THE BROKEN SWORD (1954, rev. ed. 1971)
THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS (1961)
OPERATION CHAOS (1971)
OPERATION LUNA (1999)
HROLF KRAKI'S SAGA (1973)
A MIDSUMMER TEMPEST (1974)
THE MERMAN'S CHILDREN (1979)
THE DEMON OF SCATTERY, with Mildred D. Broxon (1979)
CONAN THE REBEL (1980)
THE DEVIL'S GAME (1980)
FANTASY (1981)
WAR OF THE GODS (1997), regretfully, I think this was a weak, for Anderson, book.
Except for the regrettably weak WAR OF THE GODS, Anderson's fantasies are of such high quality that I find it difficult to name the two or three I admire most. But THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS is definitely one of them. And A MIDSUMMER TEMPEST is unusual in being written almost entirely in blank verse. TEMPEST was written as a homage to William Shakespeare and his plays.
The stories I listed below are found in the collection called, with regrettable unoriginality, FANTASY. The collection includes two non fiction articles by Poul Anderson and an "Afterword" by Sandra Miesel
"House Rule"
"The Tale of Hauk"
"Of Pigs and Men"
"A Logical Conclusion"
"The Valor of Cappen Varra"
"The Gate of the Flying Knives"
"The Barbarian"
"On Thud and Blunder"
"Interloper"
"Pact"
"Superstition"
"Fantasy in the Age of Science"
"The Visitor"
"Bullwinch's Mythology"
"Afterword: An Invitation to Elfland," by Sandra Miesel
Truthfully, the list I gave above includes stories which are at least borderline hard science fiction. Examples being "House Rule" and "Superstition." I especially admire the rigorous logic Poul Anderson uses in developing ideas most of us would call fantasies. Two examples of that being "The Tale of Hauk" and "Pact."
Before he died in 2001, Poul Anderson arranged to have several of his books and stories posthumously published. The last of his fantasy stories, "The Lady of the Winds," was published by FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION in the Oct/Nov 2001 issue.
I am convinced Poul Anderson was a master short story writer. In both fantasy and hard science fiction. By turns poetic and elegiac, and scrupulously faithful to known science or not too impossible extrapolations from what was known. He also excelled in describing his characters and the backgrounds of his stories.
9 comments:
Sean, Thank you for giving us another brief respite from the Shackley monologue! I didn't have any problems with WAR OF THE GODS. I will have to reread it and see. Maybe OPERATION LUNA was a bit pedestrian?
I think the fantasy element of THE KING OF YS is more than slight. Certainly, many long passages and entire chapters are pure historical fiction. (To a lesser extent, this is also true of THE TIME PATROL.) However, the gods of Ys choose each new Queen, enter into conflict with Grallon and eventually withdraw before the new god so their role is crucial to the plot of the tetralogy.
I do not remember rating THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS highly so I will have to give it another go. It took me a few attempts to get into MIDSUMMER TEMPEST but I came to think that it has an outstanding literary quality among Anderson's works.
Hi, Paul!
Thanks for the comments you addressed to me. First, let me say at once that WAR OF THE GODS was not poorly written or unreadable in any way. What bothered me was how WAR seemed too obviously derived, I think, from HROLF KRAKI'S SAGA. Or, perhaps more clearly, too imitative of Scandinavian mythology in general.
I did not think OPERATION LUNA too pedestrian, however. I liked how Anderson speculated on how "magic" might, in the right circumstances, have been a science rather than, as the CATHECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH says, ultimately an attempt at coercing God Himself.
Certainly, I have to agree that the pagan gods of Ys plays a role in THE KING OF YS, both in choosing new kings and queens and in the conflict that arose between them and the pious Mithran Gratillonius. A conflict which inevitably widened and deepened as Christianity more and more took part in that strife. But many historical novels also showed their characters being affected by their faiths. So I would still argue for the fantasy elements in THE KING OF YS being rather slight.
I'm sorry you did not quite like THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS. That book made a really deep impression on me when I first read it as a boy. I hope a rereading convinces you it has merit! And I agree with your comment about A MIDSUMMER TEMPEST having outstanding literary quality.
Sean
What is Broxon?
Should THE DEVIL'S GAME not be on the list?
While Ys exists and one of its queens dies, a sign appears on the woman who is to be the next queen and this stops when Ys has been destroyed. This intervention, then withdrawal, by the gods is crucial to the plot and so, I think, confirms the tetralogy's status as historical fantasy.
Anderson wrote 6 straight historical fiction novels? - Rogue Sword, The Golden Slave, Mother of Kings, the Last Viking trilogy.
3 Hearts and... was ok but not, I thought, outstanding. But I will give it another go.
Hi, Paul!
Mildred D. Broxon was co author, along with Poul Anderson, of THE DEMON OF SCATTTERY. I did some quick googling but found nothing substantial about her or her work. Later, I'll check to see if she has an entry in the Clutopedia.
Actually, I agree you are right and I should have included THE DEVIL'S GAME (1980) in my list of Anderson's fantasy novels. Would you include that title in my list, after CONAN THE REBEL? I either simply forgot to put it in my list or thought it was too CONTEMPORARY to be fantasy. But not all fantasies have to be set in the past!
I still think calling THE KING OF YS historical fantasy too strong a term. After all, I think Anderson himself called it simply a historical novel with ELEMENTS of fantasy (going by my perhaps faulty memory).
Let's see, I agree these were historical novels written by Anderson: THE GOLDEN SLAVE, ROGUE SWORD, the three volumes of THE LAST VIKING, and MOTHER OF KINGS. With THE KING OF YS debatably belonging to this category. You already know of how I've written of finding an unexpected connection between ROGUE SWORD and THE HIGH CRUSADE.
Look up your copy of Anderson's posthumous collection, GOING FOR INFINITY. He included two chapters of that novel as part of GOING. Anderson's prefatory comments makes it plain he was fond of THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS. I hope a rereading will persuade to regard it more approvingly!
Sean
Sorry about Broxon! I can see that the word is the surname of a co-author but, at some stage of editing the text, the single word "Broxon" appeared on a line by itself and I thought it was a title.
Hi, Paul!
No problem about your little misunderstanding about Mildred Broxon. Poul Anderson seldom had any co authors, the most prominent being Gordon Dickson for their Hoka stories and his widow Karen Anderson for THE KING OF YS.
A really MYSTERIOUS co author is F.N. Waldrop, who collaborated with Poul Anderson for "Tomorrow's Children" in 1947 (but for no other stories). There's no entry for him in the Clutopedia and I simply can't find anything substantial about Waldrop online. Baffling!
Thanks for adding THE DEVIL'S GAME to my "Andersonian Fantasy" note.
Sean
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