The Boat of a Million Years

Throughout human history, it seems, there have been a few immortals born -- ageless, quick-healing, disease-resistant, but otherwise all too human. They can die in battle or from despair at their loneliness among short-timers they are doomed to watch grow old and die, over and over again. Those who survive learn caution and a certain detachment from the lives of ordinary mortals. They fear exposure and the wrath of the short-timers; so they steer clear of greatness, slipping through the fringes of history like watchful ghosts.

We first meet Hanno, a Phoenician trader already centuries old at the time of the Punic Wars. He lives and prospers but grieves for all his lost loves, and is half-obsessed with the need to find an immortal woman he will never have to watch age and die. In the days of Imperial Rome he finally discovers another immortal, the barbarian Rufus. They travel together for many centuries. Elsewhere on Earth a few others begin to realize what they are. Aliyat, born in the ancient Near East, and eventually the oldest woman in the world practicing the oldest profession. Tu Shan, a Chinese peasant who becomes a Taoist sage. Yukiko, a court lady of Heian Japan. Deathless, an Amerind shaman. Svoboda, born a peasant in ninth-century Russia. Corinne Macandaul, born in an Old South slave cabin. And Gnaeus Patulcius, the eternal bureaucrat.

In a series of vignettes and short stories, Anderson follows them down through centuries as they grow, learn, grieve, and eventually find assorted kinds of peace for themselves.

Only in the 20th century do Hanno's far-flung nets bring eight of them together. The power of technology in the hands of nation-states is making their traditional way of concealment ever more precarious. Should they reveal themselves? The last "historical" segment takes place in 1975. Only the last hundred pages are set in the future.

The eight Survivors become increasingly alienated in a nanotechnology-based civilization of immortals that is changing its very concept of humanity faster than they can adapt. Only they cannot let go of their pasts -- so they persuade the new humans to build them a starship, and go faring into the void. There, at last, they find a worthy destiny.[BACK]

Harvest of Stars

Medium-future power struggle between a North America gripped by a techno-religious dictatorship, and an interplanetary corporation representing the last bastion of free enterprise: from the author of The Boat of a Million Years, Orion Shall Rise, etc. The doctrine of Avantism predicts a transcendent future for humanity; but, meanwhile, the real ruler of North America is secret police chief Enrique Sayre, whose best weapon is a computer-copied personality ("download") of Avantism's main opponent--the late Fireball head honcho Anson Guthrie--that's been reprogrammed to accept Avantism. However, an unreconstructed download of Guthrie is still annoyingly at large and attempting to smuggle itself out of America in the company of ace Fireball pilot Kyra Davis. After many narrow escapes, Guthrie and Davis arrive on the moon, where Guthrie encourages the moon's independent rulers to help start a revolution to overthrow the repressive Avantists. Guthrie and a Davis download then head for Alpha Centauri to explore the only known habitable planet outside the solar system; back on Earth, meanwhile, advanced artificial intelligences fuse with human intellects to bring about the transcendence predicted by Avantism. In his career, Anderson has written dozens of wonderful short to medium-length stories (the Time Patrol series, etc.). Why he persists in grinding out ponderous, somnolent, bloated offerings like this is one of science fiction's enduring mysteries. -- Copyright �1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. [BACK]

The Stars are also Fire

From Booklist , 07/19/94:
A sequel or companion to Anderson's ambitious Harvest of Stars, in which the prototypically capitalist Fireball Corporation does battle with the odd, rationalist cult of Avantism, at last escaping to the stars. The unorthodox intelligence of Anson Guthrie dominates the first novel, and he's present here, too, in his descendant Dagney Beynac's genes. Her genes are vital, in fact, for the revitalization of humankind on the moon and beyond. Beynac's lunar origins and unique connections to Anson Guthrie help to foment rebellion against the cybercosm, a network of machine intelligences that is not exactly hostile to humankind but renders it obsolete. On earth, the cybercosm has demonstrated it can manage the planet far better than humans ever did, raising once more one of sf's most persistent questions: if machines do everything humans do and do it better, what are humans for? With this grand speculation, Anderson poses many lesser ones: what swimming would be like if one were weightless; how one might deal with the enforced inactivity of a long spaceflight; the nature of crossbred, bioengineered species (one of which Dagney Beynac may be the mother of); and the difficulty of mining operations on the lunar surface. Not as swiftly paced as the classic The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, rather more clever and speculative than the Foundation novels, Anderson's new epic owes clear allegiances to both Heinlein and Asimov and will appeal to their many fans. Copyright� 1994, American Library Association. All rights reserved [BACK]

