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The Winter of the World
Thousands of years from now, after a new Ice Age has reduced our world to frozen ruins, new civilizations and cultures arise from the Ice. But as the people of tomorrow slowly uncover the lost technology of the past, they also rediscover war, conquest, diplomacy...and betrayal. While the might Rahidain-Barammian Empire expands across the globe, Josserek Derrain, uncover agent for the freedom-loving Seafolk, must find a way to save his people from the Empire's grasp. His best hope is an alliance with the Rogaviki, a wild and nomadic race whose women are rumored to cast an unbreakable spell on any man who dares seek them out. Between barbarians and aristocrats, spied and soldiers, the battle lines are drawn in the ultimate conflict to determine who will rule over.. .The Winter of the World.
190 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
8 people are currently reading
331 people want to read
About the author
Poul Anderson
1,621 books1,106 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
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
March 21, 2017
Say what you will about Poul Anderson’s politics, morals or philosophies, but at the end of the day he tells a good story.
Winter of the World describes a far future Earth where an Ice Age has transformed humanity into new and different cultures. This work displays Anderson’s early libertarianism, and a hint of a recurring Nordic centrism.
Anderson, an only slightly less literary lothario than Heinlein, has in his canon created a hedonistic harem of female characters, but Donya of the Northfolk may be his fantasy writer playboy masterpiece. Donya represents his ideal in a Neo-Nietzschean superwoman: a warrior princess who’s also a wildcat in the bedroom.
Like most of Anderson’s works, Winter of the World’s plot also serves as a means by which the author can delve into other topics. This novel studies conservationism and population control, and even an extreme kind of libertarianism, a collective anarchy reminiscent of LeGuin’s The Dispossessed (published in 1974, two years before Anderson’s Winter of the World).
Not one of his best, but still a very good read and a must for true Anderson fans.
Winter of the World describes a far future Earth where an Ice Age has transformed humanity into new and different cultures. This work displays Anderson’s early libertarianism, and a hint of a recurring Nordic centrism.
Anderson, an only slightly less literary lothario than Heinlein, has in his canon created a hedonistic harem of female characters, but Donya of the Northfolk may be his fantasy writer playboy masterpiece. Donya represents his ideal in a Neo-Nietzschean superwoman: a warrior princess who’s also a wildcat in the bedroom.
Like most of Anderson’s works, Winter of the World’s plot also serves as a means by which the author can delve into other topics. This novel studies conservationism and population control, and even an extreme kind of libertarianism, a collective anarchy reminiscent of LeGuin’s The Dispossessed (published in 1974, two years before Anderson’s Winter of the World).
Not one of his best, but still a very good read and a must for true Anderson fans.
June 10, 2015
It made me think that Anderson changed his mind midway through. The book starts with a heavy investment in the politics and economy of the city-state of Arvanneth (New Orleans?), a world power in decline and fossilized culture recently absorbed by the Rahidian Empire. There are factions within Arvanneth--the Council, religious Orders, the nobility, the merchant league, the criminal underworld--and within the Empire itself, as evidenced by the competition between the Imperial viceroys ruling the city in fact but not in name. Everybody has an angle, including agents of a foreign power inserted into Arvanneth with the goal of disrupting the Empire's designs on the northern plains. These designs include the investigation and exploitation of the resources within the ruined, icebound city of Roong, nestled in the glacier.
I was grooving pretty heavily to this sort of comprehensive worldbuilding and Realpolitik, and was waiting to see how the factions of Arvanneth, threatened by the Imperial tendency to break down aristocracies, impose law, and encourage trade, would play out the game of nations. To see what sort of technology exists in the frozen corpse of the world-that-was.
But it became clear that Anderson in reality wanted to talk about the Rogaviki, the mysterous dwellers in the north, whose culture directly opposes the Empire on several levels (rugged individualism and libertarianism versus collective and military, polyandrous versus polygamous, and so forth). The plot became easily derailed into travelogue and sociology and cultural exploration.
It's nice stuff. It's good stuff. It isn't the stuff I wanted to read.
The time spent in Arvanneth eventually pays off, sort of, but made me wish that Anderson had revisited this setting in another story.
