The Enemy Stars

by Poul Anderson

The time is the 23rd century, and ships are crawling outward from Earth into the interstellar depths. It will take them centuries to reach even the nearest stars - but once they do, future travel will be instantaneous, because the ships carry matter transmitters that are not subject to the limitations of lightspeed.

In the meantime, crews can flit back and forth between the ships and Earth, but until now their only purpose has been to stand watch. Until now. At last one ship has made contact with the stars...

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Science Fiction Fantasy, Collections, Speculative Fiction, Hard Science Fiction

218 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

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

[Lyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Enemy Stars was first published by Poul Anderson in 1959, then rewritten in 1979 and a sequel / second part “The Ways of Love” was added for the 1987 edition I read. Nominated for a Hugo Award, this is one of his better works.

Common Anderson themes of scientific estrangement and isolation from humanity, ironically caused by the very star spanning future Anderson espouses, links this work to his greater science fiction canon, but this is a more introspective, darker work than many of his better stories.

Essentially, space travel has become bifurcated, with centuries old space ships slogging through space towards distant destinations, while the crews can instantly teleport to the ships while they travel. Something goes wrong and the far travelled crew finds themselves “lost in space”. Anderson uses the crisis as a vehicle to explore who we are and why we are here and a lot about our best and worst nature.

This is also similar in tone and style to Tau Zero and also vaguely comparable to Frank Herbert’s Destination: Void. One of the most compelling elements of this narrative is a thematic comparison of star travel to pre-industrial sea travel and exploration (this was originally titled We have Fed Our Seas). Anderson, ever the Danish storyteller, shows how the inspiration to travel, the inchoate need to explore is a vital and necessary part of being human.

“No people live long who offer their young men naught but fatness and security” – Anderson was a poet and a scholar and too uncomfortably a prophet, and this cautionary tale hits too near the truth to our society.

A must read for a Poul Anderson fan.

[Mahdi Lotfi · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب «ستارگان متخاصم» روايتي از يک داستان علمي-تخيلي زيبا براي بزرگسالان مي باشد که در زمان آينده به وقوع پيوسته است.

...سکوت و بي وزني روياانگيز بودند. مک لارن براي دلايلي که در چشم خود او هم مبهم و پيچيده بود اطراف عرشه ديده باني را درهم و برهم مي ديد، به طوريکه نور فلقي که بر روي وسائل تکنيکي و فني که روي هم چيده شده بودند بازتابي به صورت گله هاي هيولاهاي گردن دراز مي آفريد. با وجود اين وقتي از دهانه هاي موجود به بيرون نگاه مي کرد هيچ چيز به درخشش ستاره هاي بي شمار به چشم نمي خورد....

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ostensibly, this is about four men who visit a dying star for the purposes of scientific study when it goes horribly wrong and they get stuck there, cut off from the rest of humanity with no realistic hope of getting back alive. Then it follows their desperate and seemingly futile efforts to repair their ship, a race against time before their food and sanity run out.

Really though, this is about how each man comes to terms with himself and his place in the universe. It asks what is the point of space exploration, of scientific endeavour?

At around 140 pages, it is quite a short novel. Perhaps it might have been slightly more effective in engaging the reader with the characters had the author had more space to develop them?

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four crewmen on an exploratory spaceship hundreds of lightyears from Earth find themselves in peril when the ship is heavily damaged. Without hope for rescue, it's up to them to make the repairs needed in order to return to Earth, though the ship's food stocks are running pretty low. Isolation and starvation take their toll, but the crew soldier on, fueled by hope and determination.

The novel is pretty bleak for a '50s SF story about overcoming obstacles through feats of engineering, and it has an ideal blend of hard science and humanist themes. It may sound like a space opera, but the story is really about how the four crew cope with the greater situation at hand. Not Anderson's best, but still a very good read. If you don't mind a somewhat stark read, look into it.

(Full review found here.)

[Megan Baxter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goodness knows, I don't expect enlightened gender politics out of my old science fiction. I often mention how women are treated, because I think it bears mentioning, but I am also able to enjoy these old pulpy stories where women are absent, virgins, or sexpots. I don't need every book to reflect my ideas of gender - although if I go too long without a woman I can relate to, I get understandably twitchy.

Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

[Tim Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Enemy Stars was originally a story copyright 1958, then partially rewritten and republished in 1979. This edition is copyright 1987 and includes a sequel titled “The Ways of Love.”

In this far future setting, humanity has reached the stars, with ships that take potentially centuries to reach their destination, but the ships themselves can be reached instantly by matter-energy transporters not unlike Star Trek transporters only with an unimaginably vast range. The range of the machinery if it is powerful enough is practically infinite, but it must have another matter-energy transporter to lock on to. Space explorers can go back and forth to starships, meaning they don’t have to be crewed at all times, and the starships are sent out to help establish end points at systems that are worth colonizing, that once the starship makes the long, slow voyage to a system, humans can pour through the portal in seconds and start colonizing that world.

Earth has a tight grip on the colonies, with a dictator known as the Protector (the state known a the Protectorate) maintain dominance over the far-flung colonies, making it easy to journey to the colonies, but incredibly difficult to return to Earth, pretty much impossible for anyone born in the colonies. The colonies chafe under the Protectorate, but so far lack the power and organization to throw off that yoke (not that people on Earth have it great either, as a rigid caste system as well as a patriarchal rather misogynistic society exists).

The book details a mission to explore a dead star, one that is a featureless black sphere, darker than the endless night sky it exists in, made possible to explore by a slight diversion of the farthest out of the starships, the _Southern Cross_, sometimes called simply the _Cross_. Four men are sent out by matter transporter to the ship to explore this star, but in the course of the mission the four people become stranded in the system, fighting a series of challenges to not crash into the star, find a way to return home, to not starve, and to not go mad. The remainder of the book is how these four survive (or do they?), their philosophizing as to what is really important in life and why humanity is among the stars (this philosophizing echoed by the father and wife of one of the four men on board the ship, who back on Earth comes to terms with what has potentially happened to their loved one, David Ryerson), and as one might guess from the cover art, the mission leads inadvertently to first contact with a sentient alien species (the exact scene on the cover is in the book), with this having huge ramifications for all the characters and the setting as a whole.

I liked the different chapters early on as we are introduced to the different main characters, vivid little vignettes of each person’s life and their world before boarding the _Southern Cross_. The “man against nature” survival of the _Cross_ was interesting, and I loved the vivid description of how remote and cold and uncaring and isolated that super distant system was, with passages like “but the mind sensed remoteness beyond remoteness, and whimpered. Nor was the ground underfoot a comfort, for it was almost as dark,” though in the end, for as uncaring as the dark of deep space was, love of a husband and wife, love among friends and comrades, love for exploration and duty and yes even space, love for freedom, and love among totally different peoples, prevails.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘The sea never forgives you.’

Hard science fiction from the dawn of the space age. (First published in 1958) Anderson engages even modern readers with deep characterization and realistic plotting. Plenty of interpersonal conflict, but it’s reality which threatens.

‘Do you expect any trouble?’ ‘One is never certain. The great human mistake is to anticipate. The totally relaxed and unexpectant man is the one prepared for whatever may happen: he does not have to get out of an inappropriate posture before he can react.’

The technical gaffs are less noticeable than many more recent SF stories, though the appearance of a slide rule may give many contemporary readers pause.

‘That is one way to destroy yourself … hoping. You must accept the worst, because there is always more of the worst than the best in this universe.’

English spelling and punctuation.

‘One sin which is punished with unfailing certainty, and must therefore be the deadliest sin in all time. Stupidity.’

[Vedran · Rating 2 out of 5]

Goodreads 2 stars - “it was ok”.

First half is pretty tedious in my opinion.
Second half has some great ideas (and I love Anderson’s somewhat poetic style when he’s not immersed in techno babble) but it’s written all over the place - chapters and book as a whole are not cohesive or consistent enough.
I did like how he tackles themes like isolation, humanity and how the acts of exploration and curiosity make us human.

[Thom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this fairly short novel, which except for matter transmission can be classified as hard SF. The four members of the crew are very much individuals, and most grow and change through the story. Very deserving of the Hugo nomination.

This story was originally titled We Have Fed Our Sea, which refers to Kipling's poem about why sailors died to expand the British empire - because they were British. The characters of this story are pulled into this exploration for various reasons, but as a whole it is because they are human. This is a tale of persistence.

A sequel of sorts was added later, I will seek that out for future reading.

[Jamie Rich · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Enemy Stars (Kindle Edition) by Poul Anderson

A quick read, but it doesn't draw you in.

