the chilling short story "Welcome". In it, humanity has abandoned space and is left with an overcrowded Earth where a small elite not only treats all the rest as chattel slaves, but also regularly practices cannibalism
Cannibalism

Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating other humans. The ritualistic eating of human flesh is also known as anthropophagy, from Greek: ?????p??, anthropos, "human being"; and fa?e??, phagein, "to eat"....
, its members getting their chefs to prepare "roast suckling coolie
Coolie

Coolie is:*A historical term for manual labourers from Asia, particularly China and India, in the 19th century and early 20th century.*An "old-fashioned an unskilled worker who is paid very low wages, especially in parts of Asia", but the current version adds "taboo old-fashioned...
" for their banquets.

Conversely, in the bleak Orwellian
Orwellian

The adjective Orwellian describes the situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free society....
 world of "The High Ones" — where the Soviets have won the Third World War and gained control of the whole world — the dissidents still have some hope, precisely because space flight has not been abandoned. By the end of the story, rebels have established themselves at another stellar system — where their descendants, the reader is told, would eventually build a liberating fleet and set out back to Earth.

World government

While horrified by the prospect of the Soviets winning complete rule over the Earth, Anderson was not enthusiastic about having Americans in that role, either. In fact, several stories and books describing the aftermath of a total American victory in the Third World War — such as "Sam Hall" and its loose sequel "Three Worlds to Conquer" as well as "Shield" — are scarcely less bleak than the above-mentioned depictions of a Soviet victory. Like Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein

Robert Anson Heinlein was an United States novelist and science fiction writer. Often called "the dean of science fiction writers", he is one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of the genre....
 in "Solution Unsatisfactory
Solution Unsatisfactory

Solution Unsatisfactory is a science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein. The story was first published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine in 1940, with illustrations by Frank Kramer ....
", Anderson assumed that the imposition of an American military rule over the rest of the world would necessarily entail the destruction of American democracy and the imposition of a harsh tyrannical rule over the United States' own citizens.

Both Anderson's depiction of a Soviet-dominated world and that of an American-dominated one mention a rebellion breaking out in Brazil
Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....
 in the early 21st century, which is in both cases brutally put down by the dominant world power — the Brazilian rebels being characterized as "Counter-Revolutionaries" in the one case and as "Communists" in the other.

In the early years of the Cold War
Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state of conflict, tension and competition that existed between a number of world powers, including the United States, the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China, France, United Kingdom and those countries' respective allies from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s....
 — when he had been, as described by his later, more conservative
Conservatism

Conservatism is a political and social term whose meaning has changed in different countries and time periods, but which usually indicates support for the status quo or the status quo ante....
 self, a "flaming liberal
Liberalism

Liberalism is a broad class of political philosophy that considers individualism liberty and equality to be the most important political goals....
" — Anderson pinned his hopes on the United Nations
United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, Social change, human rights and achieving world peace....
 developing into a true world government
World government

World government is the concept of a political body that would make, interpret and enforce international law. Inherent to the concept of a world government is the idea that nations would be required to pool or surrender sovereignty over some areas....
. This is especially manifest in "Un-man
Un-Man

Un-Man is a science fiction novella by Poul Anderson that was first published in the January 1953 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It was included in the 1962 collection Un-Man and Other Novellas, and the 1981 collection The Psychotechnic League....
", a future thriller where the Good Guys are agents of the UN
United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, Social change, human rights and achieving world peace....
 Secretary General working to establish a world government
World government

World government is the concept of a political body that would make, interpret and enforce international law. Inherent to the concept of a world government is the idea that nations would be required to pool or surrender sovereignty over some areas....
 while the Bad Guys are nationalists (especially American ones) who seek to preserve their respective nations' sovereignty at all costs. (The title has a double meaning — the hero is literally a UN man and has superhuman abilities which make his enemies fear him as an "un-man").

In later years Anderson completely repudiated this idea (a half-humorous remnant is the beginning of Tau Zero
Tau Zero

Tau Zero is a science fiction novel by Poul Anderson. The novel was based upon the short story "To Outlive Eternity" appearing in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1967....
 — a future where the nations of the world entrusted Sweden with overseeing disarmament and found themselves living under the rule of the Swedish Empire). In Star Fox, his unfavorable depiction of a future peace group called "World Militants for Peace" indicates clearly where he stood with regard to the Vietnam War
Vietnam War

The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina Wars, the Vietnam Conflict, or often in Vietnam the American War occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia from 1959 to April 30, 1975....
, raging when the book was published. A more explicit expression of the same appears in the later The Shield of Time where a time-traveling young American woman from the 1990s pays a brief visit to a university campus of the 1960s and is not enthusiastic about what she sees there.

Libertarianism

Instead of a world government, the above-mentioned "Shield" resolves the problem of an American-dominated world dictatorship in a truly libertarian manner: The protagonist, who is hunted by various power groups for the secret of a personal impregnable force field which he brought from Mars
MARS

In cryptography, MARS is a block cipher that was IBM's submission to the Advanced Encryption Standard process. MARS was selected as an AES finalist in August 1999, after the AES2 conference in March 1999, where it was voted as the fifth and last finalist algorithm....
, finally decides to simply reveal it to the entire world, so that every individual could thumb his or her nose at each and every Authority.

