The Unicorn Trade

by Poul Anderson, Karen Anderson

The Unicorn Trade transports readers to places at once uniquely strange and strangely familiar—magical fairy realms, the far reaches of outer space, and the twisted minds of madmen. Stories of love, loss, and self-discovery are met with soaring verse that celebrates the human spirit and the wonders of the universe. Here are unforgettable bounding leaps of the imagination, where detective noir is ingeniously reimagined, and tales of Edgar Allan Poe–like suspense stand side by side with poignant tributes to the men who led us to the stars. Real treasures are to be found here.

A potpourri of poetry and amazing tales that cross genre borders, between fantasy, horror, noir, science fiction, and more, from the legendary Poul Anderson and his wife, Karen Anderson. Lyrical and beautiful, enchanting and strange, exhilarating and horrific, this extraordinary collaboration between science fiction–fantasy luminary Poul Anderson and his equally creative wife, Karen, almost defies description. Combining their extraordinary talents, the Andersons have produced a sumptuous feast of the written word, stories that delight, move, and disturb, mixed with rich, sumptuous poetry that soars. A sterling compendium of stories, poems, and science fiction haikus (scifaiku) as bright as starshine and more magical and enduring than fairy gold.

Contents:
* The Unicorn Trade (1971) • poem by Karen Anderson
** Fairy Gold (1984) / novelette by Poul Anderson
* Ballade of an Artificial Satellite (1958) • poem by Poul Anderson
** The Innocent Arrival (1964) / novelette by Karen Anderson, Poul Anderson (variant of Innocent at Large 1958)
* Six Haiku (1962) • poem by Karen Anderson
* Haiku for Mars (1984) • poem by Karen Anderson
* Think of a Man (1965) • poem by Karen Anderson
** Dead Phone [Trygve Yamamura] (1964) / novelette by Karen Anderson, Poul Anderson
* Bela Lugosi: 1883-1956 (1984) • poem by Karen Anderson
** The Kitten (1976) / novelette by Karen Anderson, Poul Anderson
* Apollo 1: January 27, 1967 (1984) • poem by Karen Anderson
* Planh on the Death of Willy Ley: June 23, 1969 (1969) • poem by Karen Anderson, Poul Anderson, Tim Courtney
** Murphy's Hall (1971) / short story by Karen Anderson, Poul Anderson
** Single Jeopardy (1958) / short story by Karen Anderson, Poul Anderson
* In Memoriam: Henry Kuttner (1958) • poem by Karen Anderson
* Cyril M. Kornbluth (1984) • poem by Karen Anderson
** A Feast for the Gods (1971) / novelette by Karen Anderson, Poul Anderson
* Theoretical Progress (1964) • poem by Karen Anderson
* Investigation of Galactic Ethnology (1964) • poem by Karen Anderson
* Look Up (1965) • poem by Karen Anderson
* The Sky of Space (1963) • poem by Karen Anderson
* Cosmic Concepts (1961) • poem by Karen Anderson and Poul Anderson
** Extract From the English Edition of a Guide Michelin (1973) / short story by Karen Anderson, Poul Anderson
* Robert A. Heinlein (1984) • poem by Karen Anderson
** Treaty in Tartessos (1963) / short story by Karen Anderson
** A Philosophical Dialogue (1971) / short story by Poul Anderson
* Professor James (1965) • poem by Karen Anderson, Poul Anderson
** Landscape with Sphinxes (1962) / short story by Karen Anderson
* 'Alpha, Beta (1984) • poem by Karen Anderson
* A Blessedness of Saints (1962) • essay by Poul Anderson
* Origin of the Species (1958) • poem by Karen Anderson
* Conjunction (Venus and Jupiter, February 1975) • poem by Karen Anderson
* Adonis Recovered (1984) • poem by Karen Anderson
** The Piebald Hippogriff (1962) • short story by Karen Anderson
** The Coasts of Faerie (1984) / short story by Karen Anderson
8 Shanidar IV (1984) • poem by Karen Anderson
.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Unicorns, Fiction, Anthologies, Poetry

284 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 15, 1984

About the author

Pseudonym 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

Reviews

[Tony P · Rating 4 out of 5]

A literally wonderful book with a delightful variety of stories as well as poems by a Past Master and Mistress of sf/fantasy. The stories are mostly quite short and have that special quality of dropping you directly into an alien milieu and telling a tale in a highly condensed vignette. The stories are, in that way, rather like lyric poems themselves. Not evidently to every taste, but I loved it.

I particularly liked a couple of the haiku by Karen Anderson:

Haiku for Mars—Think of a Man
=========================
From this neighbour hill
The noonday of Mars outshines
The windows of home.
=========================
When Proxima sets
What constellation do they
Dream around our sun?
=========================

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

First let me just say that I was disappointed by the complete lack of any actual unicorns in any of the stories or poems in this book. That said though, I did generally enjoy the collection, and found a number of the short stories to have fun little twists (although to be honest nothing that was really a surprise). Had a nice range of lighter, fluffier pieces to darker, more heavy.

[Ramit · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'd've given it zero stars if the system had let me. Disclaimer: I only read a bit more than half of it, then decided there's no reason to punish myself further. There are no unicorns except in the first, 1.5 page "poem". The poems are plain junk, wouldn't've been published if the authors weren't well known. The stories are all depressing without any redeeming qualities. Waste of time.

[Paula · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed with this collection of short stories and poetry... I just couldn't get into the sci-fi shorts, I found them disjointed and lacking sufficient explication to be comprehensible. The fantasy was okay, but nothing to get excited about.

[Kimberly Karalius · Rating 1 out of 5]

Where were the unicorns? With such a gorgeous cover, I was expecting to get swept away by the stories within. But it was too odd a collection of poems and short stories, many of them felt like scraps of thought bound into book form. Just wasn’t for me.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't get into this. The poems were decent, but something about the stories just made my eyes glaze over. I'd start a paragraph, only to get bored and have my mind wander off midway through, and then repeat the process three times or more before making it to the next page.

[Adam Meek · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are no unicorns, but there are hippogriffs, centaurs, and spacemen. There's a lot of SF themed poetry too.

[Lina Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a configuration of several short stories, poems, and essays by the authors. Each one is interesting and unique, but they don't all grab a persons attention. Some were definitely better than others.