If you are like me, you are often fascinated by those 500+ novels of “hard science-fiction” that you sometimes see in junk shops. Every now and again I pick one up and I remember why I don’t read them too often. Poul Anderson’s “Harvest of Stars” (a book I’m sure you never heard of; I sure didn’t, and there’s little written about it online) is a rambling, babbling mess. I get the impression that an author like Anderson just sat at his typerwriter and shat out pages as quickly as he could and never went back and edited. Oh, there are cool ideas in there – and the opening (when you are first meeting the world of the story) is indeed fascinating. But when it comes time to, like, tell a story disaster strikes. I can not tell a lie – I stopped at page 300 when I realized that this wasn’t going anywhere (and when I learned there were THREE sequels.) And the damned thing wasn’t even written well. The style was just on the nose flat – and somewhat right wing reactionary. I don’t recommend this book, even if it does feature a Union-busting wise-crackin’ robot.