I was grooving pretty heavily to this sort of comprehensive worldbuilding and Realpolitik, and was waiting to see how the factions of Arvanneth, threatened by the Imperial tendency to break down aristocracies, impose law, and encourage trade, would play out the game of nations. To see what sort of technology exists in the frozen corpse of the world-that-was.
But it became clear that Anderson in reality wanted to talk about the Rogaviki, the mysterous dwellers in the north, whose culture directly opposes the Empire on several levels (rugged individualism and libertarianism versus collective and military, polyandrous versus polygamous, and so forth). The plot became easily derailed into travelogue and sociology and cultural exploration.
It's nice stuff. It's good stuff. It isn't the stuff I wanted to read.
The time spent in Arvanneth eventually pays off, sort of, but made me wish that Anderson had revisited this setting in another story.
October 4, 2016
They couldn't stop winter from coming, it came!
I don't know why I decided to channel Dr. Seuss here, probably because of all this George RR Martin nonsense where "Winter is coming" and then reading this book, where an Ice Age has either brought on or been triggered by an apocalypse in our own time.
It is nice to read a truly well thought out book. The idea is this: A new empire has swept through the land, up to a big ancient city (maybe the former site of Jackson, Mississippi?) and the ambitious conquerors wish to sweep all the way north, through the land of the barbarian Rogaviki who, despite their apparent barbarian-ness, have access to lots of metal.
It is not a spoiler to point out that they get this from cities in a frozen-over ancient civilization. In fact, from the description in the book, I thought they were getting it from New York. Anderson mentions a "titan" and "towers", so I'm thinking Statue of Liberty and the new (at the time) World Trade Center, but from the map included with the book, it is perhaps Chicago. (The references wouldn't have to be to buildings that were around in 1975, I suppose, too.)
Anyway, it's a cool but minor element of the book: The big element of the book is the mystery of the unconquerable Rogaviki. How do these barbarians manage to survive, much less repel invading civilizations? They're not even tribal, with a loose, clan-type organization where not only is there no king of all the clans, there's no real king of any individual clan!
And they're polyandrist: One woman has many husbands, and is sexually free, but utterly in control of her reproduction (although this does break down, as we learn). The men are also sexually free, which is okay, again, as long no offspring result. The population is tightly (though voluntarily) controlled, partly due to this polyandry, partly due to only certain women marrying, and partly due to a limit to the number of children any women will have.
As a result (or a perhaps as a cause), the population of the Rogaviki is completely stable and well within the ability of the land to support. (Their territory is most of the US, except the far northern reaches which are frozen over. And there are about 200-300,000 of them.) But despite their nomadic ways, they are also rather cultivated, with reading and writing and various advanced trades. All without words in their language for "king" or even "tribe".
The story centers around Jossarek, who is an agent from a seafaring race trying to find a way to ally his people with the Rogaviki, in an attempt to curb the ambitions of the increasingly powerful Empire. He meets Donya, one of the Rogaviki in, uh, Jackson (:-)) and they end up on a long adventure to save the Rogavikians from the imperial incursions.
In one more twist, Rogavikian women appear to the outside world to be sort of witches. Men who are with Rogavikian women often become obsessed with them and never forget them.
In the hands of a hack, this could've been (has been!) awful. But Anderson weaves all the elements of the mystery (who are the Rogavikians?) into an interesting plot of survival, where Jossarek becomes increasingly invested in Rogavikian survival, even as he views them as a sort of cultural accident: Some sort of society that's just waiting for a powerful, organized one to come along and wipe them out.
There are a lot of clues about what's going on which means a few things: The stinger (after a decent, if somewhat abrupt climax) is very satisfying but not really surprising. You might get the idea, especially with its mishmash of technologies and mysteries that this is some sort of fantasy novel, but it's not: It's sci-fi, and all will be explained. There's a love story here, too, though it also gives way to science by the end of the book.
Very enjoyable. Even though written in the mid-'70s, the theme of overpopulation and resource depletion is secondary to the actual story. If you like Poul Anderson, you'll certainly like this.
(This edition has 190 pages, not 0, as listed here.)
I don't know why I decided to channel Dr. Seuss here, probably because of all this George RR Martin nonsense where "Winter is coming" and then reading this book, where an Ice Age has either brought on or been triggered by an apocalypse in our own time.
