Classic tales of science fiction adventure from the bestselling author of The Boat of a Million Years. From Earthman, Beware! to Flight to Forever , here are vigorous, fast-paced, spectacular tales from the Golden Age of Science stories full of startling ideas and swashbuckling adventure--as only Poul Anderson could tell them.Tell Me a StoryFlight to ForeverTerminal QuestThe Star BeastEarthman, Beware!Son of the SwordBallade of an Artificial Satellite (Poem)
Alexander Jones, a representative of the Interbeing League for the teddy-bear-like Hoka species, finds his assignment challenging when the human-emulating Hokas are unable to discern Earth fact from fiction.
THE SECRET OF THE SIGMAN Skip Wayburn, artist drifter, sigaroon, gulped down his food with nothing on his mind but a long evening of lovemaking. Far above him, the first emissary from interstellar space continued to orbit the globe. For three years it had been there, and still there were nothing but questions. What had lured the voyager from Sigma Dacron's to Earth? How did the creature plan to use its incredible power? And most important, why was it waiting...and for what? Then, in a blinding flash of insight, Skip Wayburn suddenly knew the answers... knew with dead certainty why the Sigman had come, who "he' was, and precisely what the Earthmen must do. But who would listen to the far-out ideas of a mere sigaroon? Skip didn't know. But someone had to listen—and fast.
Second in the series of classic SF novellas edited by Ben BovaGypsy by Poul Anderson...And Then There Were None by Eric Frank RussellProfession by Isaac Asimov
The legendary Nicholas van Rijn had, of course, been right all along. Just as he had foreseen, the Polesotechnic League - that great empire of merchant princes - had flowered and then crumbled into the vastness of space. The same fate would befall the Terran Empire that succeeded it. Even heroes like Dominic Flandry lived under the shadow of their eventual extinction - the ever-hungry darkness that would take him and his world in the end. But for those who came after, those wretched heirs of Terran civilisation, the darkness was no impending tragedy. This time they were facing the reality of THE LONG NIGHT
Larry Niven called "Harvest of Stars" "a masterpiece."Now Poul Anderson returns to the same brilliantly conceived future to tell a story of revolution and liberation on the Moon.
7 harrowing stories of men caught up in tomorrow's age of ultraviolence Kings Who Die evokes the special terrors that confront spacemen captured in interpla-netary war. Wildcat chronicles a desperate attempt to send a team of men through a time machine back into the age of brontosaurs—there to prospect for oil and pump it back into the present. Cold Victory depicts the holocaust of an interplanetary civil war fought to prevent Earth's secession from the Solar Union. Inside Straight spins the tale of a peaceful planet that employs the superstrategies of gambling tipsters to foil its archenemies. Details unfolds a suspenseful drama of international events influenced by unseen visitors. License probes the fate of man living in a world where violence is legalized by state licenses. Strange Bedfellows describes the mind-boggling intricacies of corporate political battles in tomorrow's world.
DEATH TO THE EMPIRE! The Terran Empire was faced with disaster. A turmoil of unrest on the planet Diomedes was the first spark that threatened to ignite a chain reaction of insurrection. All the attention of the ruling powers was centred on Diomedes - but Sir Dominic Flandry, bon vivant and interstellar troubleshooter, was one jump ahead. Through a highly unorthodox gambit, Flandry had learned that the Diomedean troubles were a red herring masking the real location of a deadly plan for a galactic civil war that would crush the Empire out of existence. Time was running out. Only Flandry had the knowledge that could prevent devastation. And when the real trouble began, Flandry was half a universe away. (Source: back cover)
The sword Tyrfing has been broken to prevent it striking at the roots of Yggdrasil, the great tree that binds earth, heaven and hell together...but now the mighty sword is needed again to save the elves, who are heavily involved in their war against the trolls and only Scafloc, a human child kidnapped and raised by the elves, can hope to persuade the mighty ice-giant, Bolverk, to make the sword Thor broke whole again.But things are never easy and along the way Scafloc must also confront his shadow self, Valgard the changeling, who took his place in the world of men.A superb dark fantasy of the highest and most Norse order, THE BROKEN SWORD is a fantasy masterpiece.
