"Favorite Poul Anderson story" Topic

I deliberately did not specify "novel". Great short stories, novellas…

For "hard sci-fi", nothing beats "Tau Zero". He made me believe they could navigate The Big Crunch. 👍

For grim fantasy, "The Broken Sword" is hard to beat. Elves are bastards!

I love his historical fantasy "Hrolf Kraki's Saga".

I welcome recommendations.

If he wrote The High Crusade, and I believe he did, then that is my favorite.

Any of the Ensign Flandry stories

Don't forget the Time Patrol.

lc

Ah yes. The High Crusade. HYW in France. Green aliens in a UFO. And a soap opera marriage. 👍
I love Brother Parvus lecturing to the alien in Latin. 😄

Keep them coming.

This might take a bit. I've got better than half a shelf of Anderson, and the cat won't let ne get up and check them.

Favorite story? He's one of my favorite authors. I'm not sure I can name a favorite story.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress was one of my favourites – although Dominic Flandry was my first Anderson read and what got me into it

That being said, The High Crusade is far and away my favourite Poul Anderson story

All the Dominic Flandry series…..and all the Polesotechnic league.

Twenty volumes of Anderson on the Great Wall of Fiction, They contain---among many, many others:
"The Sheriff of Canyon Gulch." (First Hoka story.)
"The Helping Hand"
"No Truce with Kings"
"Hiding Place" (Nikolas van Rijn.)
"The Problem of Pain" and
"The Master Key." (van Rijn again.)

I was a little surprised to realize that neither High Crusade nor and of the Dominic Flandry stories made my top six. I treasure High Crusade, but it's only very, very good. Several others are great.

Frederick and poll editor: Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a Heinlein title, not eligible in this poll.

You sure can learn a lot following a thread on The Miniatures Page.

Too many to choose from for just one.

Three Hearts and Three Lions. The Hoka stories are great, but they're a shared kill.

Point of order: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is by Robert Heinlein, not Anderson. Do NOT put it in the poll.

My fave is either 3H3L or the High Crusade. Both are just great fun, nothing really serious (but more thoughtful than you might expect).

No love for The People of the Wind?

It's been a long time, but I thought it fair. And it got a board game…

Doug

I have it in the justly-celebrated Gregg Press edition, Beast. But "fair" didn't make my list. Anderson did lots of "fair" and even more "good." And no points are awarded for board games. I do not regard them as the proper objective of a novel. (Isn't there a "Dune" game, anyway? If so, proof that it needn't be even a passable story to achieve one.)

The Dominic Flandry series. We Claim These Stars (v.t. Hunters of the Sky Cave) if I have to pick one.

No love for The People of the Wind?

Uh….
It's your job to nominate it. Frankly, I never heard of it. But it gets added to the choices when the Poll comes out in the future.

I was about to put 'The Man Who Counts' though I believe it was also published as 'The people of the wind'.

I would appreciate if someone with a better Googlefu than me check this.

x42

Second "No Truce With Kings".

I'd also add "Among Thieves"
And if I can at some point recall it, the one about the pivotal battle between rebel Solar System and an autocratic Earth that a bunch of academics claim was historically inevitable, while one commander claims it was much more personal and could have gone either way ( Still say at least one part of Babylon 5's "The Deconstruction Of Falling Stars" is based on it ).

"The People of the Wind" is a separate story from "The Man Who Counts".

The latter has a variant title "The War of the Wing-Men", which mayhap accounts for the confusion.

The Broken Sword then The High Crusade.