republished from The Broken Bullhorn:
Multiverse: Exploring Poul Anderson’s Worlds edited by Greg Bear and Gardner Dozois [Subterranean Press 2014 hardcover, cover and illustrations by Bob Eggleton, purchased new] – science fiction.
Friends and regular readers of this blog know that Poul Anderson is one of my favorite science fiction writers. I have all of the fine NESFA collections of his short fiction and a copy of just about every novel he wrote. Not every one is great, but most are very good or excellent, and I’ve read some of my favorites several times. So when I saw Subterranean Press was publishing this, it was a mandatory addition to my shelves, and will have pride of place thereon.
Poul Anderson (1926-2001) was one of the seminal figures of 20th century science fiction. Named a Grand Master by the SFWA in 1997, he produced an enormous body of standalone novels (Brain Wave, Tau Zero) and series fiction (Time Patrol and Dominic Flandry books) and was equally at home in the fields of heroic fantasy and hard SF. He was a meticulous craftsman and a gifted storyteller, and the impact of his finest work continues, undiminished, to this day.
full cover by Bob Eggleton
Multiverse: Exploring Poul Anderson’s Worlds is an all-original anthology; a mixture of fiction and reminiscence. It contains thirteen stories and novellas by some of today’s finest writers, along with reflections by – among others – Anderson’s wife, his daughter and his son-in-law, novelist and co-editor Greg Bear. (Bear also writes the introduction, “My Friend Poul”.
Table of Contents:
- Introduction: My Friend Poul by Greg Bear
- Outmoded Things by Nancy Kress
- The Man Who Came Late by Harry Turtledove
- A Slip in Time by S. M. Stirling
- Living and Working with Poul Anderson by Karen Anderson
- Dancing on the Edge of the Dark by C. J. Cherryh
- The Lingering Joy by Stephen Baxter
- Operation Xibalba by Eric Flint
- Tales Told by Astrid Anderson Bear
- The Fey of Cloudmoor by Terry Brooks
- Christmas in Gondwanaland by Robert Silverberg
- Latecomers by David Brin
- An Appreciation of Poul Anderson by Jerry Pournelle
- A Candle by Raymond E. Feist
- The Far End by Larry Niven
- Bloodpride by Gregory Benford
- Three Lilies and Three Leopards (And a Participation Ribbon in Science) by Tad Williams
If you like the work of Poul Anderson, or just good solid science fiction, this is a book for you.
Tip the Wink 
I have some books by Poul Anderson that I bought after reading some of your posts. I need to get to them soon.
Wife Karen wrote crime fiction and fantastica with Pohl and on her own as well you might try…
Or, not with Frederik Pohl, but with husband Poul. About the only context one can make that typo is in SF…
Ha! I’ve seen a tiny bit of her work, she did poetry as well as editing for him. There was going to be a biography but I never heard of it being published, though she spent a lot of time going through boxes of letters and papers.
I imagine that that would be self-limiting work, in any given session, emotionally. I wonder if she was doing all that well physically after Poul Anderson’s death, as well. Perhaps Astrid Anderson/Bear will be moved to do so, with her husband or alone…
And was perhaps the most comfortable straddler of PLANET STORIES and ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION in the 1950s, doing impressive work for both, albeit this was true of Leigh Brackett and some others as well, if less frequently.
This looks good! Like you, I grew up reading Poul Anderson’s SF novels and short stories. I’m usually not a fan of “tribute” anthologies, but MULTIVERSE’s Table of Contents includes plenty of top writers. Your blog post is the first review I’ve read of this book.
I thought this was a good one, George, but then just about all Poul Anderson is a good thing, in my opinion.
I really need to read Anderson himself rather than tribute stories, but as usual I am far behind.
Not behind, Jeff, just not got there yet… 😃
The first Poul Anderson novel I read was VAULT OF THE AGES (1952), one of the Winston SF series. I must have been 8 or 9 years old when I read it in the late 1950s. After that, I read a bunch of Poul Anderson novels in ACE Doubles.
He also wrote The Feathered Serpent, an early Winston novel.
Pingback: WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #42: MULTIVERSE: EXPLORING POUL ANDERSON’S WORLDS Edited by Greg Bear & Gardner Dozois | GeorgeKelley.org