This is a very mixed collection of stories, some straight science fiction, some historical fiction, some very comic, others very grim. Overall, I liked most of them. Wings of Victory is a straight SF first encounter story about human first meeting with the Ythri, who appear later in other stories. They are winged aliens and at first the official leader of the contact team (a cold intellectual type) believes --and makes a serious scientific argument for --the proposition that they cannot be intelligent, that they must be used like super-falcons by the real intelligent aliens. However, another member of the party --a more sympathetic roughneck -- finds a scientific explanation of how they can be intelligent tool-users. Frankly, I think simple observation would have shown at once that they were the intelligent species, but it makes a good story. "The Long Remembering" uses a science fiction frame for a prehistoric fiction --a modern man's memory retraces the experience of a distant Cro-Magnon ancestor who rescued his wife from Neanderthal "goblins" who had carried her off (a variant on an old pulp fiction motif used by Machen and others)."Peek, I See You" is a comic story in which the aliens in flying saucers are the equivalent of a tramp steamer trading quietly with the Hopi and avoiding other contacts because if Earth people in general discovered them they would be required to bring them into Galactic civilization; unfortunately they are tricked into revealing themselves. "Murphy's Hall" I disliked; it is essentially an emotional plea for reviving the space program picturing the sad fate of isolated space explorers abandoned by Earth. On the other hand, I really liked "The PIrate" --a twist on Anderson's usual pattern, in this story the shrewd entrepreneur loses out to the forces of the law, because they are defending the remains of a lost civilization.The ending paraphrases Burke on the covenant between the past, present and future. "Goat Song" is a well-written but sad sf setting of the myth of Orpheus, "The Visitor" is also very sad, about a man who visits in a dream the mental world of a girl left comatose by a car accident. 'Wolfram" is a delightful light imaginary biography of an 18th century German scholar who might have given his name to "Wolfram" (the alternate name for tungsten). It reminded me of Avram Davidson's gentle scholarly whimsy. "The Peat Bog" is a longer straightforward historical story about a Roman trade/spying mission to Scandinavia, with an explanation of the peat-bog sacrifices; it has a grim dignity typical of what Tolkien called "the Northern Thing." ( )

A collection of short works, and not very interesting. Nine stories, with "Goat Song" (Isn't that english for Tragedy?), as the best piece. it seemed to me to be got up to fulfill a contract obligation. ( )

Overview

Collected here are several pieces of short fiction written by Anderson. While in his notes he makes reference to some as being fantasy, by today’s definition of the genre, they would all be securely placed instead in science fiction.

When I read the Golden Age science fiction authors, I was familiar enough with a few to know that I liked them (Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Leiber, and Vance), and familiar enough with others to know that I didn’t like them (Heinlein). But, until now, I had not really gotten familiar enough with Anderson to make a distinction for him.

This collection of short stories, versus the previous anthology of his that I read (stories from the Time Patrol) gave an overview of different stories, giving a smattering of his writing talent.

On the whole, the stories, while clearly dated, were still fairly well written.

”Wings of Victory”

In an intergalactic survey of the universe, a team of xenobiologists and company are surveying the universe for new sentient beings. They discover a world completely inhabited by bird-things, and are trying to figure out if these are the sentients, though the evolutionary evidence is stacked against them.

”The Long Remembering”

A man undergoes a process to relive the life of one of his ancestors. He goes way back to the earliest days of humanity, where he, as his ancestor, must rescue his woman from goblins.

”Peek! I See You!”

A lone pilot tries to convince an unconvincable world that he really did see a flying saucer with honest-to-God aliens. But the aliens and the people on earth in the know (a tripe of Hopi Indians) don’t want the rest of the universe finding out.

”Murphy’s Hall”

A series of vignettes depict brave space explorers facing certain doom, interspersed with internal dialog of a young man contemplating this notion of “Murphy’s Hall.” Is it a space Valhalla? Or something else?

”The Pirate”

An entrepreneur has a scheme that doesn’t add up: he’s got a vacant world, and will provide housing et al to settlers for a low fee. If it works out, he’d be the richest man in the universe. But something doesn’t add up, and an audit reveals the skeletons in his closet. Several millions of them.

”Goat Song”

If the myth of Orpheus was set in the distant, computer-controlled future, this would be it, with the nameless harper playing the main role, his nameless, deceased woman playing Eurydice, and the cold, calculating computer SUM being Hades.

An interesting take on the myth.

”The Visitor”

A man has a strange dream in which he meets a little girl who lives all alone in her house. Turns out, a friend knows a friend who knows even more about this girl.

”Wolfram”

An artificial history of Wolfram, the man after whom tungsten was named. A bit tongue in cheek, complete with a punchline.

”The Peat Bog”

A story about a Grecian young man, his Roman master, and their journeys to help unite barbarian tribes under Rome. Well written, and thought provoking, but really not my type of story.

Reactions

While my previous reading of Anderson were not enough to garner a liking or disliking for him, after reading this collection of short fiction, I decided that Anderson can safely sit beside those titans that I have enjoyed.

I would recommend this book for fans of Anderson, as well as for those who are interested in learning more about Anderson’s writing style, having read no more than a handful of his stuff prior. ( )