Anderson often returned to libertarianism
Libertarianism

Libertarianism is a term used by a political spectrum of Political philosophy which seek to promote individual liberty and seek to minimize or abolish the state....
 (which accounts for his Prometheus Award
Prometheus Award

The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given out annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal, Prometheus....
s) and to the business leader as hero, most notably his character Nicholas van Rijn
Nicholas van Rijn

Nicholas van Rijn is a fictional character who plays the central role in the first half of Poul Anderson's Poul Anderson#Technic History. He is a flamboyant capitalism adventurer, and is Dutch people, apparently a resident of Djakarta....
. Van Rijn is, however, far from the modern type of business executive, being a kind of throwback to the merchant venturer of the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century. If he spends any time in boardrooms or plotting corporate takeovers, the reader remains ignorant of it, since virtually all his appearances are in the wilds of a space frontier.

Beginning in the 1970s, Anderson's historically grounded works were influenced by the theories of the historian John K. Hord, who argued that all empires follow the same broad cyclical pattern — in which the Terran Empire of the Dominic Flandry
Dominic Flandry

Dominic Flandry is the central character in the second half of Poul Anderson's Technic History science fiction. He first appeared in 1951.The space opera series is set in the thirty-first century, during the waning days of the Terran Empire....
 spy stories
Spy fiction

The genre of spy fiction?sometimes called political thriller or spy thriller or sometimes shortened simply to spy-fi?arose before World War I at about the same time that the first modern intelligence agencies were formed....
 fit neatly.

The writer Sandra Miesel
Sandra Miesel

Sandra Louise Miesel is a medievalist and writer. Her early work was science fiction and fantasy criticism, fields in which she has remained active....
 (1978) has argued that Anderson's overarching theme is the struggle against entropy
Entropy

In many branches of science, entropy is a measure of the disorder of a system. The concept of entropy is particularly notable as it is applied across physics, information theory and mathematics....
 and the heat death of the universe, a condition of perfect uniformity where nothing can happen.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict

A nonfiction essay that is embedded in There Will Be Time and attributed to the book's fictional protagonist, but seems to reflect Anderson's own views, sharply criticizes the American Left of 1972 (when it was written) for two instances of a double standard
Double standard

Double standards are when certain applications may be acceptable to one group, but seen as taboo to another. Such double standards are seen as unjust because they violate a basic Legal maxim of modern legal jurisprudence: that all parties should stand equal before the law....
: for neglecting to address human rights violations in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 and for failing to notice Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
's treatment of the Palestinians.

References to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The Israeli?Palestinian conflict is an ongoing dispute between Israelis and the Palestinian people. It forms part of the wider Arab?Israeli conflict....
 crop up quite frequently in Anderson's fiction, through various analogues and the conflict's past, future, and alternate permutations. Significantly, Anderson's position on the Middle East conflict was considerably more dovish than his stance towards the United States' own wars, such as his the aforementioned support for the military involvement in Vietnam. Consistently, he regarded the conflict as one in which both Israelis and Palestinians have some measure of justice on their side, and Israeli characters often express criticism of their country's policies.

Thus, in the story "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks," the Time Patrol's resident agents in the Tyre of King Hiram are a twentieth century Israeli couple, who express their wish to help the ancient Tyrians "in order to compensate a bit for what our country is going to do here." (The story was written during the Lebanon War
Lebanon War

The term Lebanon War can refer to any of the following events:*Lebanese Civil War *1978 Israel-Lebanon conflict *1982 Lebanon War *1982-2000 South Lebanon conflict...
 of 1982, when Israeli planes bombed the modern Tyre and caused heavy civilian casualties).

The aggressive mutants of Dromm in "Inside Straight
Inside Straight

Inside Straight may refer to:* An inside straight is type of hand in poker?see Draw #Inside straight draw, Rank of hands .*"Inside Straight", the first book in the "next-generation Wild Cards triad", edited by George R....
," who totally subdued their own planet and embarked on interstellar conquest, had started as a persecuted minority. The Dromman character in the story — who is clearly the villain but is nevertheless depicted with considerable empathy — thinks of his people's history of having been the target of "whipped up xenophobia
Xenophobia

Xenophobia is an intense dislike and/or fear of people from other countries. It comes from the Greek language words ????? , meaning "foreigner," "stranger," and f???? , meaning "fear." The term is typically used to describe a fear or dislike of alien s or of people significantly different from oneself....
, pogroms and concentration camps," in one of which his own grandfather died. He also thinks of how angry his people were when an off-world philosopher told them: "Unjust treatment is apt to produce paranoia in the victim. Your race has outlived its oppressors, but not the reflexes they built into your society. Your canalised nervous system make you incapable of regarding anyone else as anything but a dangerous enemy."