From Kirkus Reviews, 06/15/94:
Several generations after Dagney Beynac and other humans settle on the moon, social, political, and economic strife is on the rise between the Lunarians, genetically altered descendants of these first human settlers, and the rest of the human race. A struggle for Lunarian independence is thwarted by the cybercosm, a sort of cosmic Big Brother of linked artificial intelligence that likes the status quo. The key to gaining independence, one Lunarian leader believes, is to be found in the uncovering of an astronomical find kept shielded for centuries by the cybercosm and the descendants of Beynac, a discovery dating from the earliest days of lunar colonization. Two intrepid humans, Aleka Kame and Ian Kenmuir, agree to take on the challenge of exposing the secret, and their adventures take them to earth cultures transformed by political and technological upheaval, and the passage of time. Meanwhile, the reader is taken back in time, to the first century of lunar colonization, to the creation of the Lunarian race, and the discovery in space that drives this other quest, centuries later. Anderson demonstrates once again his powerful storytelling talents, and betrays once again his tendency to hang far too much political, sociological, and technological baggage on the shining thread of the tale. -- Copyright �1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. [BACK]

Harvest the Fire

From Booklist , 10/01/95:
This is the third volume in Anderson's saga about humanity's strife-ridden future among the stars. Anderson spellbindingly demonstrates the complex rivalry between human and machine through the eyes of both a human and a cybernetic protagonist. Jesse Nicol is a Terran poet who longs for a greatness in his craft that only adventure can inspire and whose wish is granted by his love for the wild, moon-born revolutionary Falaire. Nicol's android counterpart, Venator, carries the resurrected consciousness of a long-dead human whose talents are needed by the ubiquitous Teramind to forestall a possible rebellion against the cybernetic-controlled Federation. The fates of poet and android intertwine when Venator tracks the rebel leader to a well-armed starship bound for the solar system's outermost world, Proserpina, and Nicol joins Falaire on board. Anderson fuses elegiac prose and a sweeping vision of man's technological future as only he can--brilliantly. Already, at its current three-book length, this is one the best sf future histories. Copyright� 1995, American Library Association. All rights reserved [BACK]

The Fleet of Stars

Poul Anderson marks the 50th year of his science fiction writing career with the conclusion of his Harvest of Stars series. While the writing is leisurely, the action bounces between the solar system and the stars as Anson Guthrie returns to action once again (or at least his downloaded consciousness does). It seems the artificial intelligence that half support and more than half control the Terran system are hiding something from humanity, and Guthrie is determined to find out what that is. [BACK]

The fourth novel in his Harvest of Stars series shows that, after decades of extraordinary brilliance, Anderson is still the sf master he has long been acknowledged to be. Following the career of Anson Guthrie (in various manifestations) in a luminously realized future universe, the story centers on the relationship of and conflict between humans and the artificial intelligences devised--all too well--to aid them. The Teramind (defined in the list of dramatis personae as "the apex of the cybercosm") and its associated sophotects (Anderson has always been an onomastic whiz) protect the inhabitants of Earth and other planets so well that they have lost the spirit of enterprise that keeps them lively and human. Guthrie and his confederates must discover the nature and motives of the Teramind and win their own, human place in the universe. That universe is every bit as compelling as those Anderson created in his earlier future histories; meanwhile, his storytelling gifts have matured to fit his recent sweeping themes. Copyright� 1997, American Library Association. All rights reserved [BACK]

