Showing results by author "Poul Anderson" in All Categories

From Nebula Award winner Gregory Benford comes this ambitious hard SF anthology that collects five original novellas. Each one takes the very long view - all are set at least ten thousand years in the future. The authors take a rigorously scientific view of such grand panoramas, confronting the largest issues of cosmology, astronomy, evolution, and biology.

With "wonderfully logical detail...exciting storytelling and moving characterization" (Anthony Boucher), science fiction master Poul Anderson explores what happens when the next stage of evolution is thrust upon humanity and animals. As Earth passes out of a magnetic field that has suppressed intelligence for eons, the mental capacity for all mammals increases exponentially, radically changing the structures of society.

The Interbeing League had been formed to make contact with new intelligent races in the galaxy and offer them membership. But when the League encountered the Hokas, furry creatures strongly resembling the teddy bears of Earth, the league's agent, Alexander Jones, could have been excused for wishing he had a simpler assignment than making sense out of the Hokas - such as singlehandedly stopping an interstellar war.

College student, ex-marine, and martial artist Malcolm Lockridge is in prison awaiting his trial for murder when he receives an unexpected visit from an extraordinarily beautiful woman named Storm. Claiming to be a representative of the Wardens, a political faction from 2,000 years in the future, Storm offers the astonished young man a proposition: freedom in return for his assistance in recovering an unspecified lost treasure. But it is not long before Malcolm realizes that, in truth, he's been recruited as a soldier in the Wardens' ongoing war against their rivals, the Rangers.

Captain Dominic Flandry has been knighted for his many services to the Terran Empire - an empire which is old, jaded, and corrupt, as Flandry well knows - but he also knows that the empire is better than anything that is likely to take its place. And while that "Sir" before his name may be an added attraction to comely ladies (not that he has ever lacked for the pleasant company of the same), he expects that it will also bring him less welcome attention from envious "colleagues" within the empire.

No longer a brash, young ensign, Captain Dominic Flandry has risen in rank but now appreciates fully that the Terran empire is old and tired, wanting to be left in peace. But the enemies it has made and the competing empire of Merseia will give it no peace. Too evenly matched for open warfare not to destroy them both, the opponents engage in subtle thrust and counter-thrust, feint and counter-feint, with Flandry in the thick of it.

Far into the reaches of space, Anson Guthrie and a band of colonists have forged a new existence on Amaterasu not as physical beings but as downloaded consciousness watched over by the benevolent Life Mother. Yet as idyllic as their lives may be, back home on Earth the situation is growing grim.

One man against the limitless wastes of time, he fought the strange, inhuman civilizations of Earth's unguessable future, searching hopelessly among the never-ending tomorrows-for the road to one unforgettable yesterday!

In this collection of classic science fiction tales you'll hear if a ship captain seeking vengeance on a space beast, out of control advertising, co-workers suggesting murder, crossing the void on the bridge of bones, and many other exciting concepts.

Many centuries in the future, no great destiny for humankind exists on Earth. The Lunarians, genetically engineered human adaptations bred to survive on the moon, have spread out toward the stars. But not even their colony on distant Proserpina is free from the suffocating influence of the Teramind, the vast network of intelligent machines that preserves order and logic in the universe.

Terre. XXIIIe siècle. Cinquante astronautes. Vingt-cinq femmes, vingt-cinq hommes, parmi les meilleurs dans leurs domaines : astrophysiciens, mathématiciens, biologistes, astronavigateurs... partent pour un impressionnant voyage : rejoindre l'étoile Beta Virginis à trente-deux années-lumière de la Terre. Ils disposent pour ce faire du plus stupéfiant des vaisseaux, le Leonora Christina, dernier né de sa génération, un navire capable de puiser son énergie au cœur même de l'espace et d'évoluer à des vitesses relativistes.

Embark on a perilous journey aboard a black galleon to the fabled, fear-haunted Citadel of the Xanthi wizards. Corun, the condemned pirate of Conahur, embraces the challenge with a daring laugh. For him, this treacherous quest offers a slim chance to escape the headsmans axe and savor a few more moments of life and love—even if his heart belongs to a witch!

In a distant future, Earth continues its orbit around the Sun, a forgotten speck in the galaxy, irrelevant to its trillions of descendants. Yet, for the few million who remain, life is a tapestry of simplicity and quiet joy. But when interstellar politics demands their departure from Earth, the story unfolds in unexpected ways. Join the legendary Poul Anderson as he delves into the significance of Earth to humanity, focusing on one mans poignant journey. (Summary by Phil Chenevert)

Sci Fi Shorts is a collection of classic science fiction stories from the golden age of space stories. This group of five unabridged short stories by various authors covers such adventures as space-going disasters, culture-shocked Martians, minds being stolen, alien flying cities and ancient artefacts being discovered in the far future.

The way we feel about another person or about objects is often bound up in associations that have no direct connection with the person or object, at all. Often, what we call a "change of heart" comes about sheerly from a change in the many associations which make up our present viewpoint. Now, suppose that these associations could be altered artificially, at the option of the person who was in charge of the process.

An enterprising company has set up a mining endeavor on an asteroid to collect, process, and sell atmospheric gas products. The company, called Sword, is initially successful until an unnamed government tries to stamp out freedom and free enterprise in the Belt so the gases and minerals can be sent back to Earth, essentially trying to establish the business as a colony. Early Poul Anderson with a great finish.

The Burning Bridge is the story of fleet of ships seeking to colonize a distant planet. The trip is so long that most of the 3,000 passengers are kept in cryogenic sleep. As the fleet approaches the point of no return it receives a short message from Earth which may change everything; but the few that are awake will not have to make a life altering decision for everyone.

These stories are set in the familiar quasi-medieval worlds to which modern listeners are accustomed, and also stories rooted in the authentic myth-constructs of high antiquity, along with several that depend for their power on the juxtaposition of fantastic situations and terribly contemporary aspects of modern life on Earth. Together these stories make up a collection which provides reassuring proof of fantasy's eternal power in this technological age.

Security takes place in a future America, where control and efficiency are emphasized, and unquestioned loyalty is required. Nobody wants a repeat of the disastrous war that happened 75 years previous, and sacrifices must be made to ensure the ultimate peace. At least that's what Dr. Allen Lancaster, a pyhsicist and Project Chief thinks, until a top secret branch of Security decides his planned vacation will be spent on a mission in space.

By the end of the 21st century, a deep-state human-systems organization, the Psychotechnic Institute, has begun melding neuroscience and psychoanalytics to create the foundation for generations of more peaceful, more powerful, more "sensitive" human beings. In Poul Anderson's 1954 science-fiction thriller, The Sensitive Man, one such human, Simon Dalgetty, is on the trail of brutal men who kidnapped Michael Tighe, keeper of the keys to the Institute's secrets, and, thus, to the fate of world order.