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The Gods Laughed
Vintage paperback
Since before the Age of Space itself, the men and women of Planet Earth have yearned Outward, knowing on the deepest level that the Race’s future lay not in the soft comfort of the planetary womb, but in the cold and empty spaces between the Stars, with the unknown rewards and certain dangers of a future all unbounded. Always these brave ones have seen themselves as the carriers of the lamp of civilized humanity unto alien savages sitting in darkness. But. what if reality is different-what if, on the arrival of humans bearing the gift of millennia of culture and all our aspirations, -- The Gods Laughed
Since before the Age of Space itself, the men and women of Planet Earth have yearned Outward, knowing on the deepest level that the Race’s future lay not in the soft comfort of the planetary womb, but in the cold and empty spaces between the Stars, with the unknown rewards and certain dangers of a future all unbounded. Always these brave ones have seen themselves as the carriers of the lamp of civilized humanity unto alien savages sitting in darkness. But. what if reality is different-what if, on the arrival of humans bearing the gift of millennia of culture and all our aspirations, -- The Gods Laughed
Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
About the author
Poul Anderson
1,663 books1,142 followersPseudonym A. A. Craig, Michael Karageorge, Winston P. Sanders, P. A. Kingsley.
Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories. He received numerous awards for his writing, including seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards.
Anderson received a degree in physics from the University of Minnesota in 1948. He married Karen Kruse in 1953. They had one daughter, Astrid, who is married to science fiction author Greg Bear. Anderson was the sixth President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, taking office in 1972. He was a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America, a loose-knit group of Heroic Fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized in Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! anthologies. He was a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Robert A. Heinlein dedicated his 1985 novel The Cat Who Walks Through Walls to Anderson and eight of the other members of the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy.[2][3]
Poul Anderson died of cancer on July 31, 2001, after a month in the hospital. Several of his novels were published posthumously.
Series:
* Time Patrol
* Psychotechnic League
* Trygve Yamamura
* Harvest of Stars
* King of Ys
* Last Viking
* Hoka
* Future history of the Polesotechnic League
* Flandry
Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories. He received numerous awards for his writing, including seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards.
Anderson received a degree in physics from the University of Minnesota in 1948. He married Karen Kruse in 1953. They had one daughter, Astrid, who is married to science fiction author Greg Bear. Anderson was the sixth President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, taking office in 1972. He was a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America, a loose-knit group of Heroic Fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized in Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! anthologies. He was a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Robert A. Heinlein dedicated his 1985 novel The Cat Who Walks Through Walls to Anderson and eight of the other members of the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy.[2][3]
Poul Anderson died of cancer on July 31, 2001, after a month in the hospital. Several of his novels were published posthumously.
Series:
* Time Patrol
* Psychotechnic League
* Trygve Yamamura
* Harvest of Stars
* King of Ys
* Last Viking
* Hoka
* Future history of the Polesotechnic League
* Flandry
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
December 18, 2008
After the disappointment of both City of Embre and the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still movies, I needed some GOOD SF! I turned to Poul Anderson’s short story collection The Gods Laughed. This is the third or fourth time I have read it, and The Martyr is still great. I recommend the collection. I can’t recommend The Martyr enough.
August 31, 2026
A collection of first contact stories, with the twist the humans are outmatched in some way by the aliens. A mixed bag, some stronger stories with genuinely unique concepts or just strong writing, while others are pulpier and a bit more low brow than most of Anderson's work.
Better stories:
"The Martyr" - A group of human scientists capture and scientifically
"Nightpiece" - Very introspective and evocative. A scientist conducts ESP experiments that make him aware of beings far beyond humans. Quite unlike any other Anderson story I have read.
"Soldier From The Stars" - Alien mercenaries offer their services to the highest Earth bidder, causing chaos. Could have been longer, but I do like the ideas expressed and the ending is clever.
"The Word From Space" - Humans get in contact with extraterrestrials, but all they hear is fanatical religious tracts. A Jesuit has an idea how to solve this problem. Fun story.
