With its theme of immortality and its sheer breadth of vision, this reminded me somewhat of Charles Sheffield's Tomorrow and Tomorrow. However, in other ways it is a very different creature. While Sheffield's immortality is achieved through storing consciousness by artificial means, the characters in this work by Poul Anderson seem determined to preserve the intactness of their humanity, even when it eventually makes them misfits among their own species.

The greater portion of the book concentrates on the efforts of several ageless characters to survive through the centuries. Various places and times in antiquity are beautifully recreated, and the real power and depth of the story lies in its rich undercurrents of history and mythology. Anderson is very clever in that he weaves detailed information throughout the text without affecting the flow of the narrative. The lyricism of the writing just carries the reader along.

The characterisation is excellent, and although the names of the main players change at various points (ageless people must constantly change their identities in order not to arouse suspicion), the reader can often intuitively determine who individuals are from their personalities.

I do think that the story weakened a little after the viewpoint changed to the future of mankind. One reason for this might be that the main characters seem to become overly concerned with petty personal squabbles. One could argue, though, that Anderson was implying that even people who had lived for millennia may still find it hard to transcend selfish inclinations and view life from a broader perspective all of the time. This may be an inherent part of the humanity that the ageless ones are loath to relinquish.

As with all great literature, the reader will remember for a long time to come not just the story but also the reading experience itself. ( )

Big, interesting novel about a handful of people who don't age - they can be killed, but otherwise will stick around indefinitely. The first chapters are all about separate individuals, some of whom are really fantastic characters, while others are pretty annoying. Later chapters have the main characters meeting each other and doing things together. Each chapter comes chronologically after the previous ones, so the book spans a long time period - ~300 BCE to far in the future.

Strangely, the historical chapters (the last of which starts in 1975) were a lot more interesting to me than the final (long) future chapter, which is all about various theories of why we never hear from aliens if they exist, and how far-flung galactic "neighbors" might ever learn about each other. So it's some really cool bits of historical fiction (4 or 5 stars), with a more-or-less tedious sci-fi coda (2 stars). ( )

Anderson, Poul. The Boat of a Million Years. Tor, 1989.
Poul Anderson’s epic space opera, The Boat of a Million Years, was published a year and a half after Robert Heinlein died. One character listening to a friend rail against pacifism asks, “Plagiarizing Heinlein, are you?” Besides this direct homage, the novel as whole is a response to Heinlein’s Lazarus Long stories, especially Methuselah’s Children. We begin with a Phoenician sailor who seems to heal very quickly and does not age. If he loses a tooth, it grows back. He sets out on a quest to find immortals like himself. Unlike Heinlein’s Johnson family, his immortality is not the result of selective breeding but of a very unlikely cluster of genetic anomalies and mutations that do not breed true. They show up rarely in multiple cultures. They are not the racially identifiable redheads Heinlein imagined. As the title suggests, his quest takes him from prehistory to the far future. Along the way, Anderson shows us why he is a grandmaster of adventurous space opera and alternate history. He hardens the science of Heinlein’s Lazarus Long series and challenges its libertarian politics. A classic. ( )

Oh my great googamunga, what the hell have I been reading all these years, slogging through shit only to finally come upon THIS MAGNUM OPUS OF SF? I'm frankly about as embarrassed as I can possibly be.

I am STUNNED by how smoothly this enormous work slid down my gullet, amazing me with so much delightfully interesting history told so damn well that I had to check a few times to be sure I was reading an actual SF novel, and not a brilliant historical told through an old motif of immortals making their way through time. I kept picking up nuances that were thrilling and I absolutely loved the tension when it came to the possibilities of having these radically different people finally get together, or when they did, things went to hell, like ships running with false colors in the night.

But understand this: neither the interesting characters nor the locations and situations make this book the bit of brilliance that it is. It's the undercurrents of mythology, the retellings of old, old, old tales, and the underlying questioning of life that turns this huge novel into an unforgettable tale.

Sure, MANY authors have gone and turned their hands at immortality, and I've even been convinced on occasion that the best long-term space-farers limited by light-speed would inevitably be vampires and wandering jews, but let's face it: A lot of what's out there is dreck.

This novel isn't.

In fact, it's one of the most scrupulously researched and deftly imagined SF titles ever written. I'm absolutely certain that I'm going to have to read this a second and perhaps a third time. I picked up enough references to old gods and messages from other greats of literature to choke a horse, and yet Poul Anderson is so damn experienced and crafty that he never let any of it get in the way of good writing and storytelling. They were practically all below the surface, giving so much damn depth to this novel that I feel like a Phonician in a flimsy boat tempting Thetis or even Ran to capture me in her grand oceanic net.

"Stunning" doesn't really do this novel justice.

I feel like I just read great literature. This is the kind of writing I'd always wished and hoped to see in SF: deep, intelligent, crafty, exploratory, and a damn good yarn to boot. I'm not going to be forgetting any of these immortals any time soon. Heaven willing, I'll be able to meet up with them in a million years, myself, and drink wine with them with all the other biologicals filling all the niches of the universe.

One thing I will say, though, if anyone is considering between the audio version or the text, aim for the text. I tried both and reading it traditionally made a hell of a lot better sense and maintained if not excelled at keeping every ounce of my attention. And this is coming from someone who actually prefers to read by audiobook for convenience.

I'm pretty damn sure I'm going to have to do some serious rearranging of my top 100 list soon to make room for this puppy.

Another thing: there's quite a lot of Heinlein-dropping in the modern section of the tale. I know this is very intentional, from politics to borrowed story ideas. Far from being derivative, though, I think Poul pulled off a Heinlein better than Heinlein. And another thing: this novel was published in 1989, one year after Heinlein died.

As a send-off, it brought real tears to my eyes.

As a side note: I've only read one other work of Poul Anderson's, [b:Tau Zero|240617|Tau Zero|Poul Anderson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389216838s/240617.jpg|598009] , and while I enjoyed the hard SF aspects a ton, ignoring what we now know about physics, I had some serious issues with the characters and sexual dynamics, feeling like the novel was a throwback of misogyny. I'm now sure that it was either Poul trying to speak to his intended audience of the early 70's, or he had gone through a HELL of a big life change between the years, because I had NO PROBLEMS AT ALL with the characters in [b:The Boat of a Million Years|338327|The Boat of a Million Years|Poul Anderson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1316130975s/338327.jpg|2705088]. They were complicated and three-dimensional, frail and strong and constantly growing. I loved them. They went down like sweet wine. I'm of the opinion that Poul was following someone else's misguided attempts to try for the apparent spirit of the times in Tau Zero, and for Boat, he was given free reign to make whatever kind of masterpiece he wanted.

THANK googamunga for that!

I've only read two, but he's now up there as one of my favorite authors of all time. That's a big WOW for me. Obviously I've got to get onto the rest of his library, huh? ( )

The book was interesting but I found parts of it slow-going. I liked some of it and some parts were slow. I read a huge chunk of it in a relatively short time, lost interest and then cam back months later to finish it. Some pieces didn't relate all that well to others. I found as if the end piece, going off into space to look for alien civilizations, came of of nowhere, with little lead up. Only one character seemed liked he the explorer spirit. The other main characters seemed like wanderers or survivors. ( )