Rise of the Terran Empire

This is the third volume in the new Polesotechnic League collection of Poul Anderson's works, and my second-favorite so far ("The Van Rijn Method" is still tops). In this volume, the merchant princes of the League begin to fall out among themselves and abandon the altruistic principles that have cur......more

This series is really an amazing omnibus of the Anderson continuum. I know I'd missed reading a lot of these over the years. To have it all flow in chronological order, all contained, is such a joy. This volume bridges the Van Rijn stories into the Terran Empire. I still like Van Rijn the best, but......more

I remembered the early parts of the Technic Civilizations books, with the Polesotechnic League, and the later parts with the empire falling apart, but not the middle, and thought this book would be interesting. The first and last stories in this book are short novels. The first one is closest to bei......more

...Without the focus on van Rijn and Falkayn it is a bit more varied than the previous volume David Falkayn: Star Trader. The transition from the Commonwealth to the Empire is, despite the fact that these stories were written over a period of twenty-five years, a recognizable overarching theme i......more

An interesting compilation of stories. Fresh and different from my usual scifi fare. Though I understand this volume comes in the middle of the so-called "Technic Civilization Saga" and I don't think I loved the world enough to want to read the entire series.......more