Rise of the Terran Empire

Technic Civilization Saga #3

by Poul Anderson

Nicholas van Rijn, the most flamboyant member of the Polesotechnic League of star traders, could see dark times ahead. Fellow league members were using tactics verging on outright piracy, and others were all too eager to sell starships and high-tech weapons to alien barbarians. A planet not previously known for interstellar commerce suddenly revealed a secret fleet of armed starships, and started building an empire. Even if Van Rijn and his right-hand man David Falkayn could find a way to stop this blatant aggression, the glory days of the League were over. Hereafter, for its own protection against well-armed alien marauders the Earth must maintain a strong military fleet, and one charismatic man would found an empire that would learn nothing of the lessons history taught about the fates of other empires as it began annexing other star systems, whether they wanted to join the Terran Empire or not . . .

 

This is the third volume in the first complete edition of Poul Anderson’s Technic Civilization saga, and it includes a classic novella which appears here in book form for the first time. And the next volume begins the adventures of Poul Anderson’s other legendary character, Captain Sir Dominic Flandry.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Adventure

688 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

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

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third volume in the new Polesotechnic League collection of Poul Anderson's works, and my second-favorite so far ("The Van Rijn Method" is still tops). In this volume, the merchant princes of the League begin to fall out among themselves and abandon the altruistic principles that have curbed their profiteering instincts over the last century or two. The Commonwealth gains more power during a war with an alien race called the Baburites, but eventually the two great centers of power begin to lose their grip on the worlds of humanity and its allies. Eventually it comes crashing down, and barbarian aliens to whom weapons were traded with no thought other than process take to space, and are able to penetrate to Earth itself, sacking and pillaging it repeatedly. Out of these ashes one man emerges to stop the chaos, and to bind together the remnants of human civilization. Manuel Argos becomes Emperor Argos I, and he builds the Argolid Dynasty and the Terran Empire, which quickly grows to encompass all the space formerly occupied by the League and the Commonwealth, and even beyond.

This book sees the first real description of the alien Ythrians, as well as some races that will become prominent in later volumes like the Merseians. In "People of the Wind" we see the development of a fascinating human-Ythrian colony, the first of its kind, and the similarities and differences between the two races. There is also an encounter between a descendant of Star Trader David Falkayn, and an ancestor of secret agent Dominic Flandry, who won't be born for another couple of centuries.

This volume is a great successor to the previous two, and makes me eagerly anticipate the next volume(s) that will see the zenith and decline of the Terran Empire and the emergence of Flandry.

[Baron Greystone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is really an amazing omnibus of the Anderson continuum. I know I'd missed reading a lot of these over the years. To have it all flow in chronological order, all contained, is such a joy. This volume bridges the Van Rijn stories into the Terran Empire. I still like Van Rijn the best, but Anderson's story-telling is imaginative regardless of the characters. I suppose the end of the collection, describing the war on Avalon, is the most complex of the tales he spins here. I have to say that I don't feel that the cover illustration matches my mental image of the aliens, but to each their own. In any case I can't recommend this series enough. Enjoy this grand tapestry of future history from a Grand Master.

[Howard Brazee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remembered the early parts of the Technic Civilizations books, with the Polesotechnic League, and the later parts with the empire falling apart, but not the middle, and thought this book would be interesting.

The first and last stories in this book are short novels. The first one is closest to being what I expected, and despite having characters I was familiar with and liked, I was somewhat disappointed. The shorter works had nothing to do with the premise of the book, and the last one I read when it was new and at the time didn't think of it as being a part of the Technic Civilization (none of the characters I was familiar with). It's a good story (short novel) though.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am filling another gap in my classic SciFi reading - Poul Anderson. Somehow I never had a chance to read the Technic Civilization cycle and am now truly enjoying it, book by book. This omnibus edition series is a great attempt to place all novels, novellas, and stories from the cycle in chronological order along with a bit of history and comments. This is clearly the best way to read through the series. While most books were written a long while ago, in the golden age of space SciFi, they do not look old.

[Martha R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many of the stories in this volume were written in 1970s.  Even though they are about a fictional future time and place, the descriptions of the culture and politics in the stories are uncannily suggestive of our current culture and politics.  I wonder, is life imitating art, or is it a matter of the more things change, the more they stay the same?

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

...Without the focus on van Rijn and Falkayn it is a bit more varied than the previous volume David Falkayn: Star Trader . The transition from the Commonwealth to the Empire is, despite the fact that these stories were written over a period of twenty-five years, a recognizable overarching theme in all if them. When you think about this, it certainly is an achievement to write such an impressive future history completely out of chronological order and end up with something that on most levels makes sense.....

Full Random Comments review

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Last of the wasteful purchases. Reprint of very old novels gathered under new pretty cover. Skimmed and reread bits and introductions and chronologies and made sure I didn't miss any new stuff and actually got lucky and found three stories I had not read before...cheers

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://pro-libertate.net/20160330/291...