"This is my answer to the question 'What book would you give to a friend who doesn't read SF?'"
-David Drake, quoted on the back of Poul Anderson, The Time Patrol (New York, 1991).
Again, the Time Patrol series is historical.
I would not start anyone with futuristic sf or space opera. In "Territory," "The Master Key" and "Lodestar," natives of different extra-solar planets attack human traders. This could suggest that Poul Anderson wrote nothing but action-adventure fiction. In each case, there is an important reason why the natives attack. Nicholas van Rijn must deduce how to bring peace and trade to t'Kela and Cain. David Falkayn decides to do something about the inequities and injustices in the Polesotechnic League.
Poul Anderson is so much more than he sometimes seems.
4 comments:
Paul:
I'd actually favor starting people out with the action-adventure such as "Territory." Get 'em hooked on that, then introduce them to the hard stuff. Ohhh, wowwww....
David,
But it depends what the prospective readers are interested in in the first place. Many people would not look at futuristic sf with gunfights.
Paul.
I'm divided, but on the whole I agree with Paul here.
Gentlemen,
It's hard for me to say which of Anderson's stories I would recommend to a first time reader of his works. MY first Anderson book was the 1965 Chilton Books edition of AGENT OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE. The action/adventure stories in that book were enough to get me permanently interested in his works.
But if someone INSISTED on me recommending some of Anderson's books then THE HIGH CRUSADE might be a good start. The story is both hard SF and with a dash of the historical novel genre mixed in. For fantasy I suggest THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS.
Sean
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