Explorations

by Poul Anderson

Contents:
The Saturn Game (1981)
The Bitter Bread (1975)
The Ways of Love (1979)
The Voortrekkers (1974)
Epilogue (1962)
Starfog (1967)

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

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

[Mike Bright]

Every once in a while I just like to return to my science fiction roots. Poul Anderson is creative and a good story teller, although not one of my top favorites in the genre (Asimov, Niven, Bradbury, etc.). This is a series of short stories (average 50 pages each) with a wide range of settings, events, and peril. There is lots of space travel, robots, and interesting aliens. It is a fun read.

[Lissa]

Poul Anderson’s Explorations is a thrilling collection of short stories that dives deep into the wonders of outer space exploration. Each story introduces fascinating new environments and diverse alien species, making for an exciting and thought-provoking read. Anderson masterfully blends scientific curiosity with imaginative storytelling, capturing both the awe and challenges of venturing into the unknown. I found the collection profound, engaging, and full of possibilities that spark excitement for the future of space exploration. Highly recommended for sci-fi fans who love adventures!

[Charles]

This is a collection of short stories by Poul Anderson. Normally I'm a very big fan of Anderson's, but this collection wasn't one of his best. There were a couple of very good stories, particularly something called "Epilogue" and "The Saturn Game," but the rest of the stories seemed rather needlessly convoluted to me. I wasn't always clear on what was going on.

As always, the writing is very good. Anderson was a fine stylist and always wrote tantalizing prose, although I generally like his fantasies better than his SF.

[Eggp]

Explore and exploit
xenophobic by default
somehow, we survive.

[Tom B]

Short story collection. They all take place in the same universe.

1. Inane tale of a group of researchers on a moon of Saturn. Three of them have concocted a sort of LARP in which they are princess, knight, and wizard. They get immersed into this spiel so much that it affects their judgment. They set out to explore a part of this moon and get trapped after an avalanche. The fourth member tries to save them but fails. *
2. Slightly better story about a retired spaceman who remembers being with a woman whose husband was on a spaceship stuck in some kind of speed trap. They could meet, but not touch, unless the woman stayed there forever. Quite a bit of quasi-physics involved, but it was an interesting idea. **
3. From the POV of an alien couple that encounters humans through a molecular transporter device. The couple visits Earth under the cloak of darkness but gets betrayed by conservative govt agents. Entertaining tale with compelling aliens. ***
4. A pair of scientists whose consciousnesses have been copied and uploaded into a space ship’s database arrive at a distant planet, where their physical bodies are reconstructed. They try to establish a colony on this planet, but after a while, the conditions prove to be unsustainable for human life, and they die. *
5. Double POV story. One POV is from the creatures who have evolved over a period of three billion years on Earth after humanity had to escape. There is no more oxygen, and the creatures are purely mechanical but sentient. They encounter an incoming spaceship and try to defend themselves from the aliens inside it. The other POV is from these aliens, who are actually humans who have come back to Earth after 3B years. The three humans from the ship set foot but are captured by the robot. Great tale showing both sides of an alien encounter; there are no bad guys here. ***
6. A Ranger is sent to deal with an alien race on a world far out in the MW galaxy. These aliens have actually descended from humans but have evolved significantly. They went on exploring and lost their home planet, and this Ranger is helping them find it back. Nice climatic ending. Lots of speculative astronomy, which was a bit too thick for me, but overall a decent read. ***

All in all, not a very memorable collection.

[Tell Tale Books]

-Gregory Kerkman

[Rich DeMartin]

Great science fiction short stories.