Book Preview THE SIGNAL was picked up when the ship was still a quarter million miles away, and recorded voices summoned the technicians. There was no haste, for the ZX28749, otherwise called the Jane Brackney, was right on schedule; but landing an unmanned spaceship is always a delicate operation. Men and machines prepared to receive … Read more
Book Preview ” Mercury Girl, Black Sphere Line of Anguklukkakok City, Venusian Imperium, requesting permission to land and discharge cargo.” “Ah. Yes,” said the large red haired man in the visiscreen. “Venusian ownership, eh? An’ what might your registry be?” Captain Dhan Gopal Radhakrishnan blinked mild brown eyes in some astonishment and said: “Panamanian, of … Read more
Book Preview Archbishop William, a most learned and holy prelate, having commanded me to put into English writing those great events to which I was a humble witness, I take up my quill in the name of the Lord and my patron saint: trusting that they will aid my feeble powers of narrative for the … Read more
Book Preview This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. Copyright © 1958, 1979 by Poul Anderson. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. “The Ways … Read more
Book Preview Central to the work of Poul Anderson is his great future history series, The History of the Polesotechnic League, featuring two of his most famous characters-the wily trader, Nicholas van Rijn, and the explorer, David Falkayn. Anderson’s stories and novels of the League have grown and coalesced into one of the major works … Read more
Book Preview Once in the war between elves and trolls, it happened that Skafloc fled England to seek help among the Sídhe. He was a mortal who had been fostered by elvenkind; he bore with him the halves of the sword called Tyrfing. Could that weapon be forged anew, it would bring victory to his … Read more
Book Preview The Dancer From Atlantis VICTIMS OF THE VORTEX! The voices pierced Duncan’s own, and brought him jerkily about. Three! A yellow-bearded man in spike-topped hel-met and chainmail; a short, leather-coated, fur-capped rider on a rearing pony; a tall, slender woman in knee-length white dress. And Duncan Reid. The horseman got his mount under … Read more
Book Preview The ship from Sigma in the Dragon had changed orbit, inexplicably as always. Now it circled close, barely above atmosphere, a star which newscasts around the world said would rise before dawn. Many folk must have wondered, must have been a little hopeful or a little afraid; but probably few got up to … Read more
Book Preview When Orm of Jutland heard the witch prophesy that his firstborn son would be reared in the Halfworld of the Elves, he did not believe there was truth in the curse. But Imric, the cold, clever, heartless elf-earl, for cryptic reasons of his own saw to it that the curse came true. Fathering … Read more
Book Preview I was a birch tree, white slenderness in the middle of a meadow, but had no name for what I was. My leaves drank of the sunlight that streamed through them and set their green aglow, my leaves danced in the wind, which made a harp of my branches, but I did not … Read more
Book Preview Thinking about this early novel after a lapse of years, I believe I can see what its wellsprings are. They include the old pulp conventions of storytelling and a desire to change or, at any rate, spoof these: Falstaff, Long John Silver, and other amiable literary rogues, as well as a few real … Read more
Book Preview Captain Bahadur Torrance received the news as befitted a Lodgemaster in the Federated Brotherhood of Spacemen. He heard it out, interrupting only with a few knowledge-able questions. At the end, he said calmly, “Well done, Freeman Yamamura. Please keep this to yourself till further notice. I’ll think about what’s to be done. Carry … Read more
Book Preview For a moment, as he looked across megalopolis, something like terror caught him. What do I do now? Reddened by haze, the sun was dropping behind a Center, which bulked black against a sky where aircraft moved like glittering midges. The whole horizon was full of such unitized sub-cities and company towers. But … Read more
Book Preview The Sky People by Poul Anderson The Rover Fleet got there just before sunrise. From its height, five thousand feet, the land was bluish gray, smoked with mists. Irrigation canals caught the first light as if they were full of mercury. Westward the ocean gleamed, its far edge dissolved into purple and a … Read more
Book Preview We may well never find out. This is a wild experiment, test of a wilder hypothesis. But it is also a duty. I lie dream-bound, only half-aware of my world. They are using me to call for them across the time streams because that which happened to me, so many years ago, has … Read more
Book Preview THE spaceship flashed out of superdrive and hung in a darkness that blazed with stars. For a moment there was silence, then: Edward Langley swiveled his pilot’s chair around. It was very still in the cabin, only the whisper of ventilators had voice, and he heard his heartthutter with an unnatural loud-ness. Sweat … Read more
Book Preview A Novel in Six Parts by Poul Anderson, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, David Brin, Nancy Kress, Frederik Pohl Anthology, Edited by Robert Silverberg “In addition to providing the narrative framework for Murasaki, Mr. Anderson and Mr. Pohl have each written one of the novel’s six chapters; the other four contributors are David Brin, … Read more
Book Preview The rover fleet got there just before sunrise. From its height, five thousand feet, the land was bluish gray, smoked with mists. Irrigation canals caught the first light as if they were full of mercury. Westward the ocean gleamed, its far edge dissolved into purple and a few stars. Loklann sunna Holber leaned … Read more