"Fire Time
Fire Time

Fire Time is a science fiction novel by Poul Anderson, first published in 1974. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1975....
" gives the detailed history of a prolonged escalating conflict on a planet colonized simultaneously by humans who call it Mundomar and the nonhuman Naqsans who call it Tseyakka: The historical film of the human leader Sigurdsson declaring the independent republic of Eleutheria in the midst of war is clearly reminiscent of Ben Gurion
Ben Gurion

Ben Gurion can refer to the following persons:*Nicodemus ben Gurion, a Biblical figure, probably a rich Jewish member of the Sanhedrin that felt sympathetic to Jesus Christ....
 declaring Israel's independence in 1948; in a later war, the Eleutherians conquer the Naqsan continent of G'yaaru, rename it Sigurdssonia and establish settlements in it.

There is in this context a short reappearance of Gunnar Heim, the protagonist of "Star Fox." In the earlier book, Heim personally, as a privateer waging an undeclared war on the Aleriona, forced a reluctant Earth into an all-out war — which Heim felt was needed since the Aleriona were ideologically committed to the universal conquest of everybody else (apparently, in this context, the analogue of Communism
Communism

Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarianism, classlessness, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general....
 — though the Aleriona do not resemble Communists in any particular detail). With regard to Mundomar/Tseyakka, however, the same Heim is the voice of moderation, calling for compromise and coexistence between the two warring parties and strongly condemning the uncritical support of Earth for the aggressive Eleutherians (which seems an analogue of US support of Israel).

In a related story, a group of isolated humans had been living for several generations on an alien planet, on extremely good terms with its non-human inhabitants and without the slightest conflict with them. Nevertheless, the captain of an arriving Earth ship forces them at gunpoint to leave the planet, stating: "Can you speak for your grandchildren and for their grandchildren, for generations which will grow more and more numerous and need more and more land? When my ancestors arrived in Palestine, they did not intend to despose the local Arabs and drive them into refugee camps — but in the end, that's what they did." (The captain's family name is "Ben Yehuda" — the name of the noted Zionist linguist Eliezer Ben Yehuda who had a major share in transforming Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
, a purely liturgical language for many centuries, into a spoken language again.)

This is a typical example of Anderson's frequent motif of a tragic conflict — a story with no villains at all, with all protagonists having the best of good intentions and still forced into bitter conflict.

Fairness to the adversaries

In his numerous books and stories depicting conflict in science-fictional or fantasy settings, Anderson takes trouble to make both sides' points of view comprehensible. Even where there can be no doubt as to whose side the author is on, the antagonists are usually not depicted as villains but as honourable on their own terms. The reader is given access to their thoughts and feelings, and they have often a tragic dignity in defeat. Typical examples are The Winter of the World and The People of the Wind.

A common theme in Anderson's works, and one with obvious origins in the Northern European legends, is that doing the "right" (wisest) thing often involves performing actions that, at face value, seem dishonorable, illegal, destructive, or downright evil. The Man who Counts, Nicholas van Rijn is "The Man" because he is prepared to be tyrannical and callously manipulative so that he and his companions can survive. In "High Treason" the protagonist disobeys orders and betrays his subordinates to prevent a war crime that would bring severe retribution upon Humanity. In A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, Dominic Flandry first (effectively) lobotomizes his own son and then bombards the home planet of the Chereionite race in order to do his duty and prop up the Terran empire. These actions affect their characters in different ways, and dealing with the repercussions of having done the "right" (but unpleasant) thing is often the major focus of his short stories. The general lesson seems to be that guilt is the penalty for action.

In Star Fox, a relationship of grudging respect is built up between the hero, space privateer Gunnar Heim, and his enemy Cynbe — an exceptionally gifted member of the Alerione, trained from a young age to understand his species' human enemies to the point of being alienated from his own kind. In the final scene, Cynbe challenges Heim to a space battle which only one of them would survive. Heim accepts, whereupon Cynbe says, "I thank you, my brother."

Underestimating "primitives" as a costly mistake

Anderson set much of his work in the past, often with the addition of magic, or in alternate or future worlds that resemble past eras. A specialty was his ancestral Scandinavia, as in his novel versions of the legends of Hrólf Kraki
Hrólf Kraki

Hr?lfr Kraki, Hro?ulf, Rolfo, Roluo, Rolf Krage was a legendary Danish king who appears both in Anglo-Saxons and in Scandinavian tradition....
 (Hrolf Kraki's Saga
Hrolf Kraki's Saga

Hrolf Kraki's Saga is a fantasy novel by Poul Anderson. It was first published by Ballantine Books as the sixty-second volume of the celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in October, 1973, and has been reprinted a number of times since....
) and Haddingus (The War of the Gods). Frequently he presented such worlds as superior to the dull, over-civilized present. Notable depictions of this superiority are the prehistoric world of "The Long Remembering", the quasi-medieval
Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
 society of "No Truce with Kings", and the untamed Jupiter
Jupiter

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the Solar system by size planet within the Solar System. It is two and a half times as massive as all of the other planets in our Solar System combined....
 of "Call me Joe
Call me Joe

"Call me Joe" is a science fiction story by Poul Anderson. It is concerned with an attempt to explore the surface of the planet Jupiter using remotely controlled artificial life-forms....
" and Three Worlds to Conquer. He handled the lure and power of atavism satirically in "Pact", critically in "The Queen of Air and Darkness" and The Night Face, and tragically in "Goat Song". His 1965 novel, The Corridors of Time, fluctuates between the European stone-age past and a repressive future.

In many stories, a representative of a technologically advanced society underestimates "primitives" and pays a high price for it. In The High Crusade
The High Crusade

The High Crusade is a novel by American writer Poul Anderson. First published in 1960 by Doubleday , it is a work of science fiction. It is still in print with a paperback edition issued by IBook in 2003 with ISBN 0-7434-7528-3....
, aliens who land in medieval England in the expectation of an easy conquest find that they are not immune to swords and arrows. In "The Only Game in Town", a Mongol warrior, while not knowing that the two "magicians" he meets are time travelers from the future, correctly guesses their intentions — and captures them with the help of the "magic" flashlight they had given him in an attempt to impress him. In another time-travel tale, The Shield of Time, a "time policeman" from the Twentieth Century, equipped with information and technologies from much further in the future, is outwitted by a medieval knight and barely escapes with his life. Yet another story, The Man Who Came Early
The Man Who Came Early

"The Man Who Came Early" is a science fiction short story by Danish people-United States author Poul Anderson. Similar in some respects to Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, the story is in fact its antithesis; Anderson sharply differs from Twain in his treatment of the "primitive" society in which the time travell...
, features a 20th-century United States Army
United States Army

The United States Army is the branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for Army operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S....
 soldier stationed in Iceland
Iceland

Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland , is an island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean between mainland Europe and Greenland....
 who is transported to the tenth century. Although he is full of ideas, his lack of practical knowledge of how to implement them and his total unfamiliarity with the technology and customs of the period lead to his downfall.

Anderson wrote "Uncleftish Beholding
Uncleftish Beholding

Uncleftish Beholding is a short text written by Poul Anderson. It is written using almost exclusively words of Germanic languages origin, and was intended to illustrate what the English language might look like if it had not received its considerable number of loanwords from other languages, particularly Latin and Greek language....
", on the lore of our times, with Germanic-rooted words only. Fitting his love for olden years, this kind of learned writing has been named Ander-Saxon after him.

Tragic conflicts

The story told in The Shield of Time is also an example of a tragic conflict, another common theme in Anderson's writing. The knight tries to do his best in terms of his own society and time, but his actions might bring about a horrible Twentieth Century (even more horrible than the one we know). Therefore, the Time Patrol protagonists, who like the young knight and wish him well (the female protagonist comes close to falling in love with him), have no choice but to fight and ultimately kill him.

In "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" a time-travelling American anthropologist is assigned to study an ancient Gothic
Goths

The Goths were East Germanic tribes who, in the 3rd and 4th centuries, invasion the Roman Empire and later adopted Arian Christianity. In the 5th and 6th centuries, divided as the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, they established powerful successor-states of the Roman Empire in the Iberian peninsula and Italy....
 tribe and study its culture by regular visits every few decades. Gradually he is drawn into close involvement, feeling protective towards the Goths (many of them his own descendants, following a brief and poignant liaison with a Gothic girl who died in childbirth) — and they identify him as the god Odin
Odin

Odin , is considered the chief ?sir in Norse paganism. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxons Woden and the Old High German Wotan, it is descended from Proto-Germanic *Wodanaz or *Wodanaz....
/Wodan. Then he finds that he must cruelly betray his beloved Goths, since an ancient ballad says that Odin did so — and that failure to fulfill his prescribed role might change history and bring the whole of the Twentieth Century as we know it crashing down. In the final scene he cries out in anguish: "Not even the Gods can defy the Norns!" — giving a new twist to this central aspect of the Norse
Norse paganism

Norse paganism is a term used to describe the religion which were common amongst the Germanic tribes living in Nordic countries prior to and during the Christianization of Scandinavia of Northern Europe....
 religion.

In "The Pirate
The Pirate (Anderson)

The Pirate is a science fiction short story by Poul Anderson that first appeared in the October 1968 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact....
", the hero is duty-bound to deny a band of people from societies blighted by poverty the chance for a new start on a new planet — because their settling the planet would eradicate the remnants of the artistic and articulate beings who lived there before. A similar theme but with much higher stakes appears in "Sister Planet": although terraforming
Terraforming

Terraforming of a planet, natural satellite, or other body is the hypothesis process of deliberately modifying its Earth's atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth to make it planetary habitability by humans....
 Venus
Venus

Venus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus , the Roman mythology goddess of love....
 would provide new hope to starving people on the overcrowded Earth, it would exterminate Venus's just-discovered intelligent race — and the hero can avert genocide only by murdering his best friends.

In "Delenda Est
Delenda Est

Delenda Est is a short story written by Poul Anderson, within his Time Patrol series. The title alludes to the Latin phrase Carthago delenda est from our timeline's Third Punic War....
" the stakes are the highest imaginable. Time-travelling outlaws have created a new 20th Century — "not better or worse, just completely different". The hero can fight the outlaws and restore his (and our) familiar history — but only at the price of totally destroying the world which has taken its place. "Risking your neck in order to negate a world full of people like yourself" is how the hero describes what he eventually undertakes.