It is nice to read a truly well thought out book. The idea is this: A new empire has swept through the land, up to a big ancient city (maybe the former site of Jackson, Mississippi?) and the ambitious conquerors wish to sweep all the way north, through the land of the barbarian Rogaviki who, despite their apparent barbarian-ness, have access to lots of metal.
It is not a spoiler to point out that they get this from cities in a frozen-over ancient civilization. In fact, from the description in the book, I thought they were getting it from New York. Anderson mentions a "titan" and "towers", so I'm thinking Statue of Liberty and the new (at the time) World Trade Center, but from the map included with the book, it is perhaps Chicago. (The references wouldn't have to be to buildings that were around in 1975, I suppose, too.)
Anyway, it's a cool but minor element of the book: The big element of the book is the mystery of the unconquerable Rogaviki. How do these barbarians manage to survive, much less repel invading civilizations? They're not even tribal, with a loose, clan-type organization where not only is there no king of all the clans, there's no real king of any individual clan!
And they're polyandrist: One woman has many husbands, and is sexually free, but utterly in control of her reproduction (although this does break down, as we learn). The men are also sexually free, which is okay, again, as long no offspring result. The population is tightly (though voluntarily) controlled, partly due to this polyandry, partly due to only certain women marrying, and partly due to a limit to the number of children any women will have.
As a result (or a perhaps as a cause), the population of the Rogaviki is completely stable and well within the ability of the land to support. (Their territory is most of the US, except the far northern reaches which are frozen over. And there are about 200-300,000 of them.) But despite their nomadic ways, they are also rather cultivated, with reading and writing and various advanced trades. All without words in their language for "king" or even "tribe".
The story centers around Jossarek, who is an agent from a seafaring race trying to find a way to ally his people with the Rogaviki, in an attempt to curb the ambitions of the increasingly powerful Empire. He meets Donya, one of the Rogaviki in, uh, Jackson (:-)) and they end up on a long adventure to save the Rogavikians from the imperial incursions.
In one more twist, Rogavikian women appear to the outside world to be sort of witches. Men who are with Rogavikian women often become obsessed with them and never forget them.
In the hands of a hack, this could've been (has been!) awful. But Anderson weaves all the elements of the mystery (who are the Rogavikians?) into an interesting plot of survival, where Jossarek becomes increasingly invested in Rogavikian survival, even as he views them as a sort of cultural accident: Some sort of society that's just waiting for a powerful, organized one to come along and wipe them out.
There are a lot of clues about what's going on which means a few things: The stinger (after a decent, if somewhat abrupt climax) is very satisfying but not really surprising. You might get the idea, especially with its mishmash of technologies and mysteries that this is some sort of fantasy novel, but it's not: It's sci-fi, and all will be explained. There's a love story here, too, though it also gives way to science by the end of the book.
Very enjoyable. Even though written in the mid-'70s, the theme of overpopulation and resource depletion is secondary to the actual story. If you like Poul Anderson, you'll certainly like this.
(This edition has 190 pages, not 0, as listed here.)
April 1, 2011
Not bad, but nothing special either. In a future ice age, various savages scrounge for metal in the iced-over cities of the past while new empires are rising to the south and trying to conquer their neighbors. The main characters are a general in one of the southern empire's armies; a spy from a enlightened merchant-seaman kingdom; and a savage woman from the north who both fall in love with. Anderson has often written about "savages" defeating or outsmarting more advanced civilizations and that is certainly a theme here, as is speculations about the future evolution of society and humans. A bit heavy-handed at times, but Anderson is a great writer so I forgive him his moralizing.
January 14, 2021
It's fairly obvious that Anderson spent a good bit of time developing this world and its peoples, designing the story he'd tell. It's equally apparent that he did not spend much time at all in execution. The writing is shoddy, ill-paced, and drenched in that painfully forced language that "you have to use in fantasy, right?" 'Bespoke,' 'belikes,' 'beckoning,' and fake medieval phrasing....the whole lot. The world and the story would have stood up to expansion into a longer novel and a better one, given care and effort, but this is not that book. And I feel the need to vent some.
