Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Man Who Counts by Poul Anderson Appreciation. Poul Anderson's The Man Who Counts spells out its message right at the end. The Man Who Counts is not the engineer but the man who motivates the engineer and everyone else involved by doing whatever is necessary to ensure that the job gets done: paying salaries; chivvying; coordinating; organizing; negotiating, bribing, even cheating at dice to gain money to bribe with, etc. Van Rijn even manipulates his opponents into doing what he wants them to do. Sandra Tamarin explains most of this to Eric Wace, then, when Wace begins to reply: "'. we played our parts too. Without us, he. '" "'I think, without us, he would have found some other way to come home. But we without him, no.'" -Poul Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (New York, 2009), p. 511. Here, I think that she goes too far towards almost deifying van Rijn. I grant that Sandra and Wace would not have gone home without van Rijn whereas he, even if stranded alone without any human companions, would have done his damnedest to reorganize Diomedean society for his own ends. We see him doing this. But success is never guaranteed and would have been even harder without Wace's engineering skills. In that sense, everyone counts. Human labor is effective because it is collective. Van Rijn succeeds where many would have failed. By sheer luck, he was not one of those who died when his skycruiser was sabotaged. He could have been knifed in one of the fights. Here is an idea for an sf/detective story: van Rijn, stranded on another barely habitable planet where a fellow Master Merchant has made many right moves but has finally succumbed to hostile conditions and adverse circumstances, must reconstruct his dead colleague's actions in order to determine what went wrong and to find out how it might be possible for a second group led by van Rijn to survive. The point about not doing everything yourself but motivating those who can perform particular tasks to do them is amply illustrated in Anderson's . The crew of the Bussard ramjet hurtling at near light speed between galaxies needs to gather astronomical data from the relativistically distorted galaxies. One man on board has the knowledge and skills for this task but is completely demoralized so the practical problem becomes not how to observe the galaxies but how to re-motivate the man who can. 3 comments: But Poul Anderson DID write an SF/detective story almost along the lines you postulated: "The Master Key." Altho Old Nick was not stranded alone on an alien planet in that story, but did his detecting from the comfort of his palatial apartment on Earth. Btw, a small mistake in the last paragraph: you meant a BUSSARD ramjet space ship. Not a "Buzzard." Sean, Thank you for the spelling correction which has been implemented. Yes, "The Master Key" meets the bill fairly well. However, I imagined a Master Merchant in a similar situation to van Rijn on Diomedes. This second guy does almost everything right but dies because of one mistake/wrong choice/piece of bad luck etc with van Rijn having to figure out what happened in order to avoid a similar outcome. My point being that, although van Rijn survives, not everyone equally gifted will. Paul. Yes, that makes sense, that not everyone will survive in situations like what we see on Diomedes. Even if another explorer/Maser Merchant is as able and shrewd as van Rijn, sheer statistics dictates some will fail for one reason or another. "Territory" also comes to mind as a story where van Rijn basically had to reason out the solution to the problem which caused him and the young lady from Esperance to be stranded on t'Kela. Poul Anderson and the Men Who Count. A science fiction writer paints, if not a complete, at least an internally coherent universe for his stories. Sometimes this process of "reality building" is subconscious, starting with a single story to which one continually adds fresh sequels, as witness James H. Schmitz's myriad worlds of the Hub; other times the process is performed consciously, as part of a definite plan, as by E.E. Smith and his "Lensmen" series [and Robert Heinlein's "Future History" series —Editor]. Poul Anderson has created several such realities, the most interesting of which will be the subject of this article; it stretches some 6,000 years in the history of the human species, from the transforming of the moon ("To Build a World"[1]) to the era of man's interstellar renaissance. INTERSTELLAR MAN. Chronologically, Anderson's series pictures the expansion of the human race throughout and beyond the solar system after a series of brutal socio- religious wars. Worlds settled by libertarians