OK stories
"Peek! I See You!" - A human pilot stumbles upon alien visitors to Earth, only to realize he is far from the first. Not particularly scientific, but rather amusing.
"Details" - Intergalactic meddling in Earth history does not quite bring about the intended result. I do like the concepts and general plotting, but the overall execution was just ok.
Weaker stories:
"When Half-Gods Go" - Alien emissaries gather together brilliant humans together so that they may convince the rest of humanity of the genuine nature of the aliens. Amusing idea with some interesting commentary on human skepticism, but the story itself was fine and I'm not sure I understood the ending.
"Captive of the Centaurianess" - A more pulpy action romp involving a Amazon-esque alien woman, a conceited Martian scientist, and a fairly regular human. A fun story, but light on science and longer than it needs to be.
"A Little Knowledge"- Always fun to read a Poleotechnic League story, although I'm not sure I grasped the science required for the plot resolution of this story. As always, the worldbuilding is engaging and intricate.
Better stories:
"The Martyr" - A group of human scientists capture and scientifically
"Nightpiece" - Very introspective and evocative. A scientist conducts ESP experiments that make him aware of beings far beyond humans. Quite unlike any other Anderson story I have read.
"Soldier From The Stars" - Alien mercenaries offer their services to the highest Earth bidder, causing chaos. Could have been longer, but I do like the ideas expressed and the ending is clever.
"The Word From Space" - Humans get in contact with extraterrestrials, but all they hear is fanatical religious tracts. A Jesuit has an idea how to solve this problem. Fun story.
OK stories
"Peek! I See You!" - A human pilot stumbles upon alien visitors to Earth, only to realize he is far from the first. Not particularly scientific, but rather amusing.
"Details" - Intergalactic meddling in Earth history does not quite bring about the intended result. I do like the concepts and general plotting, but the overall execution was just ok.
Weaker stories:
"When Half-Gods Go" - Alien emissaries gather together brilliant humans together so that they may convince the rest of humanity of the genuine nature of the aliens. Amusing idea with some interesting commentary on human skepticism, but the story itself was fine and I'm not sure I understood the ending.
"Captive of the Centaurianess" - A more pulpy action romp involving a Amazon-esque alien woman, a conceited Martian scientist, and a fairly regular human. A fun story, but light on science and longer than it needs to be.
"A Little Knowledge"- Always fun to read a Poleotechnic League story, although I'm not sure I grasped the science required for the plot resolution of this story. As always, the worldbuilding is engaging and intricate.
July 15, 2018
Bit of nostalgia here for me as I remember this book from my teens. A couple of the stories really stuck with me but I couldn't remember who wrote them. I finally tracked it down again and was not disappointed. This is a collection of stories of first contact and, as you might discern from the title of the anthology, humanity is not always at the top of the metaphorical food chain.
What makes all of the similarly-themed stories work as a collection is the wide variety in tone than Anderson sets. Some are cautionary tales, others are horrors, a couple are funny...you get the idea. Some of the cold war politics feel a little dated, but other than that, it holds up remarkably well.
If you're looking for a bunch of page-turner sci-fi short stories, this is a good one. I'm also reasonably sure that the inspiration for a Futurama story is found in here.
What makes all of the similarly-themed stories work as a collection is the wide variety in tone than Anderson sets. Some are cautionary tales, others are horrors, a couple are funny...you get the idea. Some of the cold war politics feel a little dated, but other than that, it holds up remarkably well.
If you're looking for a bunch of page-turner sci-fi short stories, this is a good one. I'm also reasonably sure that the inspiration for a Futurama story is found in here.
