FORGOTTEN BOOKS #457: RISE OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE By Poul Anderson


Rise of the Terran Empire is the third omnibus volume in BAEN Books’s “The Technic Civilization Saga.” The confederation of traders that kept order is breaking down. Poul Anderson shows how the Terran Empire emerges from the breakup of the old order. If you’re looking for that “Sense of Wonder” in Science Fiction, this volume has it in spades. Anderson also manages to create credible aliens in these stories, too.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
“Descent into Empire” By Hank Davis vii
Mirkheim 1
“Wingless” 293
“Rescue on Avalon” 307
“The Star Plunderer” 325
“Sargasso of Lost Starships” 363
The People of the Wind 437
“Chronology of Technic Civilization” By Sandra Miesel 663

20 thoughts on “FORGOTTEN BOOKS #457: RISE OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE By Poul Anderson

  1. wolf

    I fondly remember these stories – in a way they are timeless just like another one of my favourites:
    A Bertram Chandler
    george, have you written on him and his ooks yet?

    Reply
  2. Todd Mason

    Anderson was a Young Lion starting to publish just before the slightly older Chandler, Anderson in the immediate post World War 2 years…and part of what’s amusing about this series is that some of the stories in this volume come from three of his most key markets for his fiction: PLANET STORIES, ANALOG and (for the degree of his work’s appeal to young readers) BOY’S LIFE (Anderson was the most evenly represented of the writers for PLANET STORIES and ASTOUNDING SF–as ANALOG was still titled in the 1950s)–when the bonehead consensus was that these two magazines were somehow the polar opposites of what sf was about…they weren’t, by any means, as any reasonably astute reader going back to them now without the the blinders of callow received wisdom might see…ASTOUNDING in the 1950s would run crap by Hubbard and E. B. Cole and PLANET would run crap by Stanley Mullen, but that wasn’t the way to bet it..a given issue might also have brilliant PLANET fiction by Leigh Brackett or Charles Harness as well as Anderson, ASF brilliant Hal Clement or Pauline Ashwell fiction as well as Anderson’s. While some of Anderson’s most ambitious fiction in these years was also appearing in THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION instead….and would continue to do so, into the ’70s, when most of the later material gathered here was first published, either as novels or original stories in Anderson’s collections…

    Reply
      1. wolf

        Me too!
        And this reminds me again of the bookstore that I passed every day on my way from the train station to the university where they had Astounding and always a few sf books on display.
        My first two semesters in 1962/63 I still lived with my parents and the 30 – 40 min train ride was ideal for reading …
        Spent most of my pocket money on books – and beer … 🙂

      2. george Post author

        Wolf, there was a drugstore on my way to school. It had a spinner rack (remember them?) full of paperbacks. I would stop and buy an ACE Double and then spend the rest of the day in school hiding behind textbaoks reading SF and fantasy! Some of the happiest days of my Life!

      3. wolf

        George, while at school in the 1950s I had no money at all for books!
        But a good friend of my mother worked in a bookstore, so in the afternoon I would sometimes go there and she would allow me to get a paperback (in German of course) from one of those spinning racks and read it or at least half of it …
        Goldmann was the publisher and later came Heyne with interesting, sometimes crazy covers.
        They did most of the classics from Asimov to Silverberg, Anderson too of course.

    1. george Post author

      Jeff, the Science Fiction Book Club reprinted the A. Bertram Chandler series in hardcover format before BAEN Books issued trade paperback reprints.

      Reply
    1. george Post author

      Rick, I’m glad to feature Poul Anderson for FFB on a regular basis. He provided so much entertainment and wonder while I was growing up!

      Reply
  3. Cap'n Bob

    Forty or 50 years ago I would have jumped all over this! Now, I’m too old and slow to add anything to my lists! I’m sure it’s a doozy, though!

    Reply
  4. Steve Oerkfitz

    Read a lot of Anderson during my teenage years. Remember liking his short fiction better than his novels.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Jeff Meyerson Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *