The Horn of Time
Reviewed date: 2025 Apr 13
144 pages
Poul Anderson is a pleasure to read, as usual. I didn't find any of these stories to be great, but all were good and well-written. I particularly enjoy that Poul Anderson knows his history, and that he recognizes the impact of religion in general and Christianity in particular on Western history and culture. Many writers of science fiction just ignore religion altogether, or treat it as an evil to be overcome, but Anderson is more even-handed.
The Horn of Time the Hunter
An expedition to an abandoned colony world has an unfortunate run-in with the locals: an aquatic humanoid species which turns out to be the descendants of the colonists.
A Man to My Wounding
After three world wars, the nations of Earth realize war is too dangerous. Disagreement must still be resolved, so “war” now consists of ritualized assassination of political leaders. But how long until somebody breaks these unspoken rules and goes after other targets?
The High Ones
A ship from Earth (escaping from the united world soviets) runs into a hostile alien race and tracks it back to its planet of origin. There they find the perfect collectivist race. A civilization millions of years old, with the people nothing more than mindless drones servicing computers like termites in a great colony.
The Man Who Came Early
A US soldier stationed in Iceland during the Cold War is struck by lightning and transported back a thousand years to before Leif Eiriksson’s voyage to Vinland. He tries to use his modern knowledge but quickly discovers that his knowledge is so far removed from the technological development of the time as to be useless. Then he gets himself into a fight, a feud, and eventually gets himself killed.
Marius
Étienne Fourre confronts Jacques Reinach, the general who won the third world war, and tries to convince him to give up his emergency powers and let democracy have a chance to flourish once more.
Progress
A crew of Maurai merchant sailors infiltrates a secret Beneghali project-a nuclear fusion power plant. And destroys it. To preserve the status quo and allow the various cultures of the world to mature, and to prevent another ruinous War of Judgement.