 |
The High Crusade | Rating | |
| B | |||
| Poul Anderson | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| N/A | N/A | ||
Roger MacBride Allen, in his essay of common writing mistakes, writes in his portion on motivation that writers often fail to deal with the consequences of what they write. He gives some examples, but the most striking is that he mentions "knights in armor climbing aboard a starship." I'm pretty sure he was referring to this book, because that's exactly what happens. A starship sets down in England of 1345, an alien climbs out and fires a few shots from a laser, and is promptly annihilated by a storm of arrows. The knights storm the ship, taking it over, and with the help of their one captive decide to take it to France to help with the local war. But the captive sends the ship back to his empire instead, and the knights are forced to cut a swath through interstellar space.
Sound silly? It is, actually. The tone of the book is serious enough, but the story idea is rediculous. Allen to the contrary, though, I think Anderson made it work. Sure, the knights would almost surely not have taken to technology anywhere near as quickly as they did, but it was fun. It was a romp, nothing less. Perhaps if the book was too much longer (it's under 200 pages), it would have failed. But because it is so short, it works.
| By Title | By Author | By Rank |