October 4, 2024
Final score 3.5
An interesting mix of stories. I initially bought this book thinking it was a novel since the back didn’t mention it being an anthology, but as an enjoyer of short stories this was also fine by me. Like many anthologies, not all stories are as good as the best, but as some others have said The Martyr is a standout, and I enjoyed some of the somewhat unique ideas in others such as “what if a planet we came into communication with was ran by a Theocracy?” and “what if a fleet of alien mercenaries came to earth and offered their services to the highest bidder?” While a few of these stories didn’t do a lot for me, I found most of them enjoyable and a few of them really good.
Saw someone saying the Cold War politics in the book felt a bit dated, but I personally found the anxieties about the threat of nuclear war in a few stories feeling as relevant as ever.
An interesting mix of stories. I initially bought this book thinking it was a novel since the back didn’t mention it being an anthology, but as an enjoyer of short stories this was also fine by me. Like many anthologies, not all stories are as good as the best, but as some others have said The Martyr is a standout, and I enjoyed some of the somewhat unique ideas in others such as “what if a planet we came into communication with was ran by a Theocracy?” and “what if a fleet of alien mercenaries came to earth and offered their services to the highest bidder?” While a few of these stories didn’t do a lot for me, I found most of them enjoyable and a few of them really good.
Saw someone saying the Cold War politics in the book felt a bit dated, but I personally found the anxieties about the threat of nuclear war in a few stories feeling as relevant as ever.
April 25, 2019
This book has nine stories by Poul Anderson, three of which are excellent:
- The Martyr (5/5)
- Soldier From the Stars (4/5)
- The Word to Space (5/5)
The rest are just okay:
- Nightpiece (3/5)
- When Half Gods Go (3/5)
- Peek! I See You (3/5)
- Details (3/5)
- Captive of the Centaurianess (3/5)
- A Little Knowledge (3/5)
- The Martyr (5/5)
- Soldier From the Stars (4/5)
- The Word to Space (5/5)
The rest are just okay:
- Nightpiece (3/5)
- When Half Gods Go (3/5)
- Peek! I See You (3/5)
- Details (3/5)
- Captive of the Centaurianess (3/5)
- A Little Knowledge (3/5)
December 14, 2019
Decent sci-fi. Uses dialogue as exposition too often, which got old. Loved the concepts, though. Not many writers create multiple galaxies, most try to keep everything consistent, so I appreciated the multitude of realities he experimented with.
April 7, 2025
A collection of short stories about first contact (tangeniently) that isn't mentioned as such on the back cover. A couple stories had semi-interesting little twists or backwards takes on first contact. The middle story goes on too long and is a bit of a mess.
Read
October 23, 2025Front cover has a top corner tear and a spine edge crease. Spine also has creasing and all of book has some edge wear. Original owner label on back and a tiny tear on bottom edge. Lots of age browning no marks and intact. Ships very quickly and packaged carefully!
April 4, 2026
The cover blurb makes this book sound like it's a novel. It is actually 8 short stories with an 84 page novella in the middle. This is a fine collection of space opera -zany twists, bizarre technology, and underdeveloped planets with advanced tech- with not a boring story in the bunch.
October 1, 2026
This collection is not the easiest to read, but the stories are thought provoking and very premise driven. That premise, by the way, is expressed in the title: humanity reaches for the stars, or aliens show up, and they're completely unimpressed with humanity and its achievements.
February 28, 2020
Once again, a collection of stories some of which are OK and others are not. I do like Poul Anderson in general but not these specific stories.
January 14, 2014
After reading Poul Anderson's essay "The Creation of Imaginary Worlds", I was looking forward to reading something by him. The essay had tips for science fiction writers on inventing planets with sizes, atmospheres, and star types different from our own, and I expected that any worlds he created would be vivid and creative, exploring the ways that a strange environment might shape life to turn out differently from anything we were used to.
Imagine, then, my surprise when almost all the aliens in this short story collection turned out to be bipedals pretty much like humans (explained by a trick of convergent evolution). Even more disappointingly, all the protagonists turned out to be lean, sandy-haired white men. Humans were invariably male-dominated, as were the aliens, except for a society of barbarian women (these were some of the human-shaped aliens) used basically as a running joke. Nary a female scientist or soldier - I remember a particular passage in the first story where the scientists going into voluntary seclusion mused hopefully on the future possibility of having women delivered to them as potential wives.