flourish, ushering in the Polesotechnic League of merchant capitalism. The League declines and, after the "troubles," comes the birth of the Terran Empire. As the Empire grows increasingly more statist, it brings on its own doom and the Long Night sends many of the human-settled worlds of the galaxy back into savagery. Anderson's final stage (as of this writing) depicts the Commonality, a tremendous, purely voluntary, profit-oriented free trade organization. Anderson appears to have developed the essential ideas for this series in 1955. "A World Called Mannerek"[2] depicted the occasional torturous rebirth of interstellar civilization after the decline of the Empire. Stories dealing with the Empire and its decline appeared before stories dealing with the Polesotechnic League; one might almost say he wrote this series "backwards." The Empire is introduced in the early 50s with Captain Sir Dominic Flandry, a swashbuckler à la Errol Flynn and sharing many characteristics with the then-unborn James Bond. Flandry starts his published life by comparing the Empire to a rotten banana—the infection goes deep, but as yet no spots have appeared on the smoothly textured skin. The latest stories dealing with young, eager, and intensely idealistic Ensign Flandry[3] show him to be determined to save the remnants of Technic civilization from the encroachments of the green-skinned, "gator"-tailed Merseians and the bungling of the appeasement-oriented imperial bureaucrats. SOLAR SPICE AND LIQUORS. In 1956 Anderson's most interesting (and, from my standpoint, most real) character appeared in ASTOUNDING (now ANALOG). , owner of Solar Spice and Liquors, Inc., a mixture of Shakespeare's Falstaff and Edmond Hamilton's Giles Habibula, is shown seeking his "Margin of Profit"[4] while outwitting slavers and would-be imperialists. Van Rijn is THE MAN WHO COUNTS, a double pun played for all it is worth in a novel mis-renamed WAR OF THE WING MEN [5]. Marooned with two companions on a world where men cannot eat the native food, Van Rijn stops a local war and brings both warring factions together to save himself. The plot theme is the entrepreneurial function, although Anderson skillfully diverts the reader's attention until the last three pages. MORAL PRINCIPLES. In "Margin of Profit" Anderson states the cardinal principles of the society he has devised: Selfishness is a potent force. Governments, officially dedicated to altruism, remained divided; the Polesotechnic League became a super- government, sprawling from Canopus to Polaris, drawing its membership from a thousand species. It was a horizontal society, cutting across all political and cultural boundaries. It set its own policies, made its own treaties, established its own bases, fought its own minor wars, and, in the course of milking the Milky Way, did more to spread a truly universal civilization and enforce a lasting pax than all the diplomats in the galaxy. Anderson's stories describe these troubles and the ways in which they are solved by Van Rijn and his TROUBLE TWISTERS [6]: David Falkayn, tall, cool-headed, blond, and human in all essential attributes; Chee Lan, given to pejorative remarks, short, furry, feline, and anything but "cute"; Adzel, huge, scaly, centauroid, saurian, and warm-blooded, very much the Buddhist dinosaur. They save the Merseians from a close supernova in "Day of Burning"[7], establish contact with numerous non-human intelligent species, and discover SATAN'S WORLD [8] in time to defeat the seemingly inconsistent Shenna, all the while raking in profits for Van Rijn and Company. THE LONG NIGHT. Even with the heroic efforts of Flandry of Terra, the Long Night cannot be postponed forever. Because of the breakdown of interstellar trade, the isolated colonies develop on their own, those that survive. Some forget their heritage, others mutate due to a small initial gene pool and other factors. In LET THE SPACE MAN BEWARE [9] the settlers on Gwydion are found to possess inherited temporary insanity; on another world the act of cannibalism is a must for human survival ("The Sharing of the Flesh"[10]), while on Kirkasant, the world of "Starfog"[11], the colonists have gone native in an environment where plutonium can be mined and have altered from the human "norm" until they find food a bit bland unless it is salted with arsenic trioxide. Anderson depicts his future worlds with brilliant colors and suspenseful action, with a blend of anthropology, sociology, economics ("Birthright" [12]), and hard science. Outwardly his stories are tremendously optimistic (man does, after all, survive). His own philosophy, while explicitly libertarian (he was, to my knowledge, the first professional writer to use the word), is a form of Byronic existentialism. In the 6 January 1964 SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW he wrote, "Beneath all the fun and games—life is tragic and man's highest destiny is to accept this and not yet lose heart. One way of losing heart is to get too deadly solemn." Anderson is one of the best science fiction writers of the last three decades, and his dour philosophy can certainly be forgiven him, for he has, above all, depicted Man the Doer, Man the Achiever, the men who count. In "The Critique of Impure Reason"[13] he characterized the stories he did not like and did not write: "Piddling little experiments in the technique of describing more and more complicated ways to feel sorry for yourself—what kind of entertainment is that for a man?" NOTES AND REFERENCES. [1] "To Build a World," GALAXY , June 1964. [2] "" (originally, "A World Called Mannerek"), in BEYOND THE BEYOND (New York: New American Library, Signet paperback, 1969). [3] ENSIGN FLANDRY (New York: Lancer Books, 1966). [4] "Margin of Profit," ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION, September 1956, also in UN-MAN AND OTHER NOVELLAS (New York: Ace Books, F-139, 1962). [5] WAR OF THE WING MEN, (New York: Ace Books, G-634, 1958). [6] THE TROUBLE TWISTERS, (New York: Doubleday, 1966). [7] "Day of Burning" (originally "Supernova"), in BEYOND THE BEYOND, op. cit. [8] SATAN'S WORLD (New York: Doubleday, 1968). [9] LET THE SPACEMAN BEWARE (originally A TWELVEMONTH AND A DAY ), (New York: Ace Books, F-209, 1965). [10] "The Sharing of the Flesh," GALAXY, December 1969. [11] "Starfog," in BEYOND THE BEYOND, op. cit. [12] "Birthright," ANALOG, February 1970. [13] "The Critique of Impure Reason," in (New York: Doubleday, 1964). For additional stories about Van Rijn see TRADER TO THE STARS, (New York: Doubleday, 1964); for more on Flandry see A CIRCUS OF HELLS (New York, New American Library, Signet paperback, 1970). An earlier version of the present article appeared in ERGO (16 Sept. 1970) a libertarian newspaper published on the MIT campus. Tor.com. Science fiction. Fantasy. The universe. And related subjects. Air war in the stone age: Poul Anderson’s The Man Who Counts. After re-reading the first couple of chapters of Poul Anderson’s The Man Who Counts, I grinned at the outrageous adventure story and said, “Man, they don’t write ’em like that anymore.” Published in 1958, The Man Who Counts is now available as part of The Van Rijn Method: The Technic Civilization Saga #1. It features one of Anderson’s recurring heroes, the interstellar business tycoon Nicholas Van Rijn. Van Rijn is a throwback to the European Age of Exploration. He’s a fat, profane Dutch merchant, whose fine silk clothing is stained with snuff, who wears is his hair in oiled black ringlets, and who pledges in broken English to build a cathedral to his patron St. Dismas if only he can be relieved of having to suffer fools around him. The novel opens as Van Rijn and his small party of human travelers have crash-landed on the planet Diomedes. Van Rijn and his helpless band find themselves in the midst of war between two stone-age nations, pitting the Drak’ho, a nation of Diomedes that live out their lives on vast, ocean- going rafts, against the Lannachska, who live on the land. Both nations can fly, they are winged aliens, and much of the charm of the novel comes from Anderson working out the details of life and war among people who can take to the air. The Drak’ho seem destined to win this war, they’ve outgunned and outmatched the Lannachska in every way. And so of course Van Rijn takes the side of the underdog Lannachska, remaking their society and military to allow them to fight more effectively against the more powerful foe. It’s a thrilling adventure story. Romance is provided by Wace, a middle manager in Van Rijn’s corporate empire, and Sandra, a genuine princess. Wace was born in a slum and worked his way out, Sandra is heir to the throne of a weakened planetary aristocracy, looking to revitalize the royal line with some new genetic input. Van Rijn’s broken English and self-pitying monologues provide the humor. The old merchant likes to appear as a stupid old fool, the better to lull his opponents into complacency and outwit them. I particularly enjoyed a climactic sequence where Van Rijn goes into battle wearing leathery armor and wielding a tomahawk, bellowing the song “You Are My Sunshine” in German. (Or maybe it was Dutch.) The Man Who Counts is the hardest of hard science fiction. In a foreword, Anderson describes how he went through the process of worldbuilding, first starting with a star, then figuring out the kinds of planets one might find around the star, then the ecology of those