Planet ohne Wiederkehr

by Poul Anderson, Tony Westermayr (Translator)

Die Erde, der übervölkerte Planet, entdeckt nach langer Suche eine bewohnbare, neue Welt im All - eine Welt, die es zu kolonisieren gilt. Aber man stößt auf verborgene Feinde, und es stellt sich die Frage, ob die Menschheit überhaupt reif ist für eine solche Ausdehnung in den Kosmos ...

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

126 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1974

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

[Bill]

Ah the classic space adventure. You've got to love them. Planet of No Return by Poul Anderson, published originally in 1956 is such an entertaining story.

7 years before, the explorer ship De Gama went out into space to see if the planet Troas was suitable for habitation by Earth. It never returned. After much finagling, a new ship, the Henry Hudson, heads out to discover what happened to the crew of the De Gama and to finish the mission.

Before the ship even takes off, there is an explosion that almost destroys it. The crew is a group of people who are at each other from the get-go and the crew psychomed Ed Avery seems ineffectual at getting them to work together. On arriving at Troas, a portion of the crew heads down to the planet to explore and discovers local inhabitants. This could impact on Earth's ability to populate the planet. A small group of the Hudson's crew goes with a party of locals to see what's what.

There you go. That's the crux of the story. When I was back in high school in the late 60's I used to love reading these Sci-Fi stories. They were always entertaining, explored new worlds, explored mankind and what it might become; neat ideas, neat mysteries, sometimes scary, always page turners. Anderson has crafted an enjoyable story. It's short, but he gets his ideas across, has interesting characters and I think, makes his point as well.

Interestingly, the idea was to have 3 Sci-Fi authors; Anderson, Isaac Asimov and James Blish (or Blish's wife) each write a story set on this world. Only Anderson and Asimov actually created their stories. Must try to find Asimov's. Anyway, most enjoyable. (3.5 stars)

[Jim Mann]

Note: I'd have rated this 3.5 if I was allowed half stars. I don't think it's quite up to a 4, but it's better than a 3.

This is a minor but enjoyable short Anderson novel. A starship is sent to a planet that could be suitable for human habitation. A previous expedition disappeared, and this one has had several bad breaks. They find a planet with a breathable atmosphere, a livable zone around the equator, and plant and animal life, some of which is edible. They encounter a group of aliens, the existence of whom might preclude colonization (humanity it seems has reached the point of saying that if an intelligent species lives on the planet, humans will steer clear). The aliens invite a small party of the humans to join them on a long trek back to their village.

The novel spends some time speculating on the need for exploration and expansion. But overall it's a reasonable hard science story that moves along at a brisk pace. Anderson has written many better novels, but this one can provide an enjoyable couple of hours.

[Simon]

Flowing writing style. Moves quickly, perhaps too quickly to really develop the characters.

Interesting concept dealing with problem of finding expansion room (in the galaxy) for humans to settle and asking the question is that something we should even be trying to do?

[Tanya Turner]

In some ways this felt more like an essay or discussion on the ethics and desirability of space exploration and colonization rather than a novel. The reason for this is twofold; first there was a lot of exposition; almost an entire chapter was spent on explaining psychoanalytics and another on the Anderson’s fictional history of space exploration so far. Secondly, the characters are little more than stereotypes, and the small bit of character development undergone by the main character (John Lorenzen) seems entirely unjustified. This is a pity as, by the end of the book, the reader is expected to accept him as the voice for humankind, arguing that man should be allowed to explore and grow. (I am deliberately using ‘humankind’ and ‘man’ interchangeably as this is the pattern Anderson follows, and as there is not a female character in the book it seems the two may be the same in his mind.

So those are the negatives, on the positive side, this book is interesting as a counterpoint to the Foundation stories by Isaac Asimov. Asimov’s Galactic Empire is built on Psychohistory, while the end point of this book is an argument against allowing such subtle manipulation of man’s development by social scientists. This makes it an interesting historical sf novel, but it doesn’t really hold up, in style or subject, as modern science-fiction.

[Aaron Robb]

A short, fun novella that holds up fairly well for the most part.
An interesting adventure that didn't end how I expected, note that I wouldn't consider this a negative.

The parts that have aged the worst are the lack of female characters (there's none) and where sucking out the venom is suggested as a way to treat one of the explorers a bite that receives from an alien creature.

The ending raises some great philosophical questions that will stay with you after you put it down.

[Rex Libris]

Things keep going wrong on a mission to a new planet that has the potential for colonization; and the previous expedition there disappeared without a trace.

The deep state is run by "psychmen" who do not think mankind is ready to out to the stars, and they are the ones sabotaging the mission. They want to bread humanity into beta males before they can go and colonize the stars.

Needless to say, the people adventurous enough to go on this expedition want no part of that.

[SciFiOne]

Grade B

[Alice Florence]

Very exciting! The first expedition to a new planet has vanished without a trace. The second expedition has just arrived to find out what happened...

[Bart Hill]

I miss how well written Golden Age Science fiction/Fantasy was. This book has mystery, intrigue, and adventure in 147 fast paced pages. Why can't modern writers do the same?

[Gary Meades]

Classic, golden-era sci-fi, with all the issues that go with it. Interesting ideas, wafer-thin characters (and not a woman in sight) and not particularly inspired writing.

[Pedro]

Not just a simple space opera type book. Lots of political philosophy threaded through it. Stuck the landing but unspectacularly. Still would recommend to anyone who wants a quick read (128 pages)

[Fabian Blattsalat]

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