Customer Reviews

For Love and Glory

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Lissa Davysdaughter loves adventure. In the far future where humans live their potentially endless lives in cycles, regaining youth repeatedly, she has far more time to do as she pleases than did her ancestors; but she also has a great deal more to lose by risking violent death. Her father, head of the powerful House of Windholm, would like her to start playing it safe (or at least safer). He'd like her to settle down, now that she's already lived a lifetime or two, and start raising a family of her own. But Lissa isn't ready to do that. She's much too busy joining a Gargantuan (think "Tyrannosaur") scientist on a remote archaelogical dig. And after that moving on to the next adventure, and the next....

The search for the fabled Forerunners, whose civilization spread across the galaxy long before humankind's rise, ties the several otherwise disjointed stories in this book together - so loosely that it might be called a collection instead of a novel. While not up to the old master Anderson's former standard (it has an awkward, not-quite-finished quality), it's nevertheless a pleasant read. A lot more fun than some lesser writers' best, in fact!

Not Anderson's best, but certainly better than a lot of the drek out there, and way better than any of what is laughingly called sci-fi on TV these days. The Big Ideas are satisfactorily Big and Awesome, the sense of wonder is certainly there for the reader, but the characters are kind of underwhelming. The protagonist, Lissa, isn't a terribly compelling individual, and I kept wishing she'd just shut up a lot of the time. A shame, because normally I like strong women characters, but Lissa was too much of an expository device. Her romantic entanglements progress along predictable lines, with no surprises about how they turn out. The aliens are the best characters.

I class this one as light reading for the beach or a cozy evening in front of the fire. Not particularly memorable, but fun enough overall and better than TV.

For Love and Glory, like many of Poul Anderson's later works, is a far cry from his best early books. This book is disjointed throughout and frankly full of mediocre dialog that drives the melodramatic love story. it almost had a daytime soap opera feel to it.

Lissa Davysdaughter Windholm of the planet Asborg is a daughter of the powerful House of Windholm who leads altruistic expedition of discovery for the families enterprises. She is not an expert in any field, but a student of all and leads the expeditions and helps out along the way. While exploring a new planet, she meets Torben Hebo, a freelance explorer from Earth. Though she is suspect of his motives at first, this story is essentially a vehicle for their love to bloom over time and aceoss the worlds the travel to. Along the way, Lissa has an affair with her ship captain, they rescue aliens from catastrophe, and life goes on and her destined love grows nearer.

Whatever.

Besides the lack of a well connected structure as the characters bounce around and the melodramatic love connections (the lead character actually starts to act like a love-sick school girl from a 1950s era film), For Love and Glory is actually quite boring. An alien comes to the Windholm family to share a secret his race is hiding about a huge scientific discovery - enough of an idea to carry the whole book - but, alas it is only part of the story lacking any real development, and is really just a vehicle of redemption for momentary love interest.

For a well paced, high action, and interesting story of interstellar exploration with a strong female character, check out the Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins books by Jack McDivett beginning with The Engines of God.

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A Guide to my Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

In the very distant future, mankind has colonized the stars while the people of Earth have evolved into something quite different. Science and technology has advanced so that people can live several centuries with rejuvenation treatments. Information is sought after and the person who delivers it is rewarded handsomely and regarded as a hero.

Lissa of planet Asborg belongs to a powerful house so she has the freedom to do what she loves: explore planets and space phenomenon. On a scientific expedition to the planet Jonna she meets Captain Hebo and his partner an anthropoid from planet Rikha. They discovered a Forerunner artifact that they are going to sell to the highest bidder. Lissa leaves them to go on an expedition to see two black holes collide. She meets up again with Hebo on the planet Freydis where she helps the Susalans colonize a new world. He offers her a chance to visit a part of the galaxy where countless Forerunner artifacts might be found and she grabs at the opportunity realizing that she is embarking on the most dangerous mission of her career.

Fans of the early Andre Norton and Robert Heinlein space operas are going to have a lot of fun reading FOR LOVE OR GLORY. Humans and other sentient species are realistically portrayed and the space battle scenes are exciting because it is difficult to guess how they will turn out. Hugo and Nebula award winner Poul Anderson has written a work that is rich in atmosphere and will make readers believe the author has written a "semi-autobiographic" book about what he has seen in the future in outer space.

Harriet Klausner