planets, and then the dominant species that might rise up. In the case of the Diomedans, their flying ability is a result of these calculations; no human-sized intelligent animal could fly on Earth, but because Diomedes has no metals, the planet is much lighter than Earth. It’s also bigger than Earth, which means it has the same surface gravity as our world, but with a deeper, thicker atmosphere, enabling large animals to fly. Although the novel is more than 50 years old, it holds up quite well—amazing, considering it’s a hard science novel and science has changed a lot since then. I expect a biologist, astronomer, or astrophysicist might be able to punch some holes in the story, but it held up rock-solid to my educated-layman’s eye. Often reading old genre fiction, the sexism prevalent at the time is painful today. But there’s none of that in The Man Who Counts. Gender roles of the Diomedes and the Earth humans are split along similar lines, but the novel presents this as a matter of culture, not because females are inferior. Sandra is every bit the princess, but that’s how she was raised, and she proves herself to be as tough, courageous, smart, and hard-working as any of the other characters. Another area where these old novels are sometimes painful are in the depiction of ethnic minorities. Here, all the human characters are white people of European descent—but somehow it’s okay. There are no Asians, no Africans, just a bunch of white people running around on spaceships. But that’s the story Anderson wrote, and he approaches it with such verve and enthusiasm that you can’t be offended. His characters aren’t just Europeans—they’re Scandinavians, as though nobody else on Earth was important other than that small corner of Europe, and Anderson’s love for that culture is so infectious that we, as readers, can’t help but be charmed and delighted. I mean, the hero of the novel is a burgher straight out of a Rembrandt painting. Although the novel says Van Rijn was born in Jakarta, he gives no indication of being anything other than a Renaissance Dutchman transplanted to a starship. That’s so ridiculous it’s wonderful. (Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia, which was colonized for three centuries by the Dutch.) The politics of The Man Who Counts is more dated than the other elements, adding poignancy to the novel when it’s read here in the twenty-first century. Anderson wrote in the shadow of the end of World War II, and he’s unswervingly confident of the ability of business and commerce to uplift peoples and end wars, that nations that had been at war for dozens of generations would gladly put aside their conflict and become friends when they find it financially profitable to do so. I can understand how that appeared likely when The Man Who Counts was published, and our recent blood-enemies the Japanese and Germans were transforming into staunch allies with the benefit of American foreign aid and trade. A half- century later, with the Middle East torn apart by millennia of war that shows no sign of ending, and the Palestinians and Israelis choosing to be at each others’ throats again and again even when the road to peace is made clear for them, Anderson’s philosophy seems overly optimistic. The Man Who Counts was initially published as a magazine serial. When it first came out as a book, the publisher titled it War of the Wing-Men. Anderson hated that title, and I understand why—but I find the silly, lurid old title charming. When I started this post, I said that they don’t write books like The Man Who Counts anymore. The novel has speed and joyousness that seems lacking from much contemporary science fiction. So much contemporary SF seems to be a lot more serious, a lot more concerned with being respectable. But maybe I’m wrong here, maybe I’m just not reading the right novels. Mitch Wagner used to be a journalist, became an Internet and social media marketer for a while, and is now doing journalism about Internet marketing, which makes him a little dizzy. He’s a fan with two novels in progress and a passel of stories, all unpublished. Follow him on Twitter or friend him on Facebook. Poul Anderson. Poul William Anderson (November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) 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 ] His books and his imagination has and is always an inspiration to me. I have them all and read each one at least twice: Science fiction[edit] HokaEarthman's Burden (1957) with Gordon R. Dickson Star Prince Charlie (1975) with Gordon R. Dickson Hoka! (1983) with Gordon R. Dickson Reissued by Baen as: Hoka! Hoka! Hoka! (1998) with Gordon R. Dickson Hokas Pokas! (2000) with Gordon R. Dickson [edit] The