Awards

  • Gandalf Grand Master
    Gandalf Award

    The Gandalf Award was awarded annually by the World Science Fiction Society from 1974 to 1980. It was named after Gandalf the wizard, who appears in the works of J....
     (1978)
  • Hugo Award
    Hugo Award

    The Hugo Awards are given every year for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories....
     (seven times)
  • John W. Campbell Memorial Award
    Campbell award (best novel)

    This page describes the award for best science fiction novel; for other awards, see Campbell Award .The John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel has been awarded every year since 1973, except in 1994....
     (2000)
  • Nebula Award
    Nebula Award

    The Nebula Award is an award given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the two previous years ....
     (three times)
  • Pegasus Award (best adaptation, with Anne Passovoy
    Anne Passovoy

    Anne Passovoy is active in science fiction fandom and filk music, and has won two Pegasus Awards. She is married to Dr. Bob Passovoy. She has written many of the seminal filk songs, including "Marcon Ballroom" and writing perhaps the most widely-sung tune for Poul Anderson's poem, "Mary O'Meara."...
    ) (1998)
  • Prometheus Award
    Prometheus Award

    The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given out annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal, Prometheus....
     (four times, including Special Prometheus Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2001)
  • SFWA
    Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

    Science Fiction Writers of America, or SFWA , was founded in 1965 by Damon Knight. The organization has since changed its name to Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc., but continues with the acronym SFWA after a very brief use of the acronym SFFWA....
     Grand Master Award (1997)


Partial bibliography (book-length works only)


Science fiction


Hoka
  • Earthman's Burden
    Earthman's Burden

    Earthman's Burden is a collection of science fiction and fantasy fiction stories by Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson. It was first published by Gnome Press in 1957....
     (1957) with Gordon R. Dickson
    Gordon R. Dickson

    Gordon Rupert Dickson was an United States science fiction author. He was born in Canada, then moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, Minnesota as a teenager....
  • Star Prince Charlie (1975) with Gordon R. Dickson
  • Hoka!
    Hoka!

    Hoka! is a collection of science fiction and fantasy fiction stories by Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson. It was first published by Wallaby in 1983....
     (1983) with Gordon R. Dickson


Reissued by Baen as:

  • Hoka! Hoka! Hoka!
    Hoka! Hoka! Hoka!

    Hoka! Hoka! Hoka! is a collection of science fiction stories by Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson. It was first published by Baen Books in 1998 and reprints the authors' earlier collection, Earthman's Burden, expanding with two additional stories from Hoka!....
     (1998) with Gordon R. Dickson
  • Hokas Pokas!
    Hokas Pokas!

    Hokas Pokas! is a collection of science fiction stories, and the novel Start Prince Charlie by Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson. It was first published by Baen Books in 2000....
     (2000) with Gordon R. Dickson


The Psychotechnic League
The Psychotechnic League

The Psychotechnic League is a future history created by science fiction writer Poul Anderson. The name "Psychotechnic League" was coined by Sandra Miesel in the early 1980s, to capitalize on Anderson's better-known Polesotechnic League future history....
  • Star Ways (also known as The Peregrine) (1956)
  • The Snows of Ganymede (1958)
  • Virgin Planet (1959)
  • The Psychotechnic League (1981)
  • Cold Victory (1982)
  • Starship (1982)


Tomorrow's Children
  • Tomorrow's Children (1947) with F. N. Waldrop
  • Chain of Logic (1947)


Technic History

Polesotechnic League period of Nicholas van Rijn
Nicholas van Rijn

Nicholas van Rijn is a fictional character who plays the central role in the first half of Poul Anderson's Poul Anderson#Technic History. He is a flamboyant capitalism adventurer, and is Dutch people, apparently a resident of Djakarta....
(by internal chronology):

  • War of the Wing-Men (original book publication heavily edited; author's preferred text [and title] later issued as The Man Who Counts) (1958)
  • Trader to the Stars (1964) (Prometheus Award
    Prometheus Award

    The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given out annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal, Prometheus....
    ), collects:
    • "Hiding Place" (1961)
    • "Territory" (1961)
    • "The Master Key" (1971)
  • The Trouble Twisters (features David Falkayn, not Van Rijn) (1966), collects:
    • "The Three-Cornered Wheel" (1963)
    • "A Sun Invisible" (1966)
    • "The Trouble Twisters" (also known as "Trader Team") (1965)
  • Satan's World (1969)
  • The Earth Book of Stormgate (many stories do not feature Van Rijn) (1978). It collects:
    • "Wings of Victory" (1972)
    • "The Problem of Pain" (1973)
    • "How to be Ethnic in One Easy Lesson" (1974)
    • "Margin of Profit" (1956)
    • "Esau" (also known as "Birthright") (1970)
    • "The Season of Forgiveness" (1973)
    • The Man Who Counts (first appearance of the unedited version of War of the Wing-Men) (1958)
    • "A Little Knowledge" (1971)
    • "Day of Burning" (also known as "Supernova") (1967)
    • "Lodestar
      Lodestar (Anderson)

      "Lodestar" is a short story by Poul Anderson. The idea was proposed to the author in a letter from editor John W Campbell in 1970, but not developed into a story until the publication of Astounding: The John W Campbell Memorial Anthology....
      " (1973)
    • "Wingless" (also known as "Wingless on Avalon") (1973)
    • "Rescue on Avalon" (1973)
  • Mirkheim (1977)
  • The People of the Wind (does not feature Falkayn or Van Rijn) (1973)


