Short Stories II

I understand that Poul Anderson wrote three "Wing Alak of the Galactic League Patrol" stories and I have just read the two that are collected in Kinship With The Stars. It remains to be seen whether the third Alak story is in any of the other collections that I have here.

It would be good if the galaxy were full of intelligent beings at various stages of technological development because, in that case, the human race would not be solely responsible for the future of intelligence and civilization.

For an anthology of new stories on the theme of self-sacrifice for a cause, James Blish wrote "A Hero's Life," later expanded as "A Style in Treason," about a professional traitor, and Poul Anderson wrote "High Treason" about a man convicted of treason. I read the Anderson story in the 1970's and thought that it was good. It had a sort of World War II feel against an interstellar background. Since it was collected in Conflict, I will shortly reread it.

For the time being, I am checking through some of Anderson's short stories before returning to his novels.