Psychotechnic LeagueStar Ways (also known as The Peregrine) (1956) The Snows of Ganymede (1958) Virgin Planet (1959) The Psychotechnic League (1981) Cold Victory (1982) Starship (1982) [edit] Tomorrow's ChildrenTomorrow's Children (1947) with F. N. Waldrop Chain of Logic (1947) [edit] Technic HistoryThe Saturn Game (1981) [edit] Polesotechnic League period of Nicholas van Rijn(by internal chronology): War of the Wing-Men (original book publication heavily edited; author's preferred text [and title] later issued as The Man Who Counts) (1958) Trader to the Stars (1964) (), collects: "Hiding Place" (1961) "Territory" (1961) "The Master Key" (1971) The Trouble Twisters (features David Falkayn, not Van Rijn) (1966), collects: "The Three-Cornered Wheel" (1963) "A Sun Invisible" (1966) "The Trouble Twisters" (also known as "Trader Team") (1965) Satan's World (1969) The Earth Book of Stormgate (many stories do not feature Van Rijn) (1978). It collects: "Wings of Victory" (1972) "The Problem of Pain" (1973) "How to be Ethnic in One Easy Lesson" (1974) "Margin of Profit" (1956) "Esau" (also known as "Birthright") (1970) "The Season of Forgiveness" (1973) The Man Who Counts (first appearance of the unedited version of War of the Wing-Men) (1958) "A Little Knowledge" (1971) "Day of Burning" (also known as "Supernova") (1967) "" (1973) "Wingless" (also known as "Wingless on Avalon") (1973) "Rescue on Avalon" (1973) Mirkheim (1977) (does not feature Falkayn or Van Rijn) (1973)—Hugo and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1974[10] Nebula Award nominee, 1973[11] [edit] Terran Empire period of Dominic Flandry(by internal chronology): The Imperial Stars (2000), collects: Ensign Flandry (1966) A Circus of Hells (1970) The Rebel Worlds (1969) The Day of Their Return (does not feature Flandry) (1973) Agent of the Terran Empire (1965), collects: "Tiger by the Tail" (1951) "The Warriors From Nowhere (1954) "Honorable Enemies" (1951) "Hunters of the Sky Cave" (also known as "A Handful of Stars" and We Claim These Stars) (1959) Flandry of Terra (1965), collects: "The Game of Glory" (1958) "A Message in Secret" (also known as Mayday Orbit) (1959) "The Plague of Masters" (also known as "A Plague of Masters" and Earthman, Go Home!) (1960) A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows (1974) A Stone in Heaven (1979) The Game of Empire (features a daughter of Flandry) (1985) The Long Night (features a Dark Age after Flandry's era) (1983), collects: "The Star Plunderer" (1952) "Outpost of Empire" (1967) "A Tragedy of Errors" (1967) "The Sharing of Flesh" (1968) (Hugo, Nebula) "Starfog" (1967) Let the Spacemen Beware (also known as The Night Face, does not feature Flandry, a shorter 1960 version was known as "A Twelvemonth and a Day) (1963) [edit] Technic Civilization Saga (Omnibus reprints of the Nicholas van Rijn and Dominic Flandry series)The Van Rijn Method (2008), collects: "" (1981) "Wings of Victory" (1972) "The Problem of Pain" (1973) "Margin of Profit" (1956) "How to Be Ethnic in One Easy Lesson" (1974) "The Three-Cornered Wheel" (1963) "A Sun Invisible" (1966) "The Season of Forgiveness" (1973) "The Man Who Counts" (1958) "Esau" (also known as "Birthright") (1970) "Hiding Place" (1961) David Falkayn: Star Trader (2009), collects "Territory" (1963) "Plus Ça Change, Plus C'est La Même Chose" (1966) "The Trouble Twisters" (also known as "Trader Team") (1965) "Day of Burning" (also known as "Supernova") (1967) "The Master Key" (1964) "Satan's World" (1969) "A Little Knowledge" (1971) "Lodestar" (1973) Rise of the Terran Empire (2009), collects: Mirkheim (1977) "Wingless" (also known as "Wingless on Avalon") (1973) "Rescue on Avalon" (1973) "The Star Plunderer" (1952) "Saragasso of Lost Starships" (1951) The People of the Wind (1973) Young Flandry (2010), collects: Ensign Flandry (1966) A Circus of Hells (1970) The Rebel Worlds (1969) Captain Flandry: Defender of the Terran Empire (2010), collects: "Outpost of Empire" (1967) The Day of Their Return (1975) "Tiger by the Tail" (1951) "Honorable Enemies" (1951) "The Game of Glory" (1957) "A Message in Secret" (1959) Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight of Terra (2010), collects: "The Warriors From Nowhere" (1954) "Hunters of the Sky Cave" (also known as "A Handful of Stars" and We Claim These Stars) (1959) "The Plague of Masters" (also known as "A Plague of Masters" and Earthman, Go Home!) (1960) "A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows" (1974) Flandry's Legacy (2011) collects: "A Stone in Heaven" (1979) "The Game of Empire" (features a daughter of Flandry) (1985) "A Tragedy of Errors" (1967) "The Night Face" (1978) (also known as "Let the Spacemen Beware!" (1963), a shorter 1960 version was known as "A Twelvemonth and a Day") "The Sharing of Flesh" (1968) (Hugo, Nebula) "Starfog" (1967) [edit] Time Patrol1."Time Patrol" (1955) 2."Brave to be a King" (1959) 3."Gibraltar Falls" (1975) 4."The Only Game in Town" (1960) 5."" (1955) 6."Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks" (1983) 7."The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" (1983) 8."Star of the Sea" (1991) 9.The Year of the Ransom (1988) 10.The Shield of Time (1990) 11."Death and the Knight" (1995) The shorter works in the series have been collected numerous times over the years, in Guardians of Time (1960, contains 1, 2, 4 and 5; expanded 1981 edition adds 3), Time Patrolman (1983, contains 6 and 7), Annals of the Time Patrol (1983, contains 1–7), The Time Patrol (1991, contains 1–9), and Time Patrol (2006, contains 1–9 and 11). [edit] History of RustumOrbit Unlimited (1961)—Fix-up novel created from "Rustum" short stories first published in magazines from 1959 to 1961.[12] New America (1982)—Collection that includes four "Rustum" stories plus two unrelated stories.[13] My Own, My Native Land— Rustum story first published in the anthology Continuum 1 (1974) edited by Roger Elwood. Passing the Love of Women —Rustum story first published in Continuum 2 (1974) A Fair Exchange —Rustum story first published in Continuum 3 (December 1974) To Promote the General Welfare —Rustum story first published in Continuum 4 (September 1975) The Queen of Air and Darkness—First published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1971 and the winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novelette (1971), Hugo Award for Best Novella (1972), and Locus Poll Award, Best Short Fiction (1972). Home (1966)—First published in the anthology Orbit One (1966). Also published as The Disinherited. [edit] MauraiMaurai and (1982), collects: "Ghetto" (1954) "The Sky People" (1959) "Progress" (1961) "The Horn of Time the Hunter" (also known as "Homo Aquaticus", 1963) "Windmill" (1973) (1983) Related: [edit] KithThe Kith, a persecuted starfaring civilization, is featured in: "Ghetto" (1954) "The Horn of Time the Hunter" (also known as "Homo Aquaticus", 1963) The novel (1998)—Campbell Award nominee, 1999[14] [edit] Harvest of StarsHarvest of Stars (1993) The Stars Are Also Fire (1994) (Prometheus Award) Harvest the Fire (1995) The Fleet of Stars (1997) [edit] Other novelsFlight to Forever (1950) Vault of the Ages (1952) (1954) Question and Answer (also known as Planet of No Return) (1954) No World of Their Own (1955) The Long Way Home (1958) Perish by the Sword (1959) War of Two Worlds (1959) (also known as "'We have fed our sea—'") (1959)—Hugo Award nominee, 1959[15] (1960) —Hugo Award nominee, 1961[16] Murder in Black Letter (1960) Twilight World (1961)[17] (1962) The Makeshift Rocket (1962) (expansion of "A Bicycle Built for Brew") Murder Bound (1962) Shield (1963) Three Worlds to Conquer (1964) (1965) (1965)—Nebula award nominee, 1965,[18] Prometheus Award winner The Fox, the Dog and the Griffin: A Folk Tale Adapted from the Danish of C. Molbeck (1966) World Without Stars (1966) Tau Zero (1970) (expansion of "To Outlive Eternity")—Hugo Award nominee, 1971[19] The Byworlder (1971)—Nebula Award nominee, 1971[19] The Dancer from Atlantis (1971) There Will Be Time (1972)—Hugo Award nominee, 1973[11] NOTE: The future history of this novel includes the Federation mentioned above. (1974)—Hugo Award nominee, 1975[20] Inheritors of Earth (1974) with Gordon Eklund The Winter of the World (1975) The Avatar (1978) The Demon of Scattery (1979) with Mildred Downey Broxon The Devil's Game (1980) The Boat of a Million Years (1989)—Hugo Award nominee, 1990;[14] Nebula Award nominee, 1989[21] (1991) War of the Gods (1997) Genesis (2000)—John W. Campbell Memorial Award, 2001[22] (2001) For Love and Glory (2003) [edit] CollectionsOrbit Unlimited (1961) Strangers from Earth (1961) Twilight World (1961) Un-Man and Other Novellas (1962) Time and Stars (1964) The Fox, the Dog, and the Griffin (1966) The Horn of Time (1968) Beyond the Beyond (1969, contains: Memory [originally A World Called Maanerek], 1957; , 1957; Day of the Burning [originally Supernova], 1967; , 1954; The Moonrakers, 1966; Starfog, 1967) Seven Conquests (1969) Tales of the Flying Mountains (1970) The Queen of Air and Darkness and Other Stories (1973) The Worlds of Poul Anderson (1974) The Many Worlds of Poul Anderson (also known as The Book of Poul Anderson) (1974) — Edited by Roger Elwood Homeward and Beyond (1975) The Best of Poul Anderson (1976) Homebrew (1976) The Night Face & Other Stories (1979) The Dark Between the Stars (1981) Explorations (1981) Fantasy (1981) The Guardians of Time (1981) Winners (1981) (a