The Avatar

by Poul Anderson

In the immeasurable past a mysterious alien race known as The Others left mankind a challenging legacy, a 'gate' to the unexplored reaches of the stars. Humanity has utilized the gate to painstakingly colonize the Phoebus star system but has left the rest of the galaxy unexplored. In the midst of turbulent political upheaval on Earth, the exploratory ship Emissary leaves through the gate on a voyage of discovery. When the Emissary returns ahead of schedule the Social Welfare Party on Earth impounds the ship and imprisons its crew - and forbids all future space exploration. Dan Broderson, an entrepreneur and adventurer, commandeers a commercial spaceship from his own company and travels to Earth to find the Emissary. He locates the ship, confounds its captors and rescues some of the explorers, including the first alien to visit the solar system. But Broderson has to flee through the gate unprepared, to become a wanderer among the stars in search of The Others. They alone have the knowledge that will enable his ship to return home.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Ebooks, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, American

404 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Pseudonym A. A. Craig, Michael Karageorge, Winston P. Sanders, P. A. Kingsley.

Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories. He received numerous awards for his writing, including seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards.

Anderson received a degree in physics from the University of Minnesota in 1948. He married Karen Kruse in 1953. They had one daughter, Astrid, who is married to science fiction author Greg Bear. Anderson was the sixth President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, taking office in 1972. He was a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America, a loose-knit group of Heroic Fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized in Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! anthologies. He was a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Robert A. Heinlein dedicated his 1985 novel The Cat Who Walks Through Walls to Anderson and eight of the other members of the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy.[2][3]

Poul Anderson died of cancer on July 31, 2001, after a month in the hospital. Several of his novels were published posthumously.


Series:
* Time Patrol
* Psychotechnic League
* Trygve Yamamura
* Harvest of Stars
* King of Ys
* Last Viking
* Hoka
* Future history of the Polesotechnic League
* Flandry

Reviews

[Luís · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mysterious alien race has revealed to Earthlings the existence of a great series of linking gates scattered throughout space-time. But the only gate routes disclosed by "the Others" are those to and from the uninhabited Earthlike planet of Demeter. Several generations after the colonization of Demeter, a crew probe brings back a representative of the highly advanced Betan civilization. Vicious political interests on Earth hold the returned ship incommunicado; a rescue mission from Demeter manages to get away with the Betan and sets out on a Russian-roulette course from gate to gate looking for the Betan star, finally reaching the home of "the Others" and getting a glimpse of how this ancient race has cherished and studied humanity. Anderson's basic design is beautiful and challenging. But as in many of his narratives, the characters have a peculiarly jerry-built air (the worst being an Irish colleen of breathtaking repulsiveness). After a few solar systems, even the scrupulous scientific descriptions--ordinarily one of Anderson's great strengths--begin to seem like so much mechanical homework. It is a welcome event for Anderson fans but also problematic for others.


Source: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...

[Charles Daney · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of hundred thousand years ago Homo neanderthalensis was the top primate on Earth. Individuals of this species were aware of various close relatives of their own genus (Homo), though we can't know how they conceived of their kinship. But most likely they were aware of their own superiority in cleverness and resourcefulness. Probably, too, they had vague ideas that other creatures superior to themselves could well exist, though they'd never encountered any.

Eventually, over 50,000 years ago, Neanderthals finally encountered a more advanced form of Homo - H. sapiens. Individuals of the latter species undoubtedly regarded the Neanderthals in much the same way as the latter had regarded their forebears. It's unclear how often encounters between the two Homo species occurred, but it was often enough that some interbreeding transpired.

H. sapiens individuals, likewise, also had intimations that creatures more advanced than themselves could, and probably did, exist. When H. sapiens evolved language, they called such beings "gods" (in their own primitive tongues). The abilities that such "gods" were believed to possess were considered magical, which is always how technology seems to those who haven't understood it. Thus religion originated. Up until fairly recently – as the recognition arose that other planets than Earth existed and could harbor "intelligent" life – religion retained this primitive form.

But now the expectation of "intelligent" life on other planets is quite widely spread. And H. sapiens individuals that hold this expectation think that among these alien life forms there surely must exist a few more advanced than what exists on Earth. This is one modern form of religion. It might even be true. After all, this is basically what H. neanderthalensis eventually learned in its own times.

That much pretty much sums up the main theme of Poul Anderson's novel, The Avatar, although Anderson (if he were still alive) might not fully agree with this take. If one enjoys this kind of speculation, the book can certainly be recommended. There's a multitude like it, of course, but it's probably one of the better ones.