Not sure why, but this read was pretty much "meh" for me. Maybe it was the flat characters that never seemed human enough. Maybe it was the technology as described for getting to and from the star they were researching. That also didn't hold up. Perhaps it was the meandering plot that pretty much just went from here to there, but so what? Moving on.

[Jan vanTilburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

How the struggle to survive takes men inside themselves and eventually come to terms with his place in the universe.

A good book. I liked it.
Besides science, we get some insights why mankind is always exploring and wants to look behind the horizon. First across the seas and then into space.

A short book. Refreshing how the old masters could convey ideas in not too many words.

The universe. Not really comprehensible for human brains. The vastness is beyond comprehension. Anderson describes that wonderful. Especially in his book Tau Zero (1971) and also in this one, p.75: “No human system can comprehend the infinite real universe.”

p.47, some profound wisdom to prevent becoming arrogant: “‘Meditation’ in Zen, consists more of an attempt at identification with the universe than verbalized thinking.”...”you’re part if everything else - integral - the same forces in you which shaped the suns -...”

p. 77 about the value of different species meeting: “From each other, two such peoples could learn the unimaginable, just as the high epochs of Earth’s history came when different peoples interflowed.”
Anderson saw that right I think. Being open to other people with their culture and ideas is very enriching. A great message in this age (2021) where compartmentalization and people living in their own value bubbles is paramount.

[prcardi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Storyline: 4/5
Characters: 3/5
Writing Style: 3/5
World: 4/5

The setup for this story ranks among the best that science fiction has to offer, all the more remarkable since it was first published in 1959. Anderson then goes on to allude and sketch a far future Earth and space system with profound differences. He does what he's done before in other books Tau Zero, for instance which is to contrast the smallness of the individual and mankind against the vastness of time and space. Thus we spend a lot of time in circumscribed environments with only a few characters. The book's weak point was that it took on themes and devices that were entirely too big for its 142 pages. The character studies, the homage to the explorer, the commentary on youthful rebellion, were all subtly introduced and carefully managed but marginally unsatisfying for their lack of development. I wish Poul Anderson would have been of a later generation when 300-600 page books were the norm.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 men on a mission aboard a ship destined for Alpha Crucis. A device to transport them instantly to wherever the ship is, kind of like Star Trek's Teleporters. An error in the ship's computer sending it to a black star, and it becomes a tale of survival. In some ways this book is similar to Tau Zero, which I enjoyed. Once again Hard SF man Anderson fails to disappoint!
Great stuff, if a little short at 141 pages.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have the hardback of this.

[Chris Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Enemy Stars is a pretty solid Golden Age SF book. Stylistically it reminded me a lot of Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. It's definitely hard SF, with the majority of the plot focusing on a group of scientists on a deep space mission, and the ways in which they use their considerable scientific skills to troubleshoot a number of problems.

The hard SF elements were very well written. Anderson's familiarity with physics (he had a BA in the subject) lends a feeling of authenticity to the more technical passages. As a layman I found them to be overly dry or obscure at times, but I also appreciated how he kept them relatively short. He doesn't go on for pages of unnecessary detail just to prove how smart he is. On the contrary, you can tell he's using his scientific knowledge in service of the story. It almost felt like a proto-Star Trek situation out times, with a diverse (well, in some ways) crew improvising clever solutions to disaster after disaster. I felt that this was the strong point of the book. There's an interesting mixture of very advanced technology, such as FTL travel and matter replication, and older technology such as relatively primitive ships and computers. I think my favorite bit of 50s tech was when one of the characters used a specialized slide rule in order to calculate something.

My opinion of the character work is more mixed. While I felt that the majority of characters had deeper and more vibrant personalities than in Rendezvous with Rama, they still felt flat in some ways. I appreciated that Anderson made the choice to give the characters diverse origins, both in terms of race and planet of origin (the characters are all human, but some have grown up on colonized worlds.) At the same time, I'm not sure how much of a difference the choice ultimately made, as aside from certain differences in temperament and experience, they didn't really stand out as individuals. Part of this was due to the fact that, at only 140 pages, there isn't really much time spent on developing the characters. They each get a nice introduction chapter, and there are a few good conversations between them later on in the book, but for much of it they come off as more or less generic spacemen.