collection of Anderson's Hugo-winners) Cold Victory (1982) The Gods Laughed (1982) New America (1982) Starship (1982) The Winter of the World / The Queen of Air and Darkness (1982) Conflict (1983) (including, among other stories, the 1966 High Treason) The Long Night (1983) Past Times (1984) The Unicorn Trade (1984) with Karen Anderson Dialogue With Darkness (1985) Space Folk (1989) The Shield of Time (1990) Alight in the Void (1991) The Armies of Elfland (1991) Inconstant Star (1991) — Stories set in Larry Niven's Man-Kzin Wars universe. Kinship with the Stars (1991) All One Universe (1996) Going for Infinity [edit] Fantasy[edit] King of YsRoma Mater (1986) with Karen Anderson Gallicenae (1987) with Karen Anderson Dahut (1987) with Karen Anderson The Dog and the Wolf (1988) with Karen Anderson [edit] Operation OtherworldOperation Chaos (1971) (1999) Operation Otherworld (1999) — omnibus containing "" and "Operation Luna" [edit] Other novelsThree Hearts and Three Lions (1953) (1954, revised in 1971) Hrolf Kraki's Saga (1973)—British Fantasy Award, 1974[10] A Midsummer Tempest (1974)—Nebula and World Fantasy Awards nominee, 1975[20] NOTE: One character who appears in this novel is Valeria Matucheck, eldest daughter of Steve and Ginny Matuchek, protagonists of "Operation Chaos" and "Operation Luna". Though written between these two books, "A Midsummer Tempest" takes place after both. Holger Carlsen, of Three Hearts and Three Lions, also appears. The Merman's Children (1979)— Locus Fantasy Award nominee, 1980[23] Conan the Rebel (1980) War of the Gods (1997) [edit] Historical novels[edit] The Last Viking(biography of King Harald Hardråde) The Golden Horn (1980) with Karen Anderson The Road of the Sea Horse (1980) with Karen Anderson The Sign of the Raven (1980) with Karen Anderson [edit] Other novelsThe Golden Slave (1960) — Historical novel Rogue Sword (1960) — Historical novel [edit] AnthologiesNebula Award Stories Four (1969) The Day the Sun Stood Still (1972) with Gordon R. Dickson and Robert Silverberg A World Named Cleopatra (1977) [edit] Non-FictionIs There Life on Other Worlds? (1963) The Infinite Voyage (1969) Polesotechnic League Books In Order. Publication Order of Future History Of The Polesotechnic League Books. War of the Wing-Men / The Man Who Counts (1958) Amazon.de | Amazon.com Trader to the Stars (1964) Amazon.de | Amazon.com The Trouble Twisters (1966) Amazon.de | Amazon.com Satan's World (1968) Amazon.de | Amazon.com The People of the Wind (1973) Amazon.de | Amazon.com Mirkheim (1977) Amazon.de | Amazon.com The Earth Book of Stormgate (1978) Amazon.de | Amazon.com. Chronological Order of Future History Of The Polesotechnic League Books. War of the Wing-Men / The Man Who Counts (1958) Amazon.de | Amazon.com Trader to the Stars (1964) Amazon.de | Amazon.com The Trouble Twisters (1966) Amazon.de | Amazon.com Satan's World (1968) Amazon.de | Amazon.com The Earth Book of Stormgate (1978) Amazon.de | Amazon.com Mirkheim (1977) Amazon.de | Amazon.com The People of the Wind (1973) Amazon.de | Amazon.com. The Polesotechnic League is a series of novels by Poul Anderson the American science fiction writer. The first novel in the Polesotechnic League series was the 1958 published “War of the Wing-Men” that also goes by the name “The Man Who Counts”. With the first novel of the series receiving many accolades and becoming an almost instant hit with fans, Anderson wrote several more titles in the series that culminated with the publication of “The Earth Book of Stormgate” that he published in 1978. Similar to most his colleagues in the period, Anderson wrote the Polesotechnic series in the tradition of Robert Heinlein. In writing the series, the author includes aspects of chaos theory, an analysis, and intellectual distrust of history and it’s rewriting, and prejudice favoring individual freedom. The series is thus more of an emotional departure from encompassing systems and the embracing of the individual as a person who can influence his own destiny. In this regard, the series of novels was not written in chronological order. Similar to Robert A. Heinlein’s practice of going back and forth in time in his Future History series, the novels in the Polesotechnic League also employ the same technique. Nonetheless, Sandra Miesel the authority on anything Poul Anderson made a timeline of the order of the series that were posted on the Chronology of Technic Civilization. The Polesotechnic League series is the one of the most popular sagas in science fiction. It is set in the twenty-second century at a time when humans were still trapped in the Solar System after recovering from a predicted period of chaos. The series ends five millennia later, at a time