See
Pulp Origins.Anderson states that he wrote about a dozen action-adventure sf short stories and adds: "That was all." (See the above link.) But it was not all. Action-adventure permeates his later works to an extent that might make some readers focus just on that single aspect. I mentioned an unnecessary rescue sequence in The Boat Of A Million Years. See Action And Military Hardware. We also saw that a randomly read extract generated a wholly mistaken impression of The Corridors Of Time. See Climaxes And Escapes.
Suppose that I recommend The Earth Book Of Stormgate as a powerful future historical omnibus collection, adding that the tenth of the twelve collected works, "Lodestar," recounts a pivotal turning point in the history of the Polesotechnic League. What does a new reader find on opening this volume at the beginning of "Lodestar"?
"Lightning reached. David Falkayn heard the crack of torn air and gulped a rainy reek of ozone. His cheek stung from the near miss. In his eyes, spots of blue-white dazzle danced across night.
"'Get aboard, you two,' Adzel said. 'I'll hold them.'
"Crouched, Falkayn peered after a target for his own blaster."
-Poul Anderson, "Lodestar" IN Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1979), pp. 370-408 AT p. 307.
The reader might think, first, that, since this is a future history series, we might have left Falkayn, Adzel and Chee Lan far behind us by now and, secondly, that we do not need yet another escape scene with blasters. However, this particular fight is happening for an important reason that will soon be made apparent. Anderson could have introduced the issue in a completely different way.
In fact, "Lodestar" was written as a concluding trader team story. Fortunately, the team did appear once more but not in a mere continuation. Years later, van Rijn reconvenes the team for a completely different purpose - and that is the end of the Polesotechnic League series.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
But what Poul Anderson meant by "That was all" was that he wrote a dozen or so stories for PLANET STORIES. And, yes, action/adventure can be found in many of the stories he wrote thru out his long writing career. But PLANET STORIES focused on pub. tales that were mostly oriented to action and adventure. And Anderson being the kind of writer he was, you can find more than simply than swift moving action and derring do in the stories he wrote for PS.
I would not have recommended to new readers they started reading the Technic stories with "Lodestar." It could too easily have given them a false impression of the entire series. The stories originally collected in TRADER TO THE STARS: "Margin of Profit," "Hiding Place," and "Territory" is a better way to start. But of course you knew that!
Ad astra! Sean
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