Alight In The Void

Poul Anderson's Alight In The Void (New York, 1991, 1993) collects pulp magazine short stories originally published in Super Science Stories, 1950, 1951, or in Adventure Magazine, 1951. Thus, the collection is a nostalgic period piece.

Anderson's Introduction, "Tell Me a Story," discusses the importance of story and ends:

"Herewith a sample of my own contributions to the [pulp] era as it neared its end. Afterward I learned how to write better, but the visions are no more clear, the dreams no more bright - and maybe less so, now - than they were when all the world was young." (p. xiii)

The collection is worth possessing both for the stories that it preserves and for this evocative writing. The world seemed young when we were. One of the British comics writers wrote, "Remember the first Superman movie when the world was young and dinosaurs walked the Earth...?" My daughter was in a push chair at the time of the first Superman movie but took me to the recent Man Of Steel for Fathers' Day.

I am focusing on Alight In The Void for its single work of historical fiction, "Son of the Sword." (Adventure Magazine, 1951) This is one story that I had not read before, despite possessing the collection from time immemorial. Its first page displays yet another example of Anderson's extensive vocabulary: "...shadoof..." (p. 103). (I had to google it.)

The central character is Ankhsenamen, daughter of Akhnaton and widow of Tutankhamen. I admit to not having heard of her before. However, her Wikipedia article reveals how Anderson weaves historical data into his fictional account and also discloses that Ankhsenamen is celebrated in many works of fiction although, unfortunately, this Anderson short story is not mentioned.

Like some others among Anderson shorter works, including "Flight to Forever," which follows it in this collection, "Son of the Sword" is divided into chapters. We are on familiar territory when, in Chapter II, a hired Cypriat merchant fights his way out of the palace with Ankhsenamen who has hired foreign help because she fears assassination. Now read on...