PoulAnderson (born Poul William Anderson, Nov. 25 1926)was a prolific science fiction author. He died yesterday (Aug 1 2001).
Though everyone will probably think I'm crazy, I consider PoulAnderson to be one of my favorite science fiction writers. One of his first books, The Enemy Stars, got me into science fiction (especially old-school 60s-70s SF) as an early teen, and I've been reading ever since. As is perhaps the case with any writer, his protagonists tend to seem very similar from one novel to the next, but this is only severely evidenced after reading a few dozen books.
What amazes me about Poul Anderson is how utterly prolific he really was. He wrote over one hundred novels throughout a 40-year career, with another fifteen or so collections, and contributed to several dozen anthologies (and edited six). Not to mention he won fourteen Hugo awards and thirteen Nebula awards. (http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/authors/Poul_Anderson.htm)
Poul's major strengths lie in character development (save for the main protagonist, who tends to be very similar between books), involved plots, and the rich visual imagery he uses when introducing a setting. I seem to recall that a famous author (Isaac Asimov?) once stated that Poul was the master of ending his stories.
Poul Anderson's personal and political preferences often come out in his work, at least through the views of the protagonist. I'd classify him best as a humanist - anyone of a conservative, libertarian, or Objectivist mindset would fall in love with him.
My recommended reading would probably consist of:
- The Psychotechnic League books
- Reminiscent of the Foundation books by IsaacAsimov, but done in a different style.
- The Time Patrol books
- Some of the best pseudo-hard-science work I've read dealing with time travel, but that's just my opinion. I do enjoy his "it's quantum mechanical - paradoxes can exist but they're smoothed over" approach to dealing with changing the past (akin to, say, Brother Assassin and other time travel books by FredSaberhagen), and the attention he pays to historical accuracy is amazing.
- Harvest of Stars series
- When I first read these books at 15, I thought they were the greatest in the world. Well, I've read a bit more SF since then, but I still think these are strong books. If you're an idealist who loves both cyberpunk and free enterprise, you can't go wrong. Harvest of Stars is the strongest, but the other books hold their own.
- The High Crusade
- A funny but almost-belivable adventure of a band of medieval knights and their run-in with a galactic empire. It sounds odd, and possibly cliche, but it's an old favorite and reads well.
- Tau Zero (or, alternatively, Starfarers)
- A profound treatment of an interstellar civilization tied together by slower-than-light starships. Akin to the "Known Space" universe of LarryNiven before hyperdrive is discovered. However, it focuses on the problems that relativistic flight brings to people travelling among the stars for decades or centuries of "real time." Related to the Maurai and Kith compilation, which deals with the Kith, the spacefaring 'clan' of humanity.
- Orion Shall Rise
- This one is a tough one to recommend. It's a fairly heavy book, and can get slow in parts, but I think the plot works out wonderfully. Details a post-post-Apocalyptic world, where civilization has been restored but Earth's oil and nuclear resources have been depleted, and chronicles one country's effort to once again regain the stars.
- Just about any short story or compilation
- NuffSaid. Granted, I'm a rabid fan... but there's something just so complete about all of his stories. There's plenty I could mention - one example is his 1964 Hugo winner "No Truce With Kings," which has definitely stood the test of time, a post-post-apocalyptic war story with a nice SF twist.
(Note that you can probably find most or all of these books at a decent-sized used book store.
I did.)
Amusingly enough, Poul Anderson was the father-in-law of GregBear, something I never knew about until doing a little research for this entry.
-- JosephRiesen
CategoryAuthor, CategoryScienceFiction
Poul Anderson