More of the creepy, pulp, adolescent sexuality...."he had seen tigers move as superbly. The fullness of her body had known much running, riding, swimming, hunting, fighting, and surely lovemaking (p. 39)." Much of the book is about such obsessions, and expressed cheesily. And WHAT IS UP with Anderson's obsession with smoking? Was he sponsored by the tobacco lobby? Twenty thousand years in the future in this book, in a next Ice Age, we have balkanized human societies without typewriters or locomotives, but with mass-produced cigars and cigarettes? Where do you grow tobacco during a glaciation? WHY? C'mon. Manly men gotta have their highballs and smokes.
This book could be turned into a decent little movie in the right hands, but I'd suggest a reader look for a different book.
More of the creepy, pulp, adolescent sexuality...."he had seen tigers move as superbly. The fullness of her body had known much running, riding, swimming, hunting, fighting, and surely lovemaking (p. 39)." Much of the book is about such obsessions, and expressed cheesily. And WHAT IS UP with Anderson's obsession with smoking? Was he sponsored by the tobacco lobby? Twenty thousand years in the future in this book, in a next Ice Age, we have balkanized human societies without typewriters or locomotives, but with mass-produced cigars and cigarettes? Where do you grow tobacco during a glaciation? WHY? C'mon. Manly men gotta have their highballs and smokes.
This book could be turned into a decent little movie in the right hands, but I'd suggest a reader look for a different book.
December 18, 2016
Not one of his best, but still interesting. The idea of a future earth ravaged by an ice age and the differing societies that result is worth a read, and Anderson's writing style is always a joy...but don't expect a coherent storyline this time around. The final chapter was by and large the best part of the book.
October 17, 2014
Earth has been ravaged by a new Ice Age. As Josserek Derrain tries to sneak out of Arvanneth is is captured by a female of the Rogaviki who are trying to protect their northern hunting grounds from the Empire. The two will end up facing numerous perils together.
January 27, 2024
Revisited this, an old favourite, after a very long gap. I was very pleased to find it as good as I remembered, and for a novel from the 70s, it doesn't feel dated at all. That's probably because it's set in the far future. How far, we aren't told but there are hints if you're alert! Polaris is no longer the North Star, Vega is.
It's set in the middle of an Ice Age. The world has changed, coastlines and rivers altered, boundaries totally different from the ones we know. There are hints something catastrophic happened, but again, you are left guessing. Nuclear war? Meteor strike? Did that bring on the Ice Age, or did it just cause our civilisation to fail and the Ice Age came naturally in the course of time? You definitely get a feeling that very long eras have passed. The Ice Age has been going on long enough for new civilisations to arise, for some science and technology to be discovered. The world though, is short of usable land and as the leading empire grows, it needs more room. It starts to cast a covetous eye on the prairies, thinking that the tribes there are 'only barbarians'. That's where it all starts to get interesting!
I'm not going to give any spoilers! But one little thing stands out. A bit of information almost thrown away. Mars is now blue, but there's a folk memory that it used to be red. I can't help wondering if, before the catastrophe, our civilisation managed to colonise and terraform Mars and then got cut off?
It's set in the middle of an Ice Age. The world has changed, coastlines and rivers altered, boundaries totally different from the ones we know. There are hints something catastrophic happened, but again, you are left guessing. Nuclear war? Meteor strike? Did that bring on the Ice Age, or did it just cause our civilisation to fail and the Ice Age came naturally in the course of time? You definitely get a feeling that very long eras have passed. The Ice Age has been going on long enough for new civilisations to arise, for some science and technology to be discovered. The world though, is short of usable land and as the leading empire grows, it needs more room. It starts to cast a covetous eye on the prairies, thinking that the tribes there are 'only barbarians'. That's where it all starts to get interesting!
I'm not going to give any spoilers! But one little thing stands out. A bit of information almost thrown away. Mars is now blue, but there's a folk memory that it used to be red. I can't help wondering if, before the catastrophe, our civilisation managed to colonise and terraform Mars and then got cut off?
sf-and-fantasy-classics
February 24, 2021An allegorical post-catastrophe tale set in North America after a new Ice Age, it is meant as a plea for simpler life and respect for nature. Unfortunately, there is too much politics involved in the story, as well as confusion about the levels of technology of the various peoples. Which is a pity, because the writer's style is very beautiful, and some of the passages are unforgettable, e.g. the description of a ruined, abandoned city (Chicago?). As a fantasy, it is a very pleasant, fairly exciting read.
