Harvest of Stars

With North America having embraced a controlling, almost-police state that promises great advances, but delivers only repression and economic regression, the state turns hungry eyes towards the space-going Fireball Corporation. They plan on seizing Fireball's assets, and using its expertise to deliver the utopia that their cherished philosophy never could. However, a group of Fireball loyalists, headed by cyber-entity Anson Guthrie, is on the run, determined to thwart the government's evil plans. And, if in the course of their work they bring the whole rotten structure down, so much the better! Poul Anderson (1926-2001) is remembered as one of the giants of the sci-fi industry, and this book shows off why. I found the story to be quite gripping, and I really like his view of the not-so-far-off-future. And as for the politics, would the people of North America ever embrace a philosophy that promised a utopian future delivered through government control? Oh yeah. The one fly in this ointment is the bothersome way that the Lunarians talk - like characters out of a Shakespeare play. But, as for me, I did not find it to be all that distracting. No, I found this to be a very interesting book, one that really held my interest from start to finish - I highly recommend this book!

Poul Anderson has brought lifetime's worth of craftsmanship and pure artistic genius to bear to create this, the crowning acheivement of his science fiction career. The downloaded copy of late Anson Guthrie, with the help of Fireball pilot Kyrie Davis, is fleeing the totalitarian Avantist world order; but the Avantists have secured and brainwashed another copy of Guthrie, so that his most dangerous opposition is himself. The background is awe-inspiring in its complexity and completeness. Instead of a stale monoculture, or an endless array of postapocolyptic punks, the reader is treated to a tapestry of cultures of the future, including the eerie, elfin Lunarians, perhaps Anderson's most successful and memorable creation. The main action of the book, however, is just a backdrop for a more chilling and larger threat: the spectre of bioengineering and true artificial intelligence slowly displaces Man from his seat as lord of his own fate, and an increasingly inert and sheeplike humanity becomes merely the clients and wards of a supreme cybernetic system. The only hope for Man to retain his human spirit is a risky and uncertain project to colonize one of the doomed worlds of Alpha Centauri. HARVEST OF STARS moves from an action thriller seamlessly into profound conflict over the ultimate spiritual destiny of man, whether one of numb security or perilous liberty. Magnificent on all levels, rich in characterization, vivid in detial, profound in scope and philosophic depth, I cannot imagine how any science fiction reader could help but award this book the highest possible rank. A classic.

... I have to state that this book (and its sequel, "The Stars Are Also Fire", and less so with the remaining two in the quartet, "Harvest the Fire" and "The Fleet of Stars") is perhaps the most thought-provoking SF work I have read. It ranks, for me, with the very best of Asimov, Heinlein, et. al., in terms of making me think of what the author is trying to convey. Its exposition of artificial intelligence (developed to much greater depth in the successors to this book) is very good, albeit coming late in this volume. The classic conflict between central control of society, and individual freedoms, is well set out, and overall it places one in the position of constantly asking "How would I react to this?" I've gone to the trouble of buying the whole quartet in hardcover, as I know that these are books I will be re-reading until I die. Great work!

This book will turn the reader into a believer because of its realistic humanity. Poul Anderson makes you feel like a sidekick on an adventure with the greatest minds in the universe. Harvest of stars is a well-balanced journey with all of the ingridents of a page-turning quest for justice. It will be finished before you want it to be.

This is the book that made Poul Anderson my favorite hard science fiction author of all time. The plot is novel and engaging, the characters are well-developed, and the underlying themes cause a reader to pause and think. Anderson has developed an entire universe that, while grounded in scientific reality, is as imaginative and engrossing as any I have read. This book, along with the others in the series, is a must-buy.