Tuesday 9 August 2016

First Contact

I said here that we could make a list of Poul Anderson's First Contact stories but it is no easy task. I remember stories without always remembering titles and it would take some time to ransack collections and check the contents of stories.

"The Green Thumb"
"Wings of Victory"
"Peek! I See You!"
"The Queen of Air and Darkness"
"Soldier From The Stars"
"When Half Gods Go"
"The Word To Space" 
"Backwardness"
"Turning Point"
"Prophecy"

What else?

In "When Half Gods Go," a human character thinks that the Sagittarians might be "Cagliostros."
-Poul Anderson, The Gods Laughed (New York, 1982), p. 58.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And to me, one of the most interesting stories in THE GODS LAUGHED is "The Martyr." I will not reveal the "point" of that story, only saying "The Martyr" is one of the stories written by Poul Anderson having a completely unexpected, even shocking ending. Other examples being the recently discussed "Eutopia," and then "Welcome" and WORLD WITHOUT STARS.

Perhaps other readers can suggest additions to this list of stories with "shocker" endings?

Sean