Finally, none of my reviews of SF classics would be complete without a look at how women are treated in the novel. The book doesn't get off to a great start, with one of the main characters thinking some pretty misogynistic things about his companion. Things get slightly better when the character Tamara is introduced. She is the wife of one of the explorers, who is forced to live with his cold and domineering father while he is away on his missions. I found her to be quite sympathetic and enjoyable, but unfortunately she only appears in about three chapters, so doesn't get nearly enough time to develop into a truly meaningful character. The big issue with the book gender-wise is actually Anderson's conception of space travel. He obviously views it as the natural extension of frontier exploration, and thus as a sphere where men establish themselves as men. It's never explicitly stated that space exploration is no place for women, but it's pretty clear from the writing that, in this book at least, he views it as an endeavor uniquely suited to men.

If you like Arthur C. Clarke, I would give this book a chance. I have a few more Poul Anderson books on my to-read list. Hopefully they will grab me more than this one did.

[Sergio Mars · Rating 4 out of 5]

La humanidad se ha lanzado a la conquista de las estrellas, enviando astronaves limitadas por la velocidad de la luz, que viajan durante siglos por el vacío atendidas por tripulaciones de relevo que se teletransportan desde la Tierra o sus colonias. Por lo demás, el futuro que dibuja Poul Anderson es poco agradable. El planeta madre está superpoblado y para mantenerse explota unos mundos al borde de la rebelión. Una dictadura, el protectorado, lo controla todo con mano de hierro, imponiendo una política ultraconservadora para mantener sus privilegios.

En estas circunstancias, cuatro hombres son designados como el nuevo relevo de la Cruz Austral, la nave de exploración que más lejos del Sol ha viajado. En su periplo ha llegado a las cercanías de una enana negra, y esa es una oportunidad demasiado buena para desaprovecharla. Cada uno de los cuatro llega con su propia historia, sus propios fantasmas y sus propias aspiraciones, pero cuando un accidente destruye tanto el impulsor principal como el transmisor de materia de la nave, dejándolos aislados a cientos de años luz de casa, deberán esforzarse como nunca por aferrarse a una lejanísima esperanza de salvación.

Con mimbres parecidos, otros autores hubieran escrito una historia de superación y de triunfo de la inteligencia frente a la adversidad. Poul Anderson no está interesado en eso. Para entender mejor el mensaje de la novela conviene contextualizarla. La carrera espacial había arrancado apenas cuatro años antes, y de hecho aún faltaban dos para que el primer hombre, un ruso, llegara al espacio.

Anderson, físico de formación, ya había previsto que ese empeño costaría vidas, y con esta novela (titulada originalmente "We have fed our sea...", en referencia a un poema de Rudyard Kipling) trataba de mostrar por qué había que pagar ese precio. La respuesta, en parte, es que ampliar los horizontes rompe el statu quo y confiere libertad, pero sobre todo viene a implicar que forzar los límites es un especie de imperativo moral. Es eso o el estancamiento y la decadencia.

"The enemy stars" no es un historia confortadora, sino dura y desafiante (que, de paso, intentaba superar también las limitaciones temáticas de la Edad de Oro). En 1960 fue finalista del premio Hugo y con motivo de su reedición en 1979 Anderson actualizó un poco su fundamento científico (incluyendo los taquiones como justificante al funcionamiento instantáneo del transmisor de materia). Lo que no pudo hacer es otorgar un papel más proactivo a las mujeres, y quizás por eso escribió "The ways of love" un relato largo que, a modo de epílogo, se incluye en algunas ediciones desde 1985.

En general, una interesantísima novela, que busca ofrecer más de lo que solía ser habitual en la space opera (incluso en la space opera hard) de la época y que hubiera sido más merecedora del premio que "Un caso de conciencia" (aunque quizás no más que "Immortality, Inc." de Sheckley).

En unos días, podréis leer la reseña completa en Rescepto Indablog (http://rescepto.wordpress.com).

[Mike Franklin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love hard science fiction but it does undoubtedly suffer one major flaw; it is more vulnerable to being dated than most other SF. By its very nature what might be leading edge science at the time of writing may, sometimes quite rapidly, become superseded or simply revealed as invalid speculation. The Enemy Stars was written in 1959 (just two years after I was born) and at the time would have been serious leading edge hard SF with relativity and quantum physics taking centre stage, but sadly one critical belief that information can be transmitted instantaneously using gravitational effects has since been proved wrong. However The Enemy Stars predates the first Apollo mission and allowance must be made for the state of knowledge at that time and besides it’s no worse than all the modern SF centred on various modes of faster than light travel.

Instantaneous transmission of matter (not dissimilar to Star Trek’s transporter) is now available and promises to open up the stars to humanity but transceivers must first be transported to the destinations and this must be done with sub light speed technology taking hundreds of years. Anderson’s solution to this is really quite ingenious; space ships are sent out to the stars with a transceiver on board and, using this transceiver, crews can be transmitted onto the space ships to serve a tour of several months before being relieved by a new crew and this process is repeated for the entire duration of the sometimes centuries long voyage. One of these ships has been diverted to and interesting dead sun and, when the ships drive and transceiver are both damaged, the crew face starvation if they cannot repair the transceiver in time.

This is a great story with the emphasis placed on science (some now a bit flaky as mentioned earlier) and how the crew of four handle and manage the crisis. Some of the characterisation is a little flat but considering the story’s short length by modern standards (just 135 pages in my edition) it’s frankly surprising how much depth Anderson manages to squeeze in. Not my favourite Anderson hard SF, both Tau Zero and The Boat of a Million Years are better in my opinion, but still an excellent quick read.

[Oreon · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://whatsread.pp.ua/work/8153
ік виходу роману - 1958, автор пише, що вже кілька сотень років людство підкорює космос; тобто приблизно уявляємо собі часовий відрізок, який відокремлює теперішнього читача від подій, що відбуваються в романі. Дар передбачення автора щодо нейтронних зірок, звичайно цікавий, але ось що справді вражає, так це фраза одного із землян майбутнього: «... До того ж я ніколи не був прихильником цієї новомодної безглуздої ідеї дозволяти жінці тявкати...» Отакої, мабуть, зірки давалися авторові набагато легше, ніж передбачити стан суспільства всього лиш через 50 років, рівність статей, толерантність у відносинах, я вже й не кажу про емансипацію і фемінізм. Тай, на правду, і вся соціальна структура суспільства майбутнього в романі тягне затхлістю середньовіччя, клановістю і т.п.

Герої всі якісь смикані, імпульсивні та неправдоподібні. Їх що, за психологічними параметрами при відборі не перевіряють? Перша ж проблема — відразу ж втрата субординації, вихід із підпорядкування та мордобій. Тільки смаженим запахло — всі навперебій нити і посипати голову попелом, насправді жодної сильної особистості. Вийшло неправдоподібно і бліденько. А хто такі всіма шановані земні техни? За що їм така шана? Чому такий дивний відбір у експедицію? — Склалося враження, що туди практично будь-хто може потрапити. Як підсумок – досить слабко та непереконливо.

[Francisco · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the nominees for the 1959 Hugo Awards, Anderson's The Enemy Stars is a mix of more contemplative and more nuts and boltsy science fiction which is considerably more enjoyable in one of these modes than on the other. The science bits of the story can get slightly dull, but it's the character's psychology, meditations and stories which really stand out here.

The story takes on a kind of pessimistic view of space exploration. Again, space is empty, you go crazy and often you die, the point of doing is somewhat obscure and often it feels like hubris more than anything. In this novel, there are no faster than light ships, what was developed was a mattercaster, something like a Star Trek teleporter that works at long distance. This allows crews to teleport back and forth from earth to avoid what would have otherwise been really long, generational, space missions.

But then the mattercaster on a ship breaks down... there are no supplies, not enough pieces for repair and the 4 crew members start clashing and desperately trying to survive against all odds. So yeah, space isn't comfortable. There's a cool final twist that feels like it should have been further developed (which it was in a short story that was inclueded in this edition, but I could have had more.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Enemy Stars is a lesser-known science-fiction story from the late 1950s by noted SF author Poul Anderson. It's the story of four men who travel deep into space where things go wrong with the ship. It's a classic set-up, and it works really well here.

The story itself is fairly straightforward - a tale of comradeship and ingenuity and survival with just enough scientific possibility to make it work - but I wish that Anderson had spent more time illuminating some of the political complexities of this world. There are a number of allusions to the ways in which the world has developed politically, including in the character of the four main characters, but there is easily more unsaid than said in this story which is almost a novella in its briefness.

I think this would actually be a really interesting story to turn into a movie. The plot is simple and direct enough, and there is definitely a lot of room to create interesting settings and characters. I think the ideas and the set-ups here are really interesting, and the ending is compelling enough to turn into a script.

