This review was written for the “Go Review That Book!” Group – game thread found here:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/400...

Although I read a fair amount of science fiction I have never really gotten into Poul Anderson, so I was not even really aware that I owned this book until Jensen_AKA_DL selected it for me to read/review.

Encouraged by the cover blurb - His big one! The long-awaited masterpiece by one of SF’s all-time greats! - I finished my current read and dove in…

The basic storyline starts out with the crew of the Emissary returning, earlier than they were expected, from space exploration via a “T-machine” – an artifact of the mysterious “Others.” They have encountered alien civilizations and expected a triumphant return only to be immediately embroiled in politico-military intrigue. Luckily, our free-swinging capitalist hero, Dan Broderson, had anticipated this turn of events. Surmising their return, Dan sets out on a rescue mission and the story is off – dodging authorities, out-thinking the bad guys, gunfights, consorting with aliens…and sex, lots and lots of SEX.

One of the socio-cultural speculative fiction themes woven into this novel is the concept of polyamory. However, Anderson doesn’t seem very comfortable with this notion. The in-novel discussion seems apologetic and defensive on one hand, and over-done and melodramatic on the other. You never get that impression (which Heinlein, for example, was able to convey) that the characters are comfortable with themselves, their sexuality, and the concept of polyamory.

Also on the social/cultural side: the impact of technologies linking computer capabilities to the human brain, on the personality and psychology on those humans, termed “holothetes”, which have been so trained since childhood. We learn about this through the character Joelle Ky, the holothete of the Emissary crew – apparently the transcendent experiences of the holothete yield a “wholly new order of perceiving and existing” which distances them from normal human interaction. Although, I have to say, it seems Joelle spends an inordinate amount of time reflecting on petty, purely human concerns for such a transcendant being.

I did spend some time as I was reading the book wondering what in the heck the title was referring to – a question that was not answered until quite late in the narrative.

Interspersed in between the action-adventure, space-opera chapters is a little Zen-like narrative consisting of short chapters which seem to trace the evolution of consciousness. I’m not sure how much, if anything, they add to the story. They did act as a kind of mental shift-change to cease the onrush of action and encourage a moment of reflection.

Published in the late 1970s this work now seems somewhat dated but overall a decent space-opera. A fairly quick read with a few mildly interesting concepts – 3 ½ stars. ( )