Poul Anderson (1926–2001)

‘In olden time,’ said Hugi, ‘richt after the Fall, nigh everything were Chaos, see ye. But step by step ’tis been driven back. The longest step was when the Saviour lived on earth, for then naught o’ darkness could stand...'

Three Hearts and Three Lions is one of those classic heroic fantasy novels that satisfies on almost every level. Published originally in 1953 and expanded in 1961, it tells the story of Holger Carlsen, an engineer from Denmark who is suddenly transported from a show more World War II battlefield to a world of magic, myths, and monsters. He awakens in a forest without his clothes, where a fully equipped warhorse named Papillion grazes peacefully. Taking the armor, weapons and clothing from the horse's back, Holger notices the shield that hangs from the saddle. Something familiar about the design stirs his memory: three hearts and three lions. But nothing more comes. And yet he can ride the horse and wield the sword skillfully.

As he struggles to make sense of why he is there and how to return, Holger finds himself deeply involved in the battle between Chaos and Law. He gains the friendship of Hugi the dwarf and Alianor the swan maiden, but he find himself at odds with the Elf-lord Duke Alfric and the sorceress Morgan Le Fey.

For fans of heroic fantasy, Three Hearts and Three Lions has nearly everything one could wish: dragons, magic swords, werewolves, the land of Faerie, quests, tragedy, romance, humor, adventure--all held together by an underlying theme and a fairytale atmosphere. While it does not have the sophistication or breadth of The Lord of the Rings, it has an unexpected depth and heart, especially for such a short work.

Three Heart and Three Lions is a true classic from the golden age of fantasy and is listed in Fantasy: The 100 Best Books. show less

“The Last Viking” Series

One does not need to familiarize oneself very much with Poul Anderson’s works before learning that he had – and sometimes freely and indulged – a serious “Viking obsession”. For those who like slight old-fashioned fantasy or historical fiction set in the Viking Age, this is a good thing.

“The Last Viking” series was published as a trilogy of three separate paperbacks in 1980. In fact, these were co-written with Poul’s wife, Karen Anderson, though show more her name does not usually appear in the credits on published versions. No individual book exceeds 300 pages, making the series as a whole still shorter than a modern fantasy or historical fiction novel.

Together, “The Last Viking” series recounts in fictionalized form the life and times of Harald “Hardrada” (i.e., the “hard-ruler”) Sigurdarson (Old Norse: Haraldr harðráða Sigurðarson), king of Norway in the early/mid-11th century AD. The Andersons were not the first modern authors to tackle this subject nor were they to be the last.

Harald himself was a colorful, complicated figure whose eventful career took him from Scandinavia to Byzantium before it ended in England. The main source for his life is his saga within the Heimskringla compendium of sagas of Norwegian kings (where it is perhaps the most readable for a modern audience), though the Andersons make a point of having dug into other medieval Danish, Byzantine, German, and English sources to round out their own take on Harald’s tale. This is, overall, not a bad thing, though they sometimes seem a little too beholden to their sources, cramming anecdotes or references to anecdotes – not to mention a fair bit of historical background into expository dialogue or plain info-dumps. One sometimes feels that there is perhaps more than enough detail for books of these lengths; or, alternatively, the books needed to be longer to provide adequate scope to the material. These are, moreover, mid-20th-century (more than even late-20th-century) novels, but with deep roots in the historical novels of previous generations. Though not going “full William Morris”, the Andersons use archaic or archaizing terms freely (many modern readers may need to reach for a well-stocked dictionary) and cleave system for Anglicizing Old Norse names that may occasionally cause even the silent reader to stumble.

On the other hand, at their best, the narrative and descriptions are rich with evocative prose, and there’s little doubt that the authors (presumably Poul, especially) have a deep feeling for their subject and setting. If one has a taste for Viking-Age adventure helmed by a driven, somewhat flawed, but always compelling protagonist in somewhat stentorian but often vibrant language, then the Andersons will deliver for you in “The Last Viking” series.

The Road of the Sea Horse (The Last Viking, #2)

The second book in the series, The Road of the Sea Horse, covers the life of Harald Harðráða from c. 1046 to c. 1061. Having returned to Norway after a formative career as a mercenary commander in the Byzantine Empire, Harald finds his nephew Magnus (illegitimate son of Harald’s half-brother St. Óláf) on the throne. Harald essentially strongarms Magnus into an agreement to share the rulership of Norway, but also throws his weight into the ongoing conflict between Magnus and Svein Estridsson (despite a brief political dalliance with Svein before joining with Magnus) over the rulership of Denmark. Historically, Magnus then died the very next year, and the convenience of this to Harald has long raised questions for scholars about the extent to which Harald had a hand in the matter. In the Andersons’ novel, Harald might be said to have indeed worked to have brought about Magnus’s death, if not perhaps having been directly responsible – and one has the sense that this is exactly what the Anderson’s Harald (and perhaps the historical Harald) wanted people to think: “I have not technically done anything wrong – but you ought to understand that you shouldn’t get in my way”.

That said, much of the narrative in this book deals precisely with things that get in Harald’s way. Harald has been fired by his experiences with the Byzantine Empire to bring what he sees as a stronger, more stable, and more modern style of kingship to Norway, ideally Denmark – and, indeed, beyond. He muses over the hope of restoring (perhaps bettering) the “North Sea Empire” of King Knut, which (during Harald’s childhood and exile) had included Denmark, Norway, and English (as well as, at least briefly, parts of Sweden). To this end, Harald seeks to consolidate power in Norway by crushing local enemies or binding local allies to him. He also, somewhat obsessively, campaigns year after year in Denmark, winning considerable plunder, though without ever decisively defeating Svein – and his Norwegian levies eventually begin to tire of this interminable foreign adventurer.

Harald’s political and military frustrations are mirrored by his personal ones. Having left his “one true love”, the Byzantine noblewoman Maria, behind when he fled Byzantium, Harald has married Elizabeth (daughter of Yaroslav of the Kyivan Rus') largely out of expedience. But his and Elizabeth’s personalities are not terribly well matched, and Harald formally installs the fiery Thora (daughter of one of Harald’s nobles) as an official concubine. Unsurprisingly, there is little love lost between Elizabeth and Thora; both bear Harald children, though Harald mostly struggles to understand or get on with any of them. Yet with time, Thora’s own strong personality contributes to plenty of conflict between her and Harald, and Harald’s semi-(un)officially bigamous domestic situation sputters along with Harald never quite being able to achieve what he wants – largely contingent on his failure to get everyone around him to do what he wants.

If there is a theme to this second book in The Last Viking series, it is that of Harald’s frustration that no one understands or cooperates with his glorious purpose – without understanding (or at least caring) that his purpose is more annoying than glorious those around him. Harald’s single-minded vision and ambition are also his flaw and his tragedy. The Andersons do fine work in allowing the reader to simultaneously sympathize with Harald even as we see his problems more clearly than he ever will.

The novel ends with a brief episode (based on passages from Adam of Bremen’s History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen) in which Harald leads an exploratory fleet into the Arctic seas, hoping to find a fabled and marvelously clement land of Hyperborea. In the event, they find only mists and ice. At last bowing to the grumblings of his followers, Harald turns back from this venture – though one would be right to expect he’s not yet done trying to make a mark on his world. show less

In the far future, humans only inhabit the stars as personality simulations, subroutines in vast, powerful artificial intelligencies that form a "galactic brain". One such uploaded mind is Christian Brannock. As an engineer, he helped build the first great works in space and was one of the first to work in intimate symbiosis with the AIs who, rather than man, colonized the stars. On Earth, the reigning intelligence is Gaia, a computer that rules human affairs and also posseses, in its show more libraries, presevered human minds it uses to ruin elaborate simulations of real and alternate histories.

Millions of years pass in this novel's almost Stapledonian sweep, and the galactic brain becomes concerned about the seeming obsession of Gaia with Earth history, her secretiveness, and her unresponsiveness to their proposal on whether the now geologically ancient Earth should be saved from a bloated sun, a test run for greater galactic engineering to come. A version of the Brannock mind is copied and sent on his way to Earth.

There he, and a slightly different copy, attempt to figure out what Gaia's up to. One version, inhabiting a robot's body, explores the dying Earth. The other engages in talk and travel with Lucinda Ashcroft, a personality inhabiting Gaia.

This novel puts together, in a surprisingly successful way, just about all the strains of Anderson's previous works from the epic sweep of Tau Zero (SF Collector's Edition) (Gollancz SF collector's edition)to his heroic fantasy to the uploaded minds of some of his most recent science fiction to alternate histories and time travel. The novel's sense of true tragedy is not new to Anderson, but, as the title hints, there is an unexpected theological flavor that is rare, but not unknown, in his work.

This novel should not only satisfy any fan of Anderson's but also serve as a good introduction to the rest of his work. show less

The Terran Empire is "old and fat," and in terminal decline. Nonetheless, despite its many problems, its fall would be worse - heralding a dark age, the "long night." One of the few who would attempt the Sisyphean task of forestalling the Empire's demise is Dominic Flandry - Ensign Flandry serves as a sort of prequel, establishing some of the foundational events and relationships which would forge him into the "Agent of Terra" in future novels.

Without betraying too much of the plot, the bulk show more of the story takes place on a planet on the border between the Terran Empire and the Merseians, a peer-power which is in something of a cold war with Terra. The planet is divided between two sentient species - the land-dwelling-sea-sailing Tigeries, a cat-people which are supported by the Terrans, and Seatrolls, and aquatic species supported by the Merseians. The two Iron-age species are at intermittent war over coastal resources, and are used as proxies as the two space-faring empires vie for control of the planet without resorting to open warfare.

While the story is principally one of adventure, what I appreciate about Anderson is that he does not shy away, or hand-wave the human cost . . . or should I say sentient cost? When powers play the Great Game, people get hurt, and those who get hurt the most are the pawns, the proxies who fight it out while the Great Powers largely avoid bloodshed of their own. By not ignoring this aspect, the actions in the story have serious stakes and consequences, which are not always acknowledged in Adventure Science-Fiction. The way Anderson delves into the cultures of the various species blends a mix of humanity and otherness, giving them depth and a sympathetic perspective - the Merseians even have a few viewpoint chapters which help flesh out their attitudes and reveal how they approach situations in a different manner from that of humanity.

There's a review on this page which states "Space opera that's showing its age." - and I could not feel more differently. Given the attitudes and actions we see on the world stage today, in some ways it feels more relevant than ever. show less