when humanity has managed to get out of the solar system to settle all over the galaxy. The present tells the narrative of humanity still recovering from a longer period of chaos popularly referred to as “The Long Night” that is the aftermath of the destruction of the Terran Empire. The writing of the saga-spanned quite a long time, as it started with the publication of the novella “Tiger by the Tail” in 1951 and ended with the 1985 published “The Game of Empire”. The lead protagonist in the series is the bigger than life, vulgar, and blustering both figuratively and literally human volcano, Nicholas van Rijn. Van Rijn is a merchant prince from the Polesotechnic League, which is a loose confederation of like-minded interstellar merchants. According to Sandra Miesel, the word Polesotechnic was invented by Karen Anderson, Poul’s wife, who got it from the Greek word for “selling skills”. In that regard, van Rijn makes for one of the most polesotechnical of all the inhabitants of his polesotechnical world. The Polesotechnic series of novels featuring the lead protagonists David Falkayn and Nicholas van Rijn are set in the 25th century. However, it is important to note that there are some novel sequences without either of the characters. Nicholas van Rijn is the president of Solar Spice & Liquors Company, one of the largest trading companies in his empire. Given his position, he never does trade himself, preferring to send out teams of merchants to trade on his behalf, even though he will occasionally find it necessary to go thrash out deals in other planets in person. He has a bizarre way of speaking as he includes frequent malapropisms, puns, and foreign words to speak a version of broken English referred to as Anglic. Conversely, David Falkayn is the youngest child of a princely family on Hermes who moves to earth after he is expelled from his militechnic college for his insolence. Lucky for him, Martin Schuster a Master Trader of the Polesotechnic League takes him under his wing as an apprentice. Falkayn would later become Nicholas van Rijn employee and a leading member of a team of merchants that head out to little known planets to find opportunities for trade. He is accompanied by Chee Lan, a cat like female being from Cynthia who has a quick temper and silky white fur, and Adzel a gentle Buddhist with dragon like appearance from Woden. They travel on the spaceship “Muddlin Through” which is controlled by a computer system named “Muddlehead”. The Polesotechnic League is defunct by 2550 paving way for the rise of a new Terran Empire in 2700 just as the Commonwealth goes up in flames. “Satan’s World” is a classic science fiction narrative full of aliens and adventure. The lead character, Captain David Falkayn embarks on his trading journeys on behalf of his master Nichols van Rijn. The merchant explorer stumbles into Serendipity, a company that claims that it can yield connections and hook up concepts. They have machinery that can create a rogue world that is unattached to a planetary system, making it possible to mass transmute elements across interstellar space. The reclusive company’s owners are willing to talk to him, but after the initial discussion, he leaves and does not return. Intending to complete the negotiations, his colleagues the Buddhist and dragon like Adzel, and Chee Lan the cat like woman try to communicate with him but their efforts fall on deaf ears. However, given his messages are very weird, they decide to contact their employer van Rijn back home. The rest of the novel includes narratives of space chases, hiding on a planet, kidnapping, abducted children, xenopsychology, and fierce honor codes that are great fun reads. “The Man who Counts” is fascinating science fiction work in the Polesotechnic series of novels by Poul Anderson. Nicholas van Rijn the lead character in the novel is something of Renaissance Dutch merchant, a rotund and middle-aged man transplanted to the future. When van Rijn and his fellow trader from the Polesotechnic League are stranded on Diomedes, they know they will have to fight hard to survive. To make matters worse, there is a war going on between the Lannachska and the Drak’ho a land and sea people respectively. The smaller and nomadic Lannachska have come back to their ancestral lands to find them occupied by the Darak’ho, who love the land for a special type of fish it produces. With their own food running out, Nicholas van Rijn comes up with an ingenious plan to help the outnumbered Lannachska in return for food and protection from the vicious Drak’ho. Even as van Rijn is clever, he can be an irksome character, and hence the novel would be a best fit for someone that likes the whimsical yet clever character.