Poul Anderson was among the seminal figures of twentieth-centuryscience fiction. Called a Grand Get better at by the Technology Fiction Authors of Americain 1997, he created an enormous body of standalone books and series fiction andwas similarly in the home in the areas of heroic illusion and hard SF. He was ameticulous craftsman and a gifted storyteller, as well as the impact of his finestwork continues, undiminished, to this day.

Multiverse: ExploringPoul Anderson’s Worlds is a rousing, all-original anthology on the subject of Multiverse: Exploring Poul Anderson’s Worlds that standsboth seeing that a significant achievement in its own right so that as a heartfelt tributeto a remarkable writer-and equally remarkable man. A nicely well balanced blend offiction and reminiscence, Multiversecontains greater than a dozen stories and novellas by some of today’s finest writers, alongwith shifting reflections by, among others, Anderson’s wife, Karen; his daughter,Astrid Anderson Bear; and his son-in-law, novelist and coeditor Greg Keep. Bear’sintroduction, “My Friend Poul,” is specially illuminating and insightful.

The fictional contributions comprise a kaleidoscopic arrayof imaginative responses to Anderson’s many and varied fictional worlds. A fewof the features include Nancy Kress’ “Outmoded Points” and Terry Brooks’ “TheFey of Cloudmoor,” tales inspired by the Hugo Award-winning “The Queen of Airand Darkness”; a pair of truly wonderful Period Patrol tales, “A Slip with time”by S. M. Stirling and “Christmas in Gondwanaland” by Robert Silverberg; RaymondE. Feist’s Dominic Flandry adventure, “A Candle”; and a pair of very differenthomages towards the classic fantasy book, ThreeHearts and Three Lions: “The Man Who Came Later” by Harry Turtledove and “ThreeLilies and Three Leopards (And a Participation Ribbon in Science)” by TadWilliams. These stories, as well as singular contributions by suchsignificant statistics as Larry Niven, Gregory Benford, and Eric Flint, accumulate toa memorable, extremely personal anthology that lives up to the standards established bythe late-and indisputably great-Poul Anderson.