Terran Empire period of Dominic Flandry
Dominic Flandry

Dominic Flandry is the central character in the second half of Poul Anderson's Technic History science fiction. He first appeared in 1951.The space opera series is set in the thirty-first century, during the waning days of the Terran Empire....
(by internal chronology):

  • Ensign Flandry (1966)
  • A Circus of Hells (1970)
  • The Rebel Worlds (1969)
  • The Day of Their Return (does not feature Flandry) (1973)
  • Agent of the Terran Empire (1965), collects:
    • "Tiger by the Tail" (1951)
    • "The Warriors From Nowhere (1954)
    • "Honorable Enemies" (1951)
    • "Hunters of the Sky Cave" (also known as "A Handful of Stars" and We Claim These Stars) (1959)
  • Flandry of Terra (1965), collects:
    • "The Game of Glory" (1958)
    • "A Message in Secret" (also known as Mayday Orbit) (1959)
    • "The Plague of Masters" (also known as "A Plague of Masters" and Earthman, Go Home!) (1960)
  • A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows (1974)
  • A Stone in Heaven (1979)
  • The Game of Empire (features a daughter of Flandry) (1985)
  • The Long Night (features a Dark Age after Flandry's era) (1983), collects:
    • "The Star Plunderer" (1952)
    • "Outpost of Empire" (1967)
    • "A Tragedy of Errors" (1967)
    • "The Sharing of Flesh" (1968) (Hugo
      Hugo Award

      The Hugo Awards are given every year for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories....
      , Nebula
      Nebula Award

      The Nebula Award is an award given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the two previous years ....
      )
    • "Starfog" (1967)
  • Let the Spacemen Beware (also known as The Night Face, does not feature Flandry) (1963)


Time Patrol
  • 1. "Time Patrol" (1955)
  • 2. "Brave to be a King" (1959)
  • 3. "Gibraltar Falls" (1975)
  • 4. "The Only Game in Town" (1960)
  • 5. "Delenda Est
    Delenda Est

    Delenda Est is a short story written by Poul Anderson, within his Time Patrol series. The title alludes to the Latin phrase Carthago delenda est from our timeline's Third Punic War....
    " (1955)
  • 6. "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks" (1983)
  • 7. "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" (1983)
  • 8. "Star of the Sea" (1991)
  • 9. The Year of the Ransom (1988)
  • 10. The Shield of Time (1990)
  • 11. "Death and the Knight" (1995)


The shorter works in the series have been collected numerous times over the years, in Guardians of Time (1960, contains 1, 2, 4 and 5; expanded 1981 edition adds 3), Time Patrolman (1983, contains 6 and 7), Annals of the Time Patrol (1983, contains 1-7), The Time Patrol (1991, contains 1-9), and Time Patrol (2006, contains 1-9 and 11).

History of Rustum
  • Orbit Unlimited
    Orbit Unlimited

    Orbit Unlimited is a science fiction novel by Poul Anderson, first published in 1961 . Essentially a linked group of short stories, it recounts the colonisation of the planet Rustum, a fictional terrestrial world orbiting e Eridani, by a group of refugees from an authoritarian planet Earth....
     (1961)
  • New America
    New America

    New America is the name given to a large Arctic island, a northward extension of Ellesmere Island, as discovered by Captain John Hatteras and his crew in The Adventures of Captain Hatteras by Jules Verne....
     (1982)


Maurai
  • Maurai
    Maurai

    The Maurai series was a series of short stories and a novel by Poul Anderson set in a resource depletion, post-apocalyptic fiction earth several centuries in the future....
     and Kith
    Kith (Poul Anderson)

    The Kith are a interstellar travel culture featured in a number of stories by Poul Anderson:Although the Kith are instrumental in maintaining the network of trade that makes human interstellar civilization possible, over time they become the object of derision, suspicion and ultimately persecution....
     (1982), collects:
  • "Ghetto" (1954)
  • "The Sky People" (1959)
  • "Progress" (1961)
  • "The Horn of Time the Hunter" (also known as "Homo Aquaticus", 1963)
  • "Windmill" (1973)


  • Orion Shall Rise
    Orion Shall Rise

    Orion Shall Rise is a science fiction novel by Poul Anderson as part of his Maurai series, published in 1983.The novel is set several hundred years after a devastating nuclear war which has pushed back the level of technology....
     (1983)


Kith
The Kith
Kith (Poul Anderson)

The Kith are a interstellar travel culture featured in a number of stories by Poul Anderson:Although the Kith are instrumental in maintaining the network of trade that makes human interstellar civilization possible, over time they become the object of derision, suspicion and ultimately persecution....
, a persecuted starfaring civilization, is featured in:
  • "Ghetto" (1954)
  • "The Horn of Time the Hunter" (also known as "Homo Aquaticus", 1963)
  • The novel Starfarers (1998)

Harvest of Stars
  • Harvest of Stars (1993)
  • The Stars Are Also Fire (1994) (Prometheus Award
    Prometheus Award

    The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given out annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal, Prometheus....
    )
  • Harvest the Fire (1995)
  • The Fleet of Stars (1997)