Obviously, this theme represents a large percentage of the "space opera" sort of science fiction, up to and including the latest iterations of Star Trek and Star Wars. There's just one problem, summed up in Enrico Fermi's question: "Where are they?" Although serious attempts to detect "extraterrestrial intelligence" have been under way for only 50 years or so, the results so far have been exactly nothing. If interstellar travel is possible at all (and it seems to be), nevertheless no evidence of it has been found. Maybe H. sapiens really is the ne plus ultra of the whole universe. But that too seems unlikely. After all, the suspicions among H. neanderthalensis of the existence of more advanced species eventually proved true.

Science fiction has recently taken another tack on the same general theme. Perhaps the theorized superior beings will be the direct descendants of H. sapiens – in the very near future, maybe just a couple of decades. This notion includes ideas like "transhumanism" and "The Singularity". It could happen almost without warning. But, so far, it's still speculation, much like every other religion to date.

I'll conclude with a few remarks about The Avatar itself. For one thing, I found the language to be a bit too flowery and overwritten. Anderson was a masterful writer, but one perhaps a bit too enamored of his own prose. His work has several similarities with Robert Heinlein's, and that's not entirely a good thing. The political views of both, unfortunately, were a puerile libertarianism. They both wrote a lot of space opera, which was the dominant theme of their times. And they both included lots of sex in their works – nothing wrong with that, of course. In neither case is the sex very graphic. It would be more interesting, in fact, if it were described as lyrically as Anderson was clearly capable of. Still and all, both Anderson and Heinlein were clearly masters of their genre.

Looking back at this review, I should admit it's not very fair to the book. I should have said more about it. Although it's far from the best of Anderson's work (see below), and much farther compared to the best SF in general, it does offer enough of interest to motivate a reader to finish it. The basic idea is that conclusive evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life has been discovered, yet the political "authorities" go to extreme length to conceal this. Countless SF stories, to say nothing of UFO/ancient astronaut/etc. conspiracy theories are based on this premise. The question is: why would the "authorities" do this? Because they're afraid it would threaten their grip on power? Because it would cause panic in the population? Because their general policy is always to keep the rabble ignorant "for their own protection"? It seems that credible answers to this question are seldom found anywhere. This book is no exception. One would like to see a story where an answer forms a major element of the plot. Here's one possibility that anyone who has the energy to tackle this might consider. Imagine a protagonist who has the courage and determination to find an answer. She (or he) undertakes a perilous quest to solve this puzzle. And in the course of that, she discovers that the truth is even more momentous than the "authorities" imagine. Not only are their concerns ill-founded, but the effect is to thwart humanity (or its descendants) from comprehending some stupendous Truth?

For what it's worth, I enjoyed two of Anderson's late novels more: The Merman's Children and The Boat of a Million Years. The themes of both are more historical than space opera, and the plots were more interesting. The plot of The Avatar, to me, seemed rather simplistic, and tended to drag much of the time, being overshadowed by the colorful language and the polyamorous couplings among the characters.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

After having some great success with Roger Zelazny, I thought I would try my hands at another classic sci-fi author, this time Poul Anderson. I wasn't entirely sure which book of his to get so about a year ago I purchased The Avatar on a whim from my local book store. It sat on my shelf a while but I've learned that my reading tends to be a rotation where sometimes books will sit on my shelf for a few years before the mood suits me. At least it's better than my backlog for movies.

Anyway, The Avatar is a sweeping space epic where a spaceship returns much too early from its space flight (with an alien in tow) and therefore the government on Earth decides to hold the ship and its crew against their will. Upon hearing the news Dan Broderson on a nearby planet decides to take his own ship to free the crew of the Emissary. In doing so, he takes them on a wondrous flight into the stars beyond and gets much more than he bargained for.

This story has all the makings of a good space adventure with some interesting themes and a robust line of characters. Except it gets its head buried in politics and it certainly feels like its trying to make a statement with its treatment of relationships and intercourse. Yes, you read that word correctly. Let me try to explain.

Everybody in this story (or at least for the most part) has multiple partners. Dan is married to Lis and they seem like an older couple that are very in love with each other. However, once Dan leaves for space, he goes to the arms of his mistress, Caitlin and he is also in love with her. Lis is fully aware of Caitlin and vice versa. While aboard their ship, Dan and Caitlin also share relations with other crew members. Furthermore, it's all done in a very robotic way like it just happens and there is hardly anything peculiar about it (meaning very little passion). And it happens nearly every freaking chapter once they are up in space.

It's distracting and then once they get off of that subject, it's a whole lot of going on and on about The Others (the mythical beings they are searching for) to the point where you feel like closing the book and then burying it on your donate or sell pile to never be seen again. The adventure that should be there is completely lost in a sea of polygamy and politics. I know there are a few people who seem to enjoy this author and the way he writes but I can honestly say I am not one of them. If only I had known what I was getting my self into, I would have probably avoided it altogether.