Fourth addition to Anderson's future-history series. Far out in space, Terran colonists on planet Amaterasu, led by reincarnated hero Anson Guthrie, have developed a planetary consciousness or Life Mother. Lunarians occupy Alpha Centauri, and, back in the solar system, the remote asteroid Proserpina. Earth, the Moon, and Mars are benevolently ruled by an aggregate of machine intelligences, the cybercosm, and by its ultimate manifestation, the Teramind. News reaches Amaterasu that the Teramind, using the sun as a gravitational lens, has made some spectacular discovery and then suppressed it--and also sabotaged the Proserpinans' attempts to make a gravitational lens of their own. So a computer download of Guthrie must travel to the solar system to investigate. Hundreds of pages later--plot is too definite a word to describe the goings-on--young ex-policeman Fenn successfully raids the data-receiving station on Mars; the data seems to reveal the presence of ancient machine civilizations far off in space. But skeptical old Guthrie doesn't believe it and organizes his own raid on the lens's focus. This information shows conclusively that no such civilizations exist: The Teramind planned the deception as a means of controlling the humans in its charge. Flabby and meandering: an average entry in this very disappointing series. -- Copyright �1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. [BACK]

Operation Chaos

Poul Anderson creates an alternative world where magic is found to work around the time of WW1, and feature a husband-and-wife team of a werewolf and witch. A framing sequence works around several short stories, but it focuses on the end on their child...which has been kidnapped into Hell, literally...and how they invaded Hell itself to get their child back. As usual, Poul does a complete world and thinks out the ramifications of such magic wonderfully. Unfortunately, also as usual, oftentimes his language isn't natural, but expository. But don't let that stop you...this is still an EXCELLENT read, proving even Hell itself is not proof against fierce parental love. [BACK]

Orion Shall Rise

This may be Poul Anderson's best long novel, which is saying something. Hundreds of years after the nuclear Doom, new cultures and empires have arisen. Science has recovered and even advanced, but its technological expression is stifled in a world that is desperately resource-poor. Earth's dominant power is the Maurai, a deeply conservative culture that is committed to long-term ecological and political stability. The Maurai's chief rivals are the Norresterners, anarchic technophiles who think that atomic energy might not be so bad after all. The Maurai have defeated and occupied the Norresterners, but you just know it can't last. This big, sprawling novel also sketches several other fascinating cultures, including a feudal republic dominated by a floating city that survived the nuclear war. About half-way through the book the general plot pattern may begin to look familiar. If you're acquainted with Norse mythology, you're in for a treat, because Anderson rings some truly marvelous changes on those oft-told tales. Even if you're not, though, this is still a solid read, hard SF mixed with some very plausible anthropology and politics. Some wooden characters and an overly pat ending are the only things that keep it from being a perfect "10". Highly recommended.[BACK]

The Time Patrol

Anderson has been producing Time Patrol yarns--all eight are collected here, plus an original--since 1954. The idea is that, since time is mutable, anyone possessing a time machine can change history, by accident or design; so the Danellian supermen who will evolve a million years hence have set up the Time Patrol in order to ensure that the past that leads to their development will actually occur. Unattached Agent Manse Everard is free to roam through time, tackling whatever problems arise and straightening kinks in the historical record: in A.D. 464, a do-gooder from the third millennium changes history in order to improve on what actually happened; a friend of Everard's accidentally becomes Cyrus the Great of Persia; Mongols invade America; Carthage defeats Rome; a time researcher changes the destiny of his 4th-century Goth subjects; 31st-century Exaltationist Merau Varagan tries to destroy 9th-century B.C. Phoenicia; Germans war with Romans in A.D. 70; and Varagan, again, meddles in the New World of the 16th century. Absorbing, accurate historical backdrops add depth and conviction to yarns that otherwise are neither startlingly original nor particularly rigorously worked out. -- Copyright �1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. [BACK]

War of the Gods