Sunday 2 October 2022

A Little Thought?

Poul Anderson's novels and shorter stories about Dominic Flandry were:

"...written over a span of thirty-odd years. They were meant to be first and foremost science fiction adventures, entertainment. Yet I tried, as well, to convey some feeling of how endlessly varied and wonderful the universe is in which we live, and to provoke a little thought about real history and politics."
-Poul Anderson, The Game Of EmpireINTRODUCTION, pp. 191-192 AT p. 191.

The Flandry series provokes a lot of thought about extra-terrestrial environments and evolution, political theory and practice, economic systems, real and future history, theology, physics, philosophy of mind and artificial intelligence. Some readers are still thinking.

2 comments:

S.M. Stirling said...

Yup. Poul did more serious thought with rip-roaring adventure than a lot of scholars can pack into thick nonfiction studies.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Here I agree with both Paul and Stirling. Plus, Stirling has packed a lot of thought into his own stories.

Well, I do like SOME "...thick nonfiction studies"!

Ad astra! Sean