The Many Worlds of Poul Anderson (also known as The Book of Poul Anderson) (1974) was originally edited by Roger Elwood. This DAW Books edition leaves out Elwood’s introduction, but leaves everything else just the same.
Poul Anderson had a long and successful writing career. This anthology incudes a nice range of his stories. My favorite is “The Queen of Air and Darkness,” a SF mystery story where a distraught mother hires the only private investigator available, Eric Sherrinford, to find her missing son who vanished during an expedition in the wilds of a frontier colony world.
Another Poul Anderson favorite story is “The Longest Voyage,” where a party of daring explorers attempts to circumnavigate their world. While on their dangerous journey they encounter an island civilization which claims to have a prophet who fell from the stars. ” The Longest Journey” won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1961.
I’m a fan of DAW Books’ “The Book of” series that features the works of a single author. Check out another book in the series, The Book of Fritz Leiber here. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- “Tomorrow’s Children” (novelette) (Poul Anderson and F. N. Waldrop (uncredited)) — 9
- “The Queen of Air and Darkness” (novella) (Poul Anderson) — 36
- “Her Strong Enchantments Failing” (essay) (Patrick L. McGuire) — 81
- “Epilogue” (novella) (Poul Anderson) — 106
- “The Longest Voyage” (novelette) (Poul Anderson) — 153
- “Challenge and Response” (essay) (Sandra Miesel) — 184
- “Journeys End” (short story) (Poul Anderson) — 204
- “A World Named Cleopatra” (essay) (Poul Anderson) — 213
- “The Sheriff of Canyon Gulch” (novelette) (Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson) — 225
- “Day of Burning” (novelette) (Poul Anderson) — 245
I’ve never read much Anderson, but liked “The Queen of Air and Darkness” and a couple of others.
Jeff, Poul Anderson started writing Science Fiction in the 1940s and continued writing for 50 years. My favorite characters include Nicholas van Rijn–a clever trader–and Dominic Flandry–an agent of the Terran Empire. Anderson’s Time Patrol stories are also fun reading.
And fantasy. One of the best writers of space opera and other sf adventure so far, but not limited to that by any means. A bit of good crime fiction on the side.
Todd, it always impresses me when authors have a wide range like Poul Anderson.
I haven’t read anything by Poul Anderson but this sounds like a good place to start.
Tracy, DAW Books published a series of “THE BOOK OF…” featuring several writers. This Poul Anderson volume displays the range of his writing and would be a good place to start! I recommend all the DAW series of writers.
And the collaboration with Dickson here is one of their “Hoka” stories, about a species of intelligent, highly imitative aliens who resemble slightly larger koalas, who love imitating human fictional scenarios for a kind of cosplay existence. Very amusing when I was reading them 40-50 years ago, and suspect they hold up reasonably well.
Todd, I enjoy Anderson/Dickson’s HOKA stories. Fun stuff!
Cutting out Elwood probably only improved the book.
Todd, for all of Elwood’s faults, he did increase the number of anthologies published in the 1970s.