[Jenny Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was actually pretty good. There was a lot of politics, which is what took me so long to get through, but once I got to about halfway, they more or less fell off. The characters were pretty varied, and well written.
There was the male leader, the steadfast wife, the distant woman, the loving, jetset woman, the sad man, the angry man. I do like that all the characters were strong on their own, none of them needed a relationship to be whole. They all needed someone to lean on sometimes, but where able to pick themselves back up.
There were parts where the age showed, but not much. Overall, if you enjoy Sci Fy that is character and politically driven, check this one out."However, at their ages, the time between late winter and early spring could be as long as the time to go to the end of the universe and back."

[Marki · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really? No reviewer has mentioned the ridiculous made-up words he uses? "Swab-O sign" do you know what that is? How about "ribband"? It's a word, used in shipbuilding, but he means ribbon, do not doubt me. Also, faking accents by badly spelling words is cheap theatre. It's actually partly his demand for perfect language that bothers me in this book. We are to assume that because he dots one and accents the other "i" in Caitlin, causing horrific results in italics, that everything else he writes is linguistically superior. That arrogance permeates this work. Almost all of his descriptive phrases include an equivalent of "indescribable", a failure I have seen often in SF authors' later efforts. But most annoying is the pedantic delivery. There was not one sentence that expressed a genuine feeling. Observances of deduced feelings predominate. Be warned.

[Tracy Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is kind of an old-fashioned space opera novel in some ways. The politics are achingly libertarian, ala Heinlein and the very 70's new age free lovelifestyle/morals seems very laboured and forced in 2014. But this author has been one of my favourites and I was attraced to the book. Its very good in places and there are some great ideas, but it is very uneven. As and American living in Ireland for the past 10 years, I did enjoy the occasional Irish references -- although "Pegeen's" mannerism's are a bit over the top -- what the Irish call Twee.

I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they are real die-hard SF fans. It's the kind of book I was glad to get to the end of -- find out how it ends and go on to something else.

[SKSATX · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd read a few Poul Anderson Novellas in Hugo / Nebula Collections during my freshman year in College and found his blend of Social Commentary with Hard Science rather nice.

That said, this book, his first "Large" book that I've read is a bit of a disappointment - not because of a lack of Sci Fi, but rather at the pacing of the plot, and how the book in general came together, I found it a little hard to keep my attention on the book.

The story itself is about Dan Broderson and a motley crew that he initially assembles which is later added on to by the crew members of another ship which had gone to distant galaxies in search of intelligent life and come back with a treasure trove of information and a member of another sentient race.

Factions on earth feel that space travel is superfluous in light of the state of earth and try their best to suppress the craft that has returned from the distant reaches of space. The story then charts the heroism / recklessness with which Broderson and his crew plan and carry out a rescue operation which results in them getting lost in space.

The story then tracks the fantastic planets that the crew come to in their search of the cosmos for a way back home ... which they eventually do after going through travails which are far better read than regurgitated =)

[John Sharp · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am doing a DNF on this book only 10% of the way in. I have loved Poul Anderson's previous work, but this one isn't up to his standards.

Very sexist characters, strange speaking patterns (would space settlers really speak English that is archaic even now?).

Plus, the editor was awful for the Kindle book. Wrong character names, etc. I get tired of playing "editor" when I read some of these books.

Too many good books out there to waste time on mediocre stuff.

[mirba · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's my first book by this author and I really enjoyed it. the only thing I didn't like was that it was a tad too descriptive in useless moments (like who cares of three pages of description of a house we're going to see for five minutes of action in the book?)

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have the hardback version of this. It's kind of a Stargate before there was a Stargate. Good stuff.

[Răzvan Ursuleanu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dacă până la pagina 87 romanul lui Poul Anderson începuse deja să-mi placă, de la pagina 87 încolo mi-a plăcut și mai mult, pentru că este menționat astronomul Ionescu, iar eu sunt una dintre persoanele care uguiesc și chițăie fericite atunci când cineva dintr-o altă țară ne bagă în seamă și pe noi, românii (sub aspectul săvârșirii de fapte bune, firește). Este adevărat, astronomul Ionescu e un personaj fictiv, dar dacă autorul, dintre atâtea și atâtea nații și popoare care și-ar fi dorit să aibă un astronom în roman, a ales un român, apăi lucrul acesta m-a făcut de-a dreptul fericit (chestie care e superioară uguitului sau chițăitului, la mine cel puțin).

Plus că Ionescu nu moare. La pagina 92 (când este menționat pentru ultima dată) e încă în viață. Rusul Zarubaev, de exemplu, nu are acest noroc, și nici Fidelio, extraterestrul cu coadă. Poul Anderson îi omoară pe amândoi (nu mai rețin exact la ce pagină).

Dincolo de această prietenie pe care autorul, iată, a purtat-o neamului nostru (îl menționează și pe Brâncuși, la pagina 225, ok?) recomand romanul “Avatarul