Other novels

  • Vault of the Ages (1952)
  • Brain Wave
    Brain Wave

    Brain Wave is a science fiction novel by Poul Anderson published in 1954. Anderson had said that he could consider it one of his top five books ...
     (1954)
  • Question and Answer
    Question and Answer

    Question and Answer is a science fiction novel by Poul Anderson that originally appeared in the June and July 1954 issues of Astounding Science Fiction....
     (also known as Planet of No Return) (1954)
  • No World of Their Own (1955)
  • The Long Way Home (1958)
  • Perish by the Sword (1959)
  • War of Two Worlds (1959)
  • The Enemy Stars (also known as "'We have fed our sea—'") (1959)
  • The High Crusade
    The High Crusade

    The High Crusade is a novel by American writer Poul Anderson. First published in 1960 by Doubleday , it is a work of science fiction. It is still in print with a paperback edition issued by IBook in 2003 with ISBN 0-7434-7528-3....
     (1960)
  • Murder in Black Letter (1960)
  • Twilight World (1961)
  • After Doomsday
    After Doomsday

    After Doomsday is a science fiction novel by Poul Anderson. It was published as a complete novel in 1962, having been serialized as The Day after Doomsday in Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, Dec....
     (1962)
  • The Makeshift Rocket (1962) (expansion of "A Bicycle Built for Brew")
  • Murder Bound (1962)
  • Shield (1963)
  • Three Worlds to Conquer (1964)
  • The Corridors of Time (1965)
  • The Star Fox (1965) (Prometheus Award
    Prometheus Award

    The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given out annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal, Prometheus....
    )
  • The Fox, the Dog and the Griffin: A Folk Tale Adapted from the Danish of C. Molbeck (1966)
  • World Without Stars (1966)
  • Tau Zero
    Tau Zero

    Tau Zero is a science fiction novel by Poul Anderson. The novel was based upon the short story "To Outlive Eternity" appearing in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1967....
     (1970) (expansion of "To Outlive Eternity")
  • The Byworlder (1971)
  • The Dancer from Atlantis (1971)
  • There Will Be Time (1972)
NOTE: One of the characters in this novel, Leonce, is from the Maurai culture, as noted in the book. She is from a much earlier era than the Maurai stories, however.
  • Fire Time
    Fire Time

    Fire Time is a science fiction novel by Poul Anderson, first published in 1974. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1975....
     (1974)
  • Inheritors of Earth (1974) with Gordon Eklund
  • The Winter of the World (1975)
  • The Avatar (1978)
  • The Demon of Scattery (1979) with Mildred Downey Broxon
  • The Devil's Game (1980)
  • The Boat of a Million Years
    The Boat of a Million Years

    The Boat of a Million Years is a science fiction novel by Poul Anderson first published in 1989 and nominated for the Nebula Award for Nebula Award for Best Novel that same year....
     (1989)
  • The Saturn Game (1989)
  • The Longest Voyage
    The Longest Voyage

    "The Longest Voyage" is a science fiction short story by Poul Anderson. It won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1961....
     (1991)
  • War of the Gods (1997)
  • Genesis (2000) (John W. Campbell Memorial Award
    Campbell award (best novel)

    This page describes the award for best science fiction novel; for other awards, see Campbell Award .The John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel has been awarded every year since 1973, except in 1994....
    )
  • Mother of Kings
    Mother of Kings

    Mother of Kings is a historical novel by Poul Anderson. It was first published in 2001 by Tor Books. The book is an account of the life of Gunnhild, Mother of Kings, a tenth-century queen of Norway and wife of King Eirik Bloodaxe....
     (2001)
  • For Love and Glory (2003)


Collections

  • Orbit Unlimited (1961)
  • Strangers from Earth (1961)
  • Twilight World (1961)
  • Un-Man and Other Novellas (1962)
  • Time and Stars
    Time and Stars

    Time and Stars is a collection of science fiction short story by Poul Anderson, published in 1964....
     (1964)
  • The Fox, the Dog, and the Griffin (1966)
  • The Horn of Time (1968)
  • Beyond the Beyond (1969)
  • Seven Conquests (1969)
  • Tales of the Flying Mountains (1970)
  • The Queen of Air and Darkness and Other Stories (1973)
  • The Worlds of Poul Anderson (1974)
  • The Many Worlds of Poul Anderson (also known as The Book of Poul Anderson) (1974) — Edited by Roger Elwood
  • Homeward and Beyond (1975)
  • The Best of Poul Anderson (1976)
  • Homebrew (1976)
  • The Night Face & Other Stories (1979)
  • The Dark Between the Stars (1981)
  • Explorations (1981)
  • Fantasy (1981)
  • The Guardians of Time (1981)
  • Winners (1981) (a collection of Anderson's Hugo
    Hugo Award

    The Hugo Awards are given every year for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories....
    -winners)
  • Cold Victory (1982)
  • The Gods Laughed (1982)
  • New America (1982)
  • Starship (1982)
  • The Winter of the World / The Queen of Air and Darkness (1982)
  • Conflict (1983)
  • The Long Night (1983)
  • Past Times (1984)
  • The Unicorn Trade (1984) with Karen Anderson
  • Dialogue With Darkness (1985)
  • Space Folk (1989)
  • The Shield of Time (1990)
  • Alight in the Void (1991)
  • The Armies of Elfland (1991)
  • Inconstant Star
    Inconstant Star

