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No Truce With Kings / Ship of Shadows
Tor is proud to bring you the best in science fiction's short novels. An amazing amount of particularly fine science fiction is written at a length just too short to put in a book by itself, so they are put together two at a time. The Tor Doubles will are both new stories and older ones.
Poul Anderson. No Truce With Kings. 1964 Hugo Award for Best Short Fiction. Originally published in F&SF Magazine, June 1963.
Fritz Leiber. Ship of Shadows. 1970 Hugo Award for Best Novelette. Originally published in F&SF Magazine, July 1969.
Poul Anderson. No Truce With Kings. 1964 Hugo Award for Best Short Fiction. Originally published in F&SF Magazine, June 1963.
Fritz Leiber. Ship of Shadows. 1970 Hugo Award for Best Novelette. Originally published in F&SF Magazine, July 1969.
181 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1989
1 person is currently reading
79 people want to read
About the author
Poul Anderson
1,621 books1,107 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 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 22, 2019
This is Tor Double #5, of a series of 36 double books published from 1988 to 1991 by Tor Books. It contains two novellas, bound together tête-bêche in mass market paperback – back-to-back, inverted, with two front covers and both titles on the spine. The novellas are listed here alphabetically by author; neither should be considered “primary.”
No Truce With Kings, by Poul Anderson (1963)
This was originally published in the June 1963 issue of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and won the 1964 Hugo Award in the short fiction category. An old copy of F&SF is where I first read the story (in 1982), so this Tor Double was half a re-read for me. In a post-apocalyptic United States, the Pacific States of America are convulsed by a bloody civil war backed on one side by the "Espers", a movement that claims its followers can achieve great psychic powers. However the Espers turn out to be a front for aliens. Upon confronting the aliens, the PSA clansmen are told that the aliens are trying to manipulate human society into a pacifist one, without which their science predicts war and death. The story explores the balance of social forms, from feudal to super-state, and warns of the dangers of forced nation-building. I enjoyed the action-oriented story fairly well.
Ship of Shadows, by Fritz Leiber (1969)
This was originally published in the July 1969 issue of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and won the 1970 Hugo Award in the novella category. Spar is a half-blind, half-deaf barman at the Bat Rack. Sick and hungover, a talking cat makes his acquaintance, and after some initial social troubles, the two become friends. The owner of the Bat Rack is barely tolerant of Spar’s lifestyle. Though having his own issues, he has an eye out for the crippled and elderly Spar. Things switch between the mundane and horrific, and Spar discovers that a cat is a better friend than humans. This story is just bizarre, and I did not enjoy it.
No Truce With Kings, by Poul Anderson (1963)
This was originally published in the June 1963 issue of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and won the 1964 Hugo Award in the short fiction category. An old copy of F&SF is where I first read the story (in 1982), so this Tor Double was half a re-read for me. In a post-apocalyptic United States, the Pacific States of America are convulsed by a bloody civil war backed on one side by the "Espers", a movement that claims its followers can achieve great psychic powers. However the Espers turn out to be a front for aliens. Upon confronting the aliens, the PSA clansmen are told that the aliens are trying to manipulate human society into a pacifist one, without which their science predicts war and death. The story explores the balance of social forms, from feudal to super-state, and warns of the dangers of forced nation-building. I enjoyed the action-oriented story fairly well.
Ship of Shadows, by Fritz Leiber (1969)
This was originally published in the July 1969 issue of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and won the 1970 Hugo Award in the novella category. Spar is a half-blind, half-deaf barman at the Bat Rack. Sick and hungover, a talking cat makes his acquaintance, and after some initial social troubles, the two become friends. The owner of the Bat Rack is barely tolerant of Spar’s lifestyle. Though having his own issues, he has an eye out for the crippled and elderly Spar. Things switch between the mundane and horrific, and Spar discovers that a cat is a better friend than humans. This story is just bizarre, and I did not enjoy it.
March 23, 2009
Before reading this review, know that I've only read "No Truce With Kings" by Poul Anderson.
I believe I've read this story two times, each time being captured by the great cover by Rojo. However, each time left me feeling that this was a waste of time.
The story may, in fact, be ok. What I don't like is the writing style of Poul Anderson (at least in this story, I haven't read that much of him). He is too focused on the plot (and dialogue) and forgets to build a believable world, or at least a world that we (or at least me) can understand. I like descriptions, at least some descriptions to put me in the right mood, but Poul Anderson somehow feel that descriptions hold him (and his story) back.
What I got from the story...
We are somewhere in the United States, in a post apocalyptic world where technology isn't the center of the universe. In fact, the survivors feel that technology can be dangerous, at least some of it. Instead certain ideas have arisen, like the idea of the Espers, Psi-clerics with weird powers, or so the rumors go.
A war breaks out. We follow a few 'warriors' fighting to survive, but at the same time, we hear about some other creatures, aliens. In the end, the 'heroes' meet the aliens and then...
I believe I've read this story two times, each time being captured by the great cover by Rojo. However, each time left me feeling that this was a waste of time.
The story may, in fact, be ok. What I don't like is the writing style of Poul Anderson (at least in this story, I haven't read that much of him). He is too focused on the plot (and dialogue) and forgets to build a believable world, or at least a world that we (or at least me) can understand. I like descriptions, at least some descriptions to put me in the right mood, but Poul Anderson somehow feel that descriptions hold him (and his story) back.
What I got from the story...
We are somewhere in the United States, in a post apocalyptic world where technology isn't the center of the universe. In fact, the survivors feel that technology can be dangerous, at least some of it. Instead certain ideas have arisen, like the idea of the Espers, Psi-clerics with weird powers, or so the rumors go.
A war breaks out. We follow a few 'warriors' fighting to survive, but at the same time, we hear about some other creatures, aliens. In the end, the 'heroes' meet the aliens and then...
June 13, 2025
While both novellas had a lot of potential and were written by masters, they suffered from the short length. Bound back to back and reversed, this was from the Tor Double line, giving you two shorter novels/novellas in one book. Unfortunately, this results in something that probably should have been less ambitious or else longer to really explore the nuances and the ideas that they only brushed against. No Truce With Kings especially suffered from length undercutting the hints of outside manipulation and making it read more like a battle log than a story of balance and free will and choices. Ship of Shadows lacks some of the same level of coherence but it has hella atmosphere and imagery, at least.
May 13, 2020
Listing this book twice in my Read list - once for each book
This is for Ship Of Shadows
I enjoyed the story well enough, though the end felt rushed and some of the details were (for me) not necessary, such as Kim saying which relative brought her aboard the ship.
This is for Ship Of Shadows
I enjoyed the story well enough, though the end felt rushed and some of the details were (for me) not necessary, such as Kim saying which relative brought her aboard the ship.
January 1, 2022
At least they were short reads
August 9, 2016
No Truce with Kings. Poul Anderson. 1964 @TheHugoAwards winner. Libertarianism in a post-apocalypse USA, .
Reviewed @reallyReads
Reviewed @reallyReads
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews