KINSHIP WITH THE STARS and A LIGHT IN THE VOID by Poul Anderson
Wayne Throop
from the "golden age" of science fiction in the 50's. In reading (and
in many cases, since I'd seen them before, rereading) these shorter
peices, it strikes me strongly how well Anderson's work from that period
holds up. Much better than many another author of the period.
Further, his treatments of many now-cliche themes are quite strong. In
many cases, stronger than better-known examples from other authors. The
striking examples of this from the _Kinship_ collection are perhaps
"Backwardness", treating the pandora's planet theme, "Enough Rope" and
"The Live Coward" treating the galactic patrol notion from an
interesting perspective, "The Critique of Impure Reason" which is (from
my perspective anyway) a vast improvement on the Asimov
robot-pure-reasoning-gone-amok treatment. From the _Void_ collection,
we have "Flight to Forever" which vaguely echoes his own _Tau_Zero_.
The other striking thing about this collection is that it reminded me
again that one of Anderson's strongest points is his treatments of
tragic themes, perhaps most strikingly in "Terminal Quest" and "The Star
Beast" from _Void_. I don't think anybody does it better.
But his range is broad, and we also have the hilarious "Bicycle Built
for Brew", featuring that oldest and (to me) most fingernail-on-slate-like
cliche of "girl hates boy, boy annoys girl, boy and girl fall into each
others arms in uncontrollable passion". The story was slick enough I could
even forgive him that, which is saying something.
Perhaps the prize of the whole collection, though, is "Uncleftish Beholding".
It's worth the price of the _Kinship_ collection all by itself. I enjoy
clever wordplay and this is among the most enjoyable. The introduction
Poul himself supplies is a bit of a spoiler, so you might want to skip it,
since considerably more than half of the fun here is realizing what he's
up to, and being surprised afresh at each instance of his wordplay, even
when you're finally expecting it.
In short, "Try them... you'll like them!"
%A Poul Anderson
%B Kinship with the Stars
%C New York
%D October 1991
%G ISBN 0-812-51814-4
%I TOR
%T A Bicycle Built for Brew
%T Inside Straight
%T The Critique of Impure Reason
%T Backwardness
%T Duel on Syrtis
%T Uncleftish Beholding
%T Escape from Orbit
%T Enough Rope
%T The Live Coward
%A Poul Anderson
%B Alight in the Void
%C New York
%D April 1991
%G ISBN 0-812-50874-2
%I TOR
%T Terminal Quest
%T Earthman, Beware
%T The Star Beast
%T Son of the Sword
%T Flight to Forever
%T Ballade of an Artificial Satellite
--
Wayne Throop ...!mcnc!dg-rtp!sheol!throopw