Poul Anderson

This acclaimed fantasy classic of men, elves, and gods is at once breathtakingly exciting and heartbreakingly tragic. Published the same year as The Fellowship of the Ring, Poul Andersons novel The Broken Sword draws on similar Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon sources. In his greed for land and power, Orm the Strong slays the family of a Saxon witchand for his sins, the Northman must pay with his newborn son. Stolen by elves and replaced by a changeling, Skafloc is raised to manhood unaware of his true heritage and treasured for his ability to handle the iron that the elven dare not touch. Meanwhile, the being who supplanted him as Orms son grows up angry and embittered by the humanity he has been denied. A pawn in a witchs vengeance, the creature Valgard will never know love, and consumed by rage, he will commit a murderous act of unspeakable vileness. It is their destiny to finally meet on the field of battlethe man-elf and his dark twin, the monsterwhen the long-simmering war between elves and trolls finally erupts with a devastating fury. And only the mighty sword Tyrfing, broken by Thor and presented to Skafloc in infancy, can turn the tide in a terrible clashing of faerie folk that will ultimately determine the fate of the old gods. This edition contains the authors original text. Along with such notables as Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury, multiple Hugo and Nebula Award winner Poul Anderson is considered one of the masters of speculative fiction.

Poul Andersons book Tau Zero stands out in the genre in large part because it does precisely the thing that one so rarely sees in science fiction: it takes a keen interest in the emotional lives of the characters in the novel, which the novel combines this with a general fascination for all things scientific. In Tau Zero, these two often competing themes in the genre work together with a synergy that makes the novel much more than just another deep space adventure story.From practically the very first page, Tau Zero sets the scientific realities in dramatic tension with the very real emotional and psychological states of the travelers: you have the time factor and their emotional response to the consequence of traveling at this high rate of speed and the time that has passed. This tension is a dynamic that Anderson explores with great success over the course of the novel as fifty crew-members settle in for the long journey together. While they are a highly-trained team of scientists and researchers and therefore professionals, they are also a community of individuals, each of them trying to create for him or herself a life in a whole new space (or literally, in space).It isnt too long, however, before the voyage takes a turn for the worse. The ship passes through a small, uncharted cloud-like nebula that makes it impossible to decelerate the ship. The only hope rather, is to do the opposite and speed up. But acceleration towards and within the speed of light means that time outside the spaceship passes even more rapidly, sending the crew deeper into space and also, further into an unknown future.

Esta recopilación de cuentos y novelas cortas de Poul Anderson muestra ante todo una muy notable variedad de temas y estrategias narrativas de quien es sin duda uno de los principales maestros de la ciencia ficcion contemporanea y uno de los autores mas influyentes en el genero. Aunque se considera, por lo general, que Anderson es indiscutiblemente inimitable en las narraciones "epicas" (batallas glacticas, conflictos que atañen a constelaciones enteras, largos viajes en el tiempo) muchos de los relatos reunidos en estas paginas muestran tambien la extraordinaria inventiva del autor cuando se trata de describir, por ejemplo, la naturaleza de una planta, la composicion de una atmosfera insolita, o los problemas de un hombre comun.

Esta recopilación de cuentos y novelas cortas de Poul Anderson muestra ante todo una muy notable variedad de temas y estrategias narrativas de quien es sin duda uno de los principales maestros de la ciencia ficcion contemporanea y uno de los autores mas influyentes en el genero. Aunque se considera, por lo general, que Anderson es indiscutiblemente inimitable en las narraciones "epicas" (batallas glacticas, conflictos que atañen a constelaciones enteras, largos viajes en el tiempo) muchos de los relatos reunidos en estas paginas muestran tambien la extraordinaria inventiva del autor cuando se trata de describir, por ejemplo, la naturaleza de una planta, la composicion de una atmosfera insolita, o los problemas de un hombre comun.

La inteligencia artificial ha llegado a un nivel de desarrollo que permite depositar el contenido de la mente humana en un ordenador para lograr una especie de inmortalidad híbrida. El astronauta Christian Brannock da la bienvenida a este avance tecnológico, que le facilitará la consecución de su sueño: explorar las estrellas. Mil millones de años después, Brannock es enviado a la Tierra para investigar ciertas anomalías. Durante su estancia conoce a Laurinda Ashcroft, otro depósito híbrido. Brannock y Laurinda unen sus fuerzas para investigar a Gaia, la mente suprema que domina el planeta, y conocer la verdad de sus terroríficos planes secretos para la Tierra.

La reina del Aire y la Oscuridad es una historia de descubrimiento sólidamente construida, con un misterio bien explicitado que se va revelando con un ritmo muy medido y que juega con una idea jungiana que uno no esperaría encontrar en este autor, encasillado en la vertiente más tecnofílica de la ciencia ficción. Eso sí, fiel a su estilo pone sus ideas en las manos de sendos personajes arquetípicos, especialmente el detective omnisciente que todo lo sabe y que incluso le resulta risible al propio autor, haciéndonos un guiño desde sus últimas palabras para que disculpemos su forma de actuar durante toda la trama.

The gathering forces of the Dark Powers threaten the world of man. The legions of Faery, aided by trolls, demons and the Wild Hunt itself, are poised to overthrow the Realms of Light. Holger Carlsen, a bemused and puzzled twentieth-century man mysteriously snatched out of time, finds himself the key figure in the conflict. Arrayed against him are the dragons, giants and elven warriors of the armies of Chaos, and the beautiful sorceress Morgan le Fay. On his side is a vague prophecy, a quarrelsome dwarf and a beautiful woman who can turn herself into a swan, not to mention Papillon, the magnificent battle-horse, and a full set of perfectly fitting armour, both of which were waiting for him when he entered the magical realm. The shield bears three hearts and three lions - the only clue to Holger Carlsen's true identity. Could Carlsen really be a legendary hero, the only man who can save the world?

Hito imprescindible en el desarrollo de la ciencia ficción contemporánea, cuenta la historia de un puñado de inmortales en el decurso de las civilizaciones y culturas humanas y constituye al mismo tiempo una especulación sobre un posible futuro entre las estrellas.

Thor has broken the sword Tyrfing so that it cannot strike at the roots of Yggdrasil, the tree that binds together earth, heaven and hell. But now the mighty sword is needed again to save the elves in their war against the trolls, and only Scafloc, a human child kidnapped and raised by the elves, can hope to persuade Bolverk the ice-giant to make Tyrfing whole again. But Scafloc must also confront his shadow self, Valgard the changeling who has taken his place in the world of men.

Une planète errante, riche en matériaux rares, attire les convoitises. Bientôt, Nicholas van Rijn et ses compagnons Falkayn, Chee Lan et Adzel se lancent dans l'aventure mais ils doivent faire face a la société Serendipity qui est prête a tout pour s'emparer du trésor, notamment le lavage de cerveau.

Quatre récits dans lesquels Nicholas Van Rijn est confronté à des indigènes énigmatiques, et son jeune acolyte David Falkayn découvre les descendants d'un équipage terrien perdu.