Poul Anderson

Poul William Anderson (November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) was a prolific science fiction author of the Golden Age; some of his short stories were first published using the pseudonyms "A. A. Craig", "Michael Karageorge", and "Winston P. Sanders". Poul Anderson also wrote fantasy such as the King of Ys series.

He was born in Bristol, Pennsylvania. He received a degree in physics from the University of Minnesota in 1948.

He married Karen Kruse in 1953. They have one daughter, Astrid, who is married to the science fiction author Greg Bear.

He was the sixth President of the association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, taking office in 1972.

Contents

1 Survey of his fiction 2 Awards 3 Partial Bibliography (book-length works only) 3.1 Series 3.1.1 King of Ys 3.1.2 Tomorrow's Children 3.1.3 Psychotechnic League 3.1.4 Hoka 3.1.5 Technic History 3.1.6 Time Patrol 3.1.7 History of Rustum 3.1.8 Operation Otherworld 3.1.9 The Last Viking 3.1.10 Maurai 3.1.11 Harvest of Stars 3.2 Non-series Novels 3.3 Fixups 3.4 Collections 3.5 Omnibus 3.6 Anthologies 3.7 Non-Genre 4 See Also 5 External link

Survey of his fiction

Anderson is probably best known for adventure stories in which larger-than-life characters succeed gleefully or fail heroically. Though he also wrote quieter works, especially at short lengths and later in his career, he was seldom interested in psychological analysis.

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

In many stories, Anderson commented on society and politics. He often returned to libertarianism (which accounts for his Prometheus Awards) and to the business leader as hero, most notably Nicholas van Rijn. Beginning in the 1970s, his historically grounded works were influenced by the theories of the historian John K. Hord, who argued that all empires follow the same broad pattern—in which the Terran Empire of the Dominic Flandry spy stories fit neatly.

He 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. 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 medieval society of The High Crusade, the quasi-medieval one of "No Truce with Kings", and the untamed Jupiter of "Call Me Joe". 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".

Maybe fitting his love for olden years is that Ander-Saxon is named after him.

Awards

• Gandalf Grand Master (1978)
• Hugo Award (seven times)
• John W. Campbell Memorial Award (2000)
• Nebula Award (three times)
• Prometheus Award (four times, including Special Prometheus Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2001)
• SFWA Grand Master Award (1997)

Partial Bibliography (book-length works only)

Series

King of Ys

• Roma Mater (1986) with Karen Anderson
• Gallicenae (1987) with Karen Anderson
• Dahut (1987) with Karen Anderson
• The Dog and the Wolf (1988) with Karen Anderson

Tomorrow's Children

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

Psychotechnic League

• Planet of No Return (also known as Question and Answer) (1954)
• Star Ways (1956)
• The Snows of Ganymede (1958)
• Virgin Planet (1959)
• The Psychotechnic League (1981)
• Cold Victory (1982)
• Starship (1982)

Hoka

• Earthman's Burden (1957) with Gordon R. Dickson
• Star Prince Charlie (1975) with Gordon R. Dickson
• Hoka! (1983) with Gordon R. Dickson

Technic History

period of Nicholas Van Rijn (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), 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" (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)

period of Dominic Flandry (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 (1985)
• The Long Night (does not feature Flandry) (1983), collects:
  • "The Star Plunderer" (1952)
  • "Outpost of Empire" (1967)
  • "A Tragedy of Errors" (1967)
  • "The Sharing of Flesh" (1968) (Hugo, Nebula)
  • "Starfog" (1967)
• Let the Spaceman Beware (also known as The Night Face, does not feature Flandry) (1963)

Time Patrol

• Guardians of Time (1960)
• Time Patrolman (1983)
• The Year of the Ransom (1988)
• The Shield of Time (1990)
• The Time Patrol (1991)

History of Rustum

• Orbit Unlimited (1961)
• New America (1982)

Operation Otherworld

• Operation Chaos (1971)
• Operation Luna (1999)

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

Maurai

• Maurai and Kith (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 (1983)

Harvest of Stars

• Harvest of Stars (1993)
• The Stars Are Also Fire (1994) (Prometheus Award)
• Harvest the Fire (1995)
• The Fleet of Stars (1997)

Non-series Novels

• Vault of the Ages (1952)
• Brain Wave (1954)
• The Broken Sword (1954)
• No World of Their Own (1955)
• 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 (1960)
• Murder in Black Letter (1960)
• Three Hearts and Three Lions (1961)
• Twilight World (1961)
• After Doomsday (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 Fox, the Dog and the Griffin: A Folk Tale Adapted from the Danish of C. Molbeck (1966)
• World Without Stars (1966)
• Tau Zero (1970) (expansion of "To Outlive Eternity")
• The Byworlder (1971)
• The Dancer from Atlantis (1971)
• Hrolf Kraki's Saga (1973)
• There Will Be Time (1973)
• Fire Time (1974)
• Inheritors of Earth (1974) with Gordon Eklund
• A Midsummer Tempest (1974)
• The Winter of the World (1975)
• The Avatar (1978)
• The Demon of Scattery (1979) with Mildred Downey Broxon
• Conan the Rebel (1980)
• The Devil's Game (1980)
• The Boat of a Million Years (1989)
• The Saturn Game (1989)
• The Longest Voyage (1991)
• War of the Gods (1997)
• Starfarers (1998)
• Genesis (2000) (John W. Campbell Memorial Award)
• Mother of Kings (2001)
• For Love and Glory (2003)

Fixups

• The Star Fox (1965) (Prometheus Award)
• Operation Chaos (1971)
• The Merman's Children (1979)

Collections

• Orbit Unlimited (1961)
• Strangers from Earth (1961)
• Twilight World (1961)
• Un-Man and Other Novellas (1962)
• Time and Stars (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 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-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 (1991) — Stories set in Larry Niven's Man-Kzin universe.
• Kinship with the Stars (1991)
• All One Universe (1996)
• Hoka! Hoka! Hoka! (1998) with Gordon R. Dickson
• Going for Infinity

Omnibus

• The Worlds of Poul Anderson (1974)
• Operation Otherworld (1999)

Anthologies

• 4 Nebula Award Stories 4 (1969)
• The Day the Sun Stood Still (1972) with Gordon R. Dickson and Robert Silverberg
• A World Named Cleopatra (1977)

Non-Genre

• The Golden Slave (1960) - Historical novel
• Rogue Sword (1960) - Historical novel

See Also

• science fiction: authors - novels - short stories - television shows
• Ander-Saxon

External link

• Poul Anderson at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

See also: Poul Anderson, 1926, 1948, 1953, 1972, 2001, Ander-Saxon, Bristol, Pennsylvania, Campbell award (best novel)