For Love and Glory [Hardcover]

Poul Anderson (Author)

Book Description

Series: Anderson, Poul | Publication Date: March 19, 2003

From the multiple Hugo and Nebula Award–winning Grandmaster, a new novel of classic science fiction adventure

Mystery, discovery, and wonder on a cosmic scale are the core of Anderson’s latest novel. Lissa, a human Earth woman, and her partner, “Karl,” a giant alien academic who resembles Tyrannosaurs—are interstellar archaeologists investigating the remote and uncharted planet Jonna. There, they seem to have hit the jackpot. For on that distant world they’ve discovered an immense artifact that may have been left by the mysterious beings called the Forerunners. This race predated all the known cultures in the starfaring galaxy and vanished long before any other intelligent species had taken to the stars.

But Lissa and Karl aren’t the first to have made the discovery on Jonna. On the far-off world the archaeologists cross paths with the two freebooters whose plans for motives towards the arcane object are not purely scientific. Their discovery may be the best preserved relic of the ancient beings yet found. Other artifacts from the Forerunners—once reverse engineers—have revolutionized entire fields of technology, reaping huge financial rewards. If the same holds true for this newest discovery, Lissa realizes, only she and Karl stand between the seemingly friendly freebooters and what could be the treasure of a lifetime.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hugo and Nebula award winner Anderson (Mother of Kings) incorporates two stories he wrote for the Asimov's Universe series into this absorbing posthumous novel, a fast-paced space opera that never lets the reader forget that aliens are alien. At a time when nearly immortal humans have colonized the galaxy, various space-faring species commingle freely and the residents of Earth have become as alien to other humans as true ETs, an astronomical event that may affect all existence is about to take place. Unfortunately, only one set of aliens knows what that event is and their ruling dictatorship is hell-bent on keeping it that way. Lissa Windholm, an Earth woman with a spirit of adventure men find attractive, is determined to uncover the mystery and share the knowledge with everyone. Lissa and her partner Karl, a tyrannosaurus-like scientist, make some startling archeological discoveries on the planet Jonna about beings known as the Forerunners, but a psychologically scarred starship captain and an impressively ancient and profit-minded human rogue have other plans for the relics. Moving from one key sequence to another, Anderson omits much of the buildup and back story customary for such epic-scale SF, yet his protagonists and the worlds they explore always feel rich and real. FYI: Anderson died in 2001.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Based in part on short stories set in "Isaac's Universe" (the Isaac in question would be Asimov), For Love and Glory is about exploration and the discovery of relics of an ancient spacefaring race. On the planet Jonna, human Lissa Windholm and her Gargautuan partner Karl find evidence of the Forerunners, who predate any other life in the universe, and whose previously discovered relics have revolutionized entire fields of science. Enter fortune hunters Torsten Hebo and Dzesi, who want to claim the new find. The stakes mount higher when Orichalc, a member of an unpopular minority among the Susaians, defects with information about another discovery, which the Susaians are trying to keep to themselves, that he will trade for a colony for his people. Orichalc's bargaining chip may change the face of civilization, for it will allow assembling the Forerunners' relics into functioning technology. The sense of wonder key to good sf, some fascinating interspecies dynamics, and the potent element of human curiosity about the unknown distinguish Anderson's posthumous novel. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (March 19, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312874499
• ISBN-13: 978-0312874490
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,627,062 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pleasant SF -- a minor but enjoyable book, October 28, 2003

By 

Richard R. Horton (Webster Groves, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: For Love and Glory (Hardcover)

This is yet another posthumous novel by the late, great, Poul Anderson. As he explains in a brief introduction, For Love and Glory takes two stories from the Isaac's Universe anthology series (based on a setting originated by Isaac Asimov) and expands them to a novel. However, he chose to sever the links with the Isaac's Universe series, in order that his ideas will not conflict with anybody else's stories in the same universe, nor constrain future development. In so doing he has changed names of characters, planets, and alien races. He has also radically revised the two existing stories, adding a major new character and altering the motivations of some key characters, and he has added two new episodes, as well as some interstitial material, making the novel well more than twice the length of the original stories.

The story opens with Lissa Windholm and an alien partner coming across a mysterious artifact, evidently left by the long gone Forerunners, on the planet Jonna. But they are not the first to discover this artifact -- a man named Torben Hebo, one of the oldest humans still alive, and his alien partner have got their first. And their interest is profit, as opposed to Lissa's purely scientific motivation. Torben also rather crudely expresses an interest of a different sort in Lissa herself. But disaster strikes, and Lissa and her friend rescue Torben, leading to a reasonable compromise.

That episode serves mainly as a rather clumsy prologue, having little function but to introduce Lissa and Torben. They spend the next while mooning a bit over each other, while Lissa mounts an expedition to view the scientifically fascinating collision of two black holes, and while Torben goes back to Earth to get his memory scrubbed and to show the reader details of Earth's advanced linked human mind. Lissa's expedition involves the humans in a conflict between factions of the Susaian race. The stories come together again in the following episode, in which a neighboring planet to Lissa's home is colonized by a faction of aliens, and in which Torben gets involved in an attempt to industrialize this new planet, resisted by Lissa and her alien friends, who favor a "greener" approach. The final episode, then, features a further conflict with a bad alien faction, and an opportunity to learn something dramatic about the Forerunners.

As my summary might imply, the novel is rather episodic, and the joins between the new episodes and the pre-existing stories show, sometimes uneasily. Still, it's a decent and enjoyable novel, with some nice science-fictional ideas, and some pleasant and interesting main characters. The action is well-handled, and a sense of mystery and wonder at the secrets of the universe, so often central to Anderson's work, is nicely conveyed. This book is by no means Anderson at the top of his form, but he was ever a writer who would occasionally throttle back and produce supremely competent entertainment -- and I think that's what For Love and Glory ends up being. Not an enduring classic, but a book I'm happy to have read.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Daughter To Make a Father Proud, March 19, 2003

By 

Arthur W. Jordin (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: For Love and Glory (Hardcover)

For Love and Glory is a novel about the forerunners and human tenacity. Lissa Davysdaughter Windholm of Asborg is a specialist on wilderness survival. On Jonna with a planetological team, she and her companion, Karl, a sauroid from Garganthua, track down unannounced visitors in a wilderness camp. There she finds Torben Hebo and his partner, Dzesi, an anthropard from Rikha, studying a forerunner artifact in the nearby river. Lissa and Karl are invited into the camp for talk and refreshments and learn that Torben and Dzesi are freelance entrepreneurs gathering information to sell. Since Jonna is an unclaimed planet and the pair are harming neither the relic nor the habitat, Lissa and Karl just enjoy the company. Later, Karl saves both Torben and Dzesi from drowning when the river rises unexpectedly. Everything is congenial until Torben makes a brash pass at Lissa and is ordered to desist at pistol point.

Thereafter, Torben and Dzesi go off to sell their information and then they part company, both returning to their homelands: Dzesi to Ghazu on Rikha and Torben to Earth. After 900 years of life, Torben is beginning to have memory problems and other symptoms of information overload. He needs to have his memories edited and Earth has the best technology of that sort in the known galaxy. Not only can the memories be removed, but the Earth technology can store the deleted memories for subsequent perusal.

When the survey of Jonna is terminated, Jonna and Karl also part, with Karl returning to Garguantua and Lissa to Asborg. There she rests for a while and then becomes involved in a speculative voyage to unclaimed space to investigate a report of long-term, large-scale and secret scientific examination of seemingly empty space by the Great Confederacy, the largest Susaian government.

When Torben leaves Earth, he travels to Asborg with intentions of visiting Lissa, learns of her investigative voyage, but finds that she has returned and left once more for a five year study of Jonna. Nevertheless, he stays in the Sunniva system and finds investors to bankroll a commercial development on Freydis, the sunward planet from Asborg. Moreover, he has a long-range plan for further investigation of the forerunners.

This story is most clearly an Anderson tale. It has the characteristic courage, brashness and technology, yet also the optimism and wonder of such stories. In one respect, however, this novel is not typical: the main character, Lissa, is very naive about the wickedness of mankind. Most of Anderson's characters are rather cynical in addition to the previously mentioned attributes. Such cynicism comes from experience and Lissa, despite her own beliefs, has been protected very thoroughly by her family and society. Thus, she has several rude shocks within this story, but is strong enough to carry on anyway.

This new approach to a female character, and her father, very probably reflects the author's own experience raising his daughter. Having been in the same situation, I can attest that such experience causes a man to see women from an entirely different viewpoint, which goes very much beyond the stereotypical overprotective father archetype. Somehow, I think this is a last message of love from the author to his daughter.

Recommended for Anderson fans and anyone who still enjoys a sense of wonder and adventure in a SF setting.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Shows flashes of earlier brilliance, May 16, 2003

By 

booksforabuck (Dallas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: For Love and Glory (Hardcover)

Lissa Windholm is the favored daughter of one of the most powerful clans in her home planet and has made planetary exploration her life's project (and in a world of multiple regenerations, a life can span hundreds of years). While on one exploration, she meets Torben Hebo--a 900-year-old man with a sexist attitude that sets her teeth on edge despite the strong physical attraction. Their adventures take them apart through the middle of the novel as Lissa explores a scientific miracle, but bring them back together for a set of adventures that start back on Lissa's native system.

Poul Anderson is one of the great SF writers of the 1950s and 1960s. FOR LOVE AND GLORY is a postumous work and lacks some of the attention to detail that Anderson would certainly have given it had he survived. Still, in many ways this novel is a throwback to an earlier era of SF--an era of fabulous adventures, where a man, a woman, and a spaceship (perhaps along with sidekick aliens) could defy evil empires, make huge new scientific discoveries, and achieve a degree of personal happiness as well.

FOR LOVE AND GLORY contains some thoughtful concepts and speculations. Among these--what will happen to marriage and other human relationships if people can live indefinitely, renewing their youth whenever it starts to fade? Is there a next step in human evolution that will take us beyond being individual beings and allow us to plug into some sort of universal consciousness (perhaps using computer technology to link human brains)? Can an economic system be set up that rewards discovery without the need to have the discoverers actually exploit the knowledge that they find. These are the sorts of questions that define Anderson's brilliant earlier works and it is a pleasant flashback to see theim peaking through in this work created at the end of his life.