    Inconstant Star is a science fiction novel by Poul Anderson. The stories Iron and Inconstant Star were first published in The Man-Kzin Wars and Man-Kzin Wars III, respectively....
     (1991) — Stories set in Larry Niven
    Larry Niven

    Laurence van Cott Niven is a US science fiction author. Perhaps his best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo Award for Best Novel, Locus Award, Ditmar Award, and Nebula Award for Best Novel awards....
    's Man-Kzin Wars
    Man-Kzin Wars

    The Man-Kzin Wars is a series of military science fiction short story collections , as well as the eponymous conflicts between mankind and the Kzinti that they detail ....
     universe.
  • Kinship with the Stars (1991)
  • All One Universe (1996)
  • Going for Infinity


Fantasy


King of Ys
  • Roma Mater (1986) with Karen Anderson
    Karen Kruse Anderson

    Karen Kruse Anderson is the widow and sometime co-author of Poul Anderson, and mother-in-law of writer Greg Bear.She is noted as the first person to use the term filk music in print....
  • Gallicenae (1987) with Karen Anderson
  • Dahut (1987) with Karen Anderson
  • The Dog and the Wolf (1988) with Karen Anderson


Operation Otherworld
  • Operation Chaos (1971)
  • Operation Luna
    Operation Luna

    Operation Luna is the 2000 sequel to the 1971 fixup novel Operation Chaos by Poul Anderson.It centers around a space exploration attempt and the efforts of Coyote and several Oriental antagonists to stop it....
     (1999)
  • Operation Otherworld (1999) — omnibus containing "Operation Chaos" and "Operation Luna"


Other novels
  • Three Hearts and Three Lions
    Three Hearts and Three Lions

    Three Hearts and Three Lions is a 1961 fantasy novel by Poul Anderson. It is also a 1953 novella by Poul Anderson which appeared in Fantasy & Science Fiction....
     (1953)
  • The Broken Sword
    The Broken Sword

    The Broken Sword is a fantasy novel written by the American writer Poul Anderson in 1954. Its importance was recognized in its later revival in paperback by Ballantine Books as the twenty-fourth volume of the celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in January, 1971....
     (1954, revised in 1971)
  • Hrolf Kraki's Saga
    Hrolf Kraki's Saga

    Hrolf Kraki's Saga is a fantasy novel by Poul Anderson. It was first published by Ballantine Books as the sixty-second volume of the celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in October, 1973, and has been reprinted a number of times since....
     (1973)
  • A Midsummer Tempest
    A Midsummer Tempest

    A Midsummer Tempest is an 1974 alternate history#Alternate history in the contemporary fantasy genre novel by Poul Anderson. In 1975, it was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and Nebula Award for Nebula Award for Best Novel and won the Mythopoeic Awards#Mythopoeic Fantasy Award....
     (1974)
NOTE: One character who appears in this novel is Valeria Matucheck, eldest daughter of Steve and Ginny Matuchek, protagonists of "Operation Chaos" and "Operation Luna". Though written between these two books, "A Midsummer Tempest" takes place after both. Holger Carlsen, of Three Hearts and Three Lions, also appears.
  • The Merman's Children (1979)
  • Conan the Rebel
    Conan the Rebel

    Conan the Rebel is a 1980 fantasy novel written by Poul Anderson featuring Robert E. Howard's seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian....
     (1980)
  • War of the Gods (1997)


Historical novels


The Last Viking
  • The Golden Horn (1980) with Karen Anderson
  • The Road of the Sea Horse (1980) with Karen Anderson
  • The Sign of the Raven (1980) with Karen Anderson


Other novels
  • The Golden Slave (1960) — Historical novel
  • Rogue Sword (1960) — Historical novel


Anthologies

  • Nebula Award Stories Four (1969)
  • The Day the Sun Stood Still (1972) with Gordon R. Dickson and Robert Silverberg
  • A World Named Cleopatra (1977)


Non-Fiction

  • Is There Life on Other Worlds? (1963)


Fictional appearances

Philip K. Dick's
Philip K. Dick

Philip Kindred Dick was an United States science fiction novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysics themes in novels dominated by monopoly corporations, Authoritarianism, and altered states of consciousness....
 story Waterspider
Waterspider

Waterspider is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick, first published in 1964 in If .Dick's story Waterspider features Poul Anderson as one of the main characters....
 features Poul Anderson as one of the main characters.

External links

  • at
  • at FantasticFiction
  • from the SFWA
    SFWA

    SFWA may refer to:*Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America*Scottish Football Writers' Association...
  • , an essay by Anderson on fantasy fiction, from the SFWA
  • , by Dr Paul Shackley
  • , by Dr Paul Shackley
  • , an essay by William Tenn
    William Tenn

    William Tenn is the pseudonym used by Philip Klass on his science fiction, notable for many stories with satirical elements.Born May 9, 1920, in London, England, he moved before his second birthday with his parents to New York where he grew up in Brooklyn....
  • , of which Poul Anderson was a founding member