Had he lived, today would have been Poul Anderson's 83rd birthday. Anderson is a favorite author of mine, both for his historical fantasies, such as The Broken Sword and Three Hearts and Three Lions, and for his science fiction works, particularly the Van Rijn/Falkayn and Flandry series. My own SF RPG, Thousand Suns (which I am busily revising), is strongly influenced by Anderson's SF tales, so I feel a particular debt to him.
As you'd expect, The Cimmerian offers up a fine tribute to Anderson and notes some similarities between him and Robert E. Howard.
Fans of Anderson can take some cold comfort in the upcoming James Cameron film, "Avatar", which (based on the leaked script treatment I read a few years back) has a plot so similar to PA's story "Call Me Joe" that it's indisputable.
ReplyDeleteWhat a crazy coincidence! I'm reading "Call Me Joe" today!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday, Poul Anderson.
I discovered Poul Anderson late in life, but he's now one of my favorites. I was just looking at your prior Anderson posts, James, and I'm wishing I had those older printings of Broken Sword and Three Hearts and Three Lions. The covers are gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteGosh! I thought Avatar was a SciFi remake of 'Dances with Wolves'.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday Mr Anderson! Clearly a big influence on D&D. Not a fan of the D&D Troll though...
ReplyDeleteHavard
Along with Jack Vance, I think that Anderson is the only other author who was a primary influence on both D&D and Traveller.
ReplyDeleteYou are right in that Knightsky. I have no doubt RPGing owes more to Vance and Anderson (and Burroughs, Howard and Lieber) than it does to Tolkien. Then again most modern "RPGs", especially video games RPGs, owe more to D&D's wargaming heritage than they do to true "role" playing.
ReplyDeleteI rail against D&D paradigms like levels and hit points but RPGs have sparked the imagination of millions. Not a bad thing.