7 of Our Favorite Poul Anderson Books

Ten immortals, born long ago from civilizations all over the world, were born with the extraordinary gifts of immunity and healing. They’ve wandered the Earth, trying to understand their abilities, while searching for others like themselves. Told from their individual stories and woven into an epic journey across a millennium, The Boat of a Million Years explores what meaning can be found in a life that goes on forever.

When Orm the Strong murders the family of a Saxon witch, she curses him. Unbeknownst to him, his newborn son is taken and replaced with a Changeling. 

Skafloc grows up as an elf, revered for his ability to handle the iron his brethren cannot touch. His dark twin, Valgard, only becomes angry and full of hatred for being denied the humanity he desperately wants. It drives him to commit a vile act, sending the two onto a journey that will pit them against one another on a violent battlefield. Only a mythical sword, once broken by Thor and then gifted to Skafloc as an infant, might change their destiny forever.

The spacecraft Leonora Christine begins the epic journey to a planet thirty light years away. Her crew of fifty-five understand that because of the speed they’ll be traveling, that time will slow and they will only experience a voyage of only a few years. But when the ship’s deceleration system is damaged by an interstellar dust cloud, they are helpless as the Leonora picks up speed. 

And when she reaches light speed (the titular tau zero), the distance between external time and what they experience on the ship becomes impossibly distant. Eons and galaxies pass in a flash as the crew speeds into an unknown future.

Earth, it turns out, spent a long time in a magnetic field that suppressed the intelligence of mammals for centuries. Quickly, the mental capabilities begin expanding across the globe, and with these changes, the structure of society alters. 

It isn’t just humans who experience clarity and astonishing intellect. Animals begin communicating with each other—including their human owners. Life beyond Earth is now not just possible, but plausible, as humans and animals embark into a future unlike anything they ever dreamed possible.

While working with the Resistance to defeat the Nazis, Danish engineer Holger Carlsen is wounded in a skirmish. Only, when he wakes up, he is somehow in a parallel universe. In this world, Law and Chaos are locked in an eternal battle. The age of modernity is yet to dawn in this world, where knights are the warriors against an array of mythical creatures. 

And somehow, Holger is a revered champion, with fitted armor to prove it. Relying on his scientific knowledge, Holger treks across the land, searching for answers as the fate of both worlds hangs in the balance.

In the future, death has been nearly eradicated, allowing humanity to travel the stars. But when the Meteor—an interstellar ship—crashes onto the wrong planet, they are thrust into a savage war between alien tribes. To the Captain, the situation appears hopeless. They’re surrounded by hostile aliens, with no hope of survival or rescue. But for the ship’s bard, dying on this planet is not an option. Because waiting for him on Earth is a woman he loves. He'll wait decades, centuries, even longer, but he will find a way to end the conflict and bring his men safely home—no matter how long it takes.

When Hadding is born, Odin schemes for his father, King Gram Skjoldung of Denmark, to send him to live among the giants for his safety. But after the King is murdered, Hadding must return to reclaim his birthright. 

Only, taking back a kingdom isn’t as easy as it appears. Caught in the middle of plots both from humans and gods, Hadding must rise to the challenges of war, fate, and even love, to seize his crown and claim his destiny.