February 16, 2021
Overall, only the introduction of some evolutionary ideas at the end saved it from one star for me. Glad this author didn’t try to write from a female point of view. The iBooks version needs extensive editing - multiple extraneous semicolons and missing words, or spell-checker inserted poor choices. Wonder if the iBooks version was pirated.
February 1, 2025
Adventure set in a far future ice age - may have been extremely predictable in the hands of another author, but Anderson really makes the world come alive with details, history, and lore baked into every corner of the narrative.
August 1, 2019
A fairly low key piece of fantasy. Some interesting ideas but not hugely compelling.
August 30, 2024
Yet another endlessly compelling work by Anderson. I loved the intricacy of these complex societies and the constant discussion of humanity and interpersonal relationships. Fascinating book.
December 1, 2024
I will definitely need to reread if I ever get on a sci-fi-fantasy kick
February 1, 2025
2 1/2
March 5, 2017
Different way of existing.
June 2, 2015
I read this book over 30 years ago and forgot much of it. This is a fairly quick read and is typical of Poul Anderson. I know I will like anything he writes. This one was published in 1975 and I read the Sci Fi Book Club version of it back then. It takes place in a future ice age in what is the currently the U.S. but the glaciers have grown and have taken over all of what was once Canada and part of the northern U.S.
Donya is the matriarch of a more primitive race that lives in the woods and plains of the northern U.S. up the Jugular River (Mississippi River) probably around what is now Pittsburg. Sidir is a General of the Rahidian Empire who has annexed a city that is around our current New Orleans and plans to move north with his armies to subjugate and bring "civilization" to these "primitive" people. Josserick is an agent sent from Eaching (currently Australia) to intercede, spy, and assist these people in overthrowing the yoke of the Rahidian empire.
Poul Anderson as a science fiction writer is not just concerned with creating a fantasy world for his story but with the "hard" science fiction explanations to his stories as well. Donya is described as bewitching to men of other races. Her people are free living and as a wife she has several husbands but also is quite free with having sex with anyone whom she is attracted. Both Sidir and Josserick fall madly in love with her. Her race is self producing but also keeps their population from over producing by killing some of their weaker offspring or those produced with people of other races. But they value life and experience rage at the unwanton killing of any wildlife which is the lifeblood of their people. Very interesting story with an interesting explanation at the end for why her people are the way they are.
Donya is the matriarch of a more primitive race that lives in the woods and plains of the northern U.S. up the Jugular River (Mississippi River) probably around what is now Pittsburg. Sidir is a General of the Rahidian Empire who has annexed a city that is around our current New Orleans and plans to move north with his armies to subjugate and bring "civilization" to these "primitive" people. Josserick is an agent sent from Eaching (currently Australia) to intercede, spy, and assist these people in overthrowing the yoke of the Rahidian empire.
Poul Anderson as a science fiction writer is not just concerned with creating a fantasy world for his story but with the "hard" science fiction explanations to his stories as well. Donya is described as bewitching to men of other races. Her people are free living and as a wife she has several husbands but also is quite free with having sex with anyone whom she is attracted. Both Sidir and Josserick fall madly in love with her. Her race is self producing but also keeps their population from over producing by killing some of their weaker offspring or those produced with people of other races. But they value life and experience rage at the unwanton killing of any wildlife which is the lifeblood of their people. Very interesting story with an interesting explanation at the end for why her people are the way they are.
May 27, 2009
I really enjoyed the word Anderson builds in this one. I haven't read any of his work before (that I recollect) mainly because I never know where to start, so it was fun to have this one tossed at me by a friend. His writing is a little heavy on exposition, but he's definitely thinking things through.
The edition I read also includes the short story collect The Queen of Air and Darkness, of which the title story is definitely the best.
The edition I read also includes the short story collect The Queen of Air and Darkness, of which the title story is definitely the best.
September 21, 2009
I was sort of interested in this book when I started reading it, but it didn't seem to go anywhere. I'm not really in to lots of political intrigue. I skimmed through to see if it got any better but there didn't seem to be much action.
October 22, 2024
I really enjoyed reading something this old school; the “flavor” is just subtly different and it kept being surprising and fun in small ways because it doesn’t quite follow what are now expected tropes. The story itself is merely fine, however.
February 12, 2015
I did not like this book. Too many gory details about events that occurred during World War II. Some of the history was interesting.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews