The High Crusade

This novel takes a common sci-fi premise – an alien race’s first contact with Earth – and adds an unusual twist: what if this contact took place in the year 1345? In the small English village of Ansby, Sir Roger de Tourneville and his vassals are about to join King Edward III on crusade when a giant alien ship suddenly lands among them. Despite being terrified at the appearance of what they believe to be demons, Sir Roger and his men fight the aliens and manage to gain control of the ship. Then, due to one alien’s cunning, the spaceship returns to its home planet – with Sir Roger and his Englishmen aboard!

This was my first experience with Poul Anderson, but it certainly won’t be my last! The description of this book just show more tickled me; how could I resist a book about aliens who land on Earth during the Middle Ages? I was expecting it to read almost like a parody and be extremely funny, but this novel actually has a lot of depth to it. I was surprised by how much I ended up caring for the characters, like Sir Roger, his chronicler Brother Parvus, and his wife Lady Catherine. I also think the book is well plotted, and the ending was a surprise in a very good way! I really, really enjoyed this book and will definitely be seeking out Anderson’s other work. show less

Fun romp as medieval English knights and their retainers hijack a UFO to take them to France and end up invading the aliens' home planet.

This was probably the first alternate history type story I ever read, although with the introduction of aliens to England circa 1345, it is far from a typical alternate history tale. The aliens, called the Wersgorix, show up in a small English town looking to conquer Earth. Instead, the inhabitants, who had been preparing to go to France in the Hundred Years War with their Baron, Sir Roger, surprise the aliens and take their ship. The entire village tries to use the ship to go to France to aid in the war, but end up on an alien planet ruled by the Wersgorix instead. The rest of the book follows the English as they try to defeat the much more technologically advanced Wersgorix.

Much of the combat between Sir Roger's knights and the show more Wersgorix soldiers is just barely plausible. For a race with a star-spanning Empire, the Wersgorix prove to be remarkably incompetent at warfare, but that is explained to a certain extent. The plot isn't really meant to be taken seriously anyway, it is a fun "what if" with a dash of exciting implausibility that adds up to a really good story. show less

I thoroughly enjoyed my reading of The High Crusade by Poul Anderson. Originally published in serial form over 52 years ago, this story of aliens arriving in the medieval English countryside is extremely inventive and the author makes good use of humor and larger-than -life characters to bring this adventure to life.

Yes, it is a little outlandish and silly at times, but the author’s tongue-in-cheek humor had me laughing out loud during this fun story. An example of this is when these medieval English minds grapple with the concept of aliens from outer space and finally reach the decision that they are probably as bad as the Irish. Of course when these aliens appear, the first thing Sir Roger, Baron de Tourneville, the leader of the show more English, decides to do is to wade in with sword swinging. Then his plan is to kidnap the spaceship and use it to get to France, fight a quick war then fly on to Jerusalem and show the Saracens the might of England. The fact that the story takes an entirely different turn makes for a surprising and quirky tale that includes not only lots of sword play but political intrigue and romantic misunderstandings as well.

This was my first book by Poul Anderson but I can proclaim that I am now a fan of his. The High Crusade is a book that I think would appeal to both sci-fi and historical fiction fans alike or anyone who is in the mood for a quick adventure that still has some depth to it. show less

Turning Alien Invasion on Its Head

What happens when an advanced race of alien space marauders lands a scout ship on Earth in the year 1345 preparatory to launching an invasion? Not what you would expect in this thoroughly engaging and fast-paced space opera by Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Poul Anderson.

Unfortunately for the Wersgorixs, they land in the small town of Ansby in Lincolnshire at the exact moment Sir Roger, Baron de Tourneville, has assembled a force to assist King Edward II in the Hundreds Years’ Wars. Accustomed to doing battle by air and with advanced war machines, the Wersgorixs have lost the skill of close-in hand to hand combat, a deficiency that enables Sir Roger and his warriors to overrun the ship.

With show more the spaceship in hand and a captured crew member to navigate, it’s Sir Roger’s intent to fly his force and townspeople and livestock over to France for battle and then on to the Holy Lands on a great crusade. But the captive Wersgorix has other ideas. He tricks Sir Roger, sets the ship on irreversible automatic pilot, and heads for the planet colony of Tharixan. Once there, Sir Roger and his band of resourceful Englishmen proceed to conquer the colony, and from there forge alliances, eventually defeating the Wersgor Empire and establish a space version of the Holy Roman Empire and new branch of the Catholic Church. Time passes, Earth achieves interstellar space capabilities, and once again Earth people are reunited in the future.

The novel opens with the captain of a spacecraft reading the translation of an ancient text as he and his crew prepare to land on a planet in this empire long after the time of Sir Roger. It is the very text that we readers read, written by Brother Parvus, a lowly monk assigned to Sir Roger. The text, commissioned at the request of Archbishop William (a twist awaiting readers), is Brother Parvus’ memories of the events years after their conclusion. Brother Parvus relates them in a tone that captures the flavor of medieval times, which includes numerous religious references that add a certain humor to the novel.

The themes here are never underestimate a people, especially one you consider primitive, for that can easily be your undoing, and that people yearn for freedom and are willing to rise up and free themselves of oppression under the right circumstances. All in all, The High Crusade is delightful reading for both sci-fi fans and general readers even sixty years after its first publication. In addition to this paper edition, you’ll find it included in the Library of America boxed set American Science Fiction: Eight Classic Novels of the 1960s, edited by Gary K. Wolfe. show less

Turning Alien Invasion on Its Head

What happens when an advanced race of alien space marauders lands a scout ship on Earth in the year 1345 preparatory to launching an invasion? Not what you would expect in this thoroughly engaging and fast-paced space opera by Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Poul Anderson.

Unfortunately for the Wersgorixs, they land in the small town of Ansby in Lincolnshire at the exact moment Sir Roger, Baron de Tourneville, has assembled a force to assist King Edward II in the Hundreds Years’ Wars. Accustomed to doing battle by air and with advanced war machines, the Wersgorixs have lost the skill of close-in hand to hand combat, a deficiency that enables Sir Roger and his warriors to overrun the ship.

With show more the spaceship in hand and a captured crew member to navigate, it’s Sir Roger’s intent to fly his force and townspeople and livestock over to France for battle and then on to the Holy Lands on a great crusade. But the captive Wersgorix has other ideas. He tricks Sir Roger, sets the ship on irreversible automatic pilot, and heads for the planet colony of Tharixan. Once there, Sir Roger and his band of resourceful Englishmen proceed to conquer the colony, and from there forge alliances, eventually defeating the Wersgor Empire and establish a space version of the Holy Roman Empire and new branch of the Catholic Church. Time passes, Earth achieves interstellar space capabilities, and once again Earth people are reunited in the future.

The novel opens with the captain of a spacecraft reading the translation of an ancient text as he and his crew prepare to land on a planet in this empire long after the time of Sir Roger. It is the very text that we readers read, written by Brother Parvus, a lowly monk assigned to Sir Roger. The text, commissioned at the request of Archbishop William (a twist awaiting readers), is Brother Parvus’ memories of the events years after their conclusion. Brother Parvus relates them in a tone that captures the flavor of medieval times, which includes numerous religious references that add a certain humor to the novel.

The themes here are never underestimate a people, especially one you consider primitive, for that can easily be your undoing, and that people yearn for freedom and are willing to rise up and free themselves of oppression under the right circumstances. All in all, The High Crusade is delightful reading for both sci-fi fans and general readers even sixty years after its first publication. In addition to this paper edition, you’ll find it included in the Library of America boxed set American Science Fiction: Eight Classic Novels of the 1960s, edited by Gary K. Wolfe. show less

The idea that earth can resist an alien invasion is fairly ludicrous given that the aliens would have to travel light years across the universe to get here, so their level of technology and weaponry must be vastly superior to ours. Poul Anderson, a scifi legend, was well aware of this, and he carefully created an amusing scenario where such a thing is at least plausible. Anderson was a versatile author, books like [b:Tau Zero|240617|Tau Zero|Poul Anderson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173036940s/240617.jpg|598009] and [b:Brain Wave|1228628|Brain Wave|Poul Anderson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1201247236s/1228628.jpg|328731] and The High Crusade are all very different (not to mention his non-genre and nonfiction works).

The show more premise is fairly straight forward. In 1345 AD a huge spaceship lands in Ansby, a small village in Lincolnshire just as Sir Roger de Tourneville an English knight was raising an army to fight a war with France. This is a scout ship from the Wersgorix Empire who are always looking to expand their dominion. As luck would have it their technology is so advance that they have forgotten how to fight hand to hand and falls prey to the English soldiers who stormed their ship and basically hacked them all to death except one rather shady character named Branithar. Thinking that the "flying ship" will give them a huge advantage over the French Sir Roger orders Branithar to fly the ship to France, Branithar readily agrees but activate the pre-programmed autopilot to take them to the nearest Wersgor colony instead.

In spite of the rather farcical premise the book is very enjoyable, it is more humorous than the other Anderson novels I have read (well, I have not read that many of them). Fans of the ultra hard sf [b:Tau Zero|240617|Tau Zero|Poul Anderson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173036940s/240617.jpg|598009] will be disappointed if they are expecting more in that vein, those looking for a quick read entertaining sci-fi romp are in for a treat. The book is written in the first person, narrated by a monk who follows Sir Roger on his space adventures. The medieval style English is wonderful, I can not vouch for its authenticity of course but it is very amusing to read especially when describing alien technology. For example:

"I have studied the principles of their star maps a little, sire," I answered, "though in truth they
do not employ charts, but mere columns of figures. Nor do they have mortal steersmen on
the spaceships. Rather, they instruct an artificial pilot at the start of the journey, and
thereafter the homunculus operates the entire craft."

Ha! Love that stuff! The main alien race the Wersgorix are a little old school in that they are blue skinned bipeds who communicate through vocal speech and gestures, thus conveniently facilitating the establishment of communication. Other alien races show up later who are less like anthropomorphised creatures but really not all that strange by today's sci-fi standard. You may find that the idea that a bunch of medieval Brits resisting and conquering alien races with vastly superior technology ridiculous. It is basically done through bluff and bluster, with a lot of luck thrown in:

"But how could that be, sire?" asked Sir Owain. "They‘re older and stronger and wiser than
we."
"The first two, granted," nodded the baron. His humor was so good that he addressed even this
knight with frank fellowship. "But the third, no. Where it comes to intrigue, I‘m no master of it
myself, no Italian. But the star-folk are like children."

In any case Anderson has written the book and developed the characters with such skill that you are likely to be swept away by the story and jettison your incredulity out the window.

Tremendous fun and takes no time at all to read, a must. show less