[Martyn Vaughan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel, serialised in Astounding under the the title "We Have Fed Our Sea", is a typically thoughtful Anderson work. It describes world in which Eastern cultures have overtaken the West and English is an endangered, minority language.
The main story revolves around another attempt to circumvent the cosmic speed limit of c. This time, a matter transfer system is used, similar to the transporter in Star Trek. It uses gravitational waves which are assumed, for no good reason, to travel instantaneously. Crew are beamed aboard starships, which themselves travel slower than light. Thus no one is forced to live out their lives upon these ships as the crews are constantly replaced.
The meat of the action is when the ship is badly damaged by being too close to a white dwarf and the crew trry to find a signal so they can be beamed back to Earth. One crew member believes he has found such a signal and beams himself to it. Unfortuanely it turns out to be of an alien civilisation and he dies in the process. An alien kindly brings his corpse back.
One man survives to tell the tale.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit to being a fan of the classic golden age authors of which Anderson was. I've read a couple of his other books many years ago and recall enjoying them and when I saw this on a recommended scifi book list I downloaded it. It is hard scifi in the golden age vein touching on older sympathies and traditions. It's a fairly simple plot and also tells of personal sacrifice and beliefs. Being fairly short it was an easy read but I enjoyed it. One thing that struck me was I wonder if Gene Roddenberry read it and came up with the idea of transporters. Of course Star Trek's were fairly localized in reach while this is across the galaxy. The ending had a nice futuristic addition on the end of the story as well.

[Jim Mann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Humanity has spread to nearby stars. Starships carry the materials to create a faster than light transporter network. But one far distant ship detects the remains of a dead star, the ship is diverted to that Star, and four men are transported to the ship to study it. But something goes wrong, and their transport equipment is destroyed. They must find a way to fix and reconstruct it or die.

This is a great portrait of four very different men working under extreme pressure. Anderson’s terse yet poetic writing ramps up the tension. And the science is solid for its time (if perhaps a little outdated in spots in the more than half century since it’s original publication).

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an older SciFi book - first published in 1959 - and it takes great liberties with science, how people can function in space, featuring mostly male characters, etc. That said, it is a Poul Anderson book so it is well written, engaging, and a book that makes you think. Much more than a book about space travel, Poul explores issues of politics, society, language, personal growth, and the "what's it all about" questions. Many of the topics were way ahead of the times when this book was first published and are an relevant today as they were then.

[Matt Hartzell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Enemy Stars by Poul Anderson was a great, quick read. It had a lot of density despite its relatively short length: a disaster movie, the dynamics of father-son relationships, the first meeting of interstellar life, the difficulties of cross-cultural reconciliation, and the innate desire of mankind to explore for exploring's sake. Anderson is a great writer and builds a lot of nuance into his characters in short order. I really enjoyed the build up of plot tensions, and then the twists and turns it made from there. And the Rudyard Kipling quotes didn't hurt either!

[Jonathan Waugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting story, which would probably appeal if you like the film The Martian or the book Project Hail Mary as it has a similar sci-fi disaster / survival style plot. It is a short book, and quite page-turning. The characters are good, though it lacks the depth of the longer Project Hail Mary and this lack of depth means puts it at 4/5 rather than higher.

The science in the book is interesting. It was first published in 1958, and some of the science is rather outdated - though bits are clever.

[Joachim Boaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25/5 (Above Average)

A few minutes surfing the inter-webs reveals that this 1950s sci-fi work by Poul Anderson arouses some controversy. People looking for Anderson’s pulp-infused sprawling space opera works of the period will be disappointed with the simplicity of the plot and the restrained horizons [...]

Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...

[Kivrin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was written in 1958 but I had no trouble enjoying it. There was a lot of science which went over my head and may or may not be questionable (it's 1950's science so probably outdated). What was interesting was the look at the journey of 4 men from who they were and what they believed from the time they are put together on a deep space mission until the end of that mission. It is a sad read but hopeful as well.

[Jenny Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four very different men with vastly different lives and perspectives refuse to go gentle into that good night when their starship suffers seemingly unrepairable damage. They have to work through their differences and prejudices if they want even the slimmest chance of getting home. I appreciated the chapter in the middle, which was told from the POV of the wife of one of the foursome. Up to that point, I found the gender dynamics miserable, so I was glad when she actually got some agency.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good example of scifi from its time! Sad, too.

I don't quite get the "because we are men!" bit. But I think it translates to some combination of: 1. doing ones duty with fortitude, and 2. taking risks to prove that one can perform extraordinary feats, even if it involves unnecessary risk. And that this is part of man's nature.

Trying to unwrap gender from human nature, that's what I get.