Poul Anderson: Difference between revisions

* [[But What About the Astronauts?]]: ''After Doomsday''

* [[Combat Pragmatist]]: Poul Anderson is fond of these characters. In his Wing Alek series of short stories the main character is forbidden from ever using killing to win a conflict (luckily the villains don't know that) so he uses underhanded methods to get the villains to defeat themselves.

* [[Deliberate Values Dissonance]]: Seen in his viking stories where the vikings act like [[Captain Obvious|vikings]],meaning they are predatory, bloodthirsty, vengeance obsessed, and oh yes, peculiarly racist against Finns. Also seen in [[Technic History]] which has glimpses of slavery, human sacrifice, feuding, and what not, either as part of the plot or mentioned as a cultural background to a given people.

* [[The Fair Folk]]: Appear in many Anderson stories, often with some kind of twist. Examples include ''The Queen of Air and Darkness''.

* [[Gods Need Prayer Badly]]: Averted in the short story ''The Food of the Gods''. A being or concept needs some initial worship to achieve Godhood, but after that are relatively self-sustaining. (If a bit hungry . . . )

* [[Grey and Gray Morality]]

* [[Hope Is Scary]]: In ''After Doomsday'', an alien does not understand this.

* [[Humanoid Aliens]]

* [[Twice-Told Tale]]: "Goat Song"

* [[Worldbuilding]]: He is famous for this.

* [[Worthy Opponent]]: Often writes about tragic fictional conflicts that would require superhuman wisdom to stop if they really took place(just like many real conflicts). Even when one side is clearly presented unsympathetically it will tend to have a few decent people fighting for it and often some attractive cultural traits.

* [[You Are in Command Now]]: ''After Doomsday''