Collections III

Having remarked that Poul Anderson's Conquests (London, 1981) and Seven Conquests (New York, 1984) are one collection with two titles - in fact, they are the UK and US editions -, I now find that I have a copy of each on my shelves so I must have bought them at different times, thinking that they were different books. Anderson's Foreword, explaining this "...one-author one-theme one-genre collection..." about "...human conflict leading to institutionalized violence..." is very good (p. 9 or pp. 1-2). I agree with a lot of it and disagree to the extent that is expectable and necessary in this kind of discussion.

It was appropriate that I commented on "A Bicycle Built For Brew" after discussing The Enemy Stars because Anderson's introduction to the former in Kinship With The Stars (New York, 1991) says that he wrote this light-hearted story after The Enemy Stars, "...a bleak piece of pretty hard science fiction..." and a murder mystery so he "...was in a mood to kick up my heels." (p. 1)

We often commend Anderson's versatility and here it is, in part, displayed.