This is pulp stuff, basically. And I can tolerate all of the above in a story, especially an old one, if the settings are imaginative and vivid, or the story is good. Sadly, this collection didn't offer any of those, either. I can't remember the name of a single protagonist, and the only setting I can even vaguely describe is the one in the last story, the one I had been hoping to see because it had been featured in the "Imaginary Worlds" essay. Sadly, they spend all of about a page on the planet, with most of that taken up by dialogue. I didn't get to see anything but a couple of brown plants.
Imagine, then, my surprise when almost all the aliens in this short story collection turned out to be bipedals pretty much like humans (explained by a trick of convergent evolution). Even more disappointingly, all the protagonists turned out to be lean, sandy-haired white men. Humans were invariably male-dominated, as were the aliens, except for a society of barbarian women (these were some of the human-shaped aliens) used basically as a running joke. Nary a female scientist or soldier - I remember a particular passage in the first story where the scientists going into voluntary seclusion mused hopefully on the future possibility of having women delivered to them as potential wives.
This is pulp stuff, basically. And I can tolerate all of the above in a story, especially an old one, if the settings are imaginative and vivid, or the story is good. Sadly, this collection didn't offer any of those, either. I can't remember the name of a single protagonist, and the only setting I can even vaguely describe is the one in the last story, the one I had been hoping to see because it had been featured in the "Imaginary Worlds" essay. Sadly, they spend all of about a page on the planet, with most of that taken up by dialogue. I didn't get to see anything but a couple of brown plants.
May 28, 2013
It's been a long time since I have read "hardcore" Science Fiction. Furthermore, in the 1301 books on my reading list, this is the only one I've ever read by Mr. Anderson. Rather, shocking, I think, as I have seen his name for decades.
I can't even remember where I got this book. My father may have given it to me. It is a book of short stories, published in 1982. They all have to do with humans interacting with alien races. Of the nine stories in the book, my favorite is "Captive of the Centaurianess." It is a charming story of a fugitive who gets on an alien planet bound ship, and shares a room (and eventually much more) with a rather Nordic-type alien female, who comes from a planet where the women are the warriors and the men are the housekeepers. They also share their space with a brilliant Martian scientist. They wind up having to escape together, and manage to build a faster-than-light-speed craft from a shuttle craft from one of the Jovian moons that they were trapped on. Just an all-around fun story.
All of the stories, however, are well worth reading. This book may have whetted my appetite for some more true Science Fiction. I have missed reading about aliens and planets and space travel.
I can't even remember where I got this book. My father may have given it to me. It is a book of short stories, published in 1982. They all have to do with humans interacting with alien races. Of the nine stories in the book, my favorite is "Captive of the Centaurianess." It is a charming story of a fugitive who gets on an alien planet bound ship, and shares a room (and eventually much more) with a rather Nordic-type alien female, who comes from a planet where the women are the warriors and the men are the housekeepers. They also share their space with a brilliant Martian scientist. They wind up having to escape together, and manage to build a faster-than-light-speed craft from a shuttle craft from one of the Jovian moons that they were trapped on. Just an all-around fun story.
All of the stories, however, are well worth reading. This book may have whetted my appetite for some more true Science Fiction. I have missed reading about aliens and planets and space travel.
November 29, 2010
A fairly large collection of science fiction short stories from Poul Anderson, weighted towards the earlier part of his career. Quite good, but not all of it is his best work; the older stories are a little simplistic. Still well worth reading, though.
August 2, 2011
The jacket gave no indication that these were a compilation of short stories, not my favourite thing. Only liked one of the ones I read, didn't finish the book because it was really BORING. To bad, I usually like Anderson.
June 17, 2007
Stories of humanity’s first contact with aliens.
January 18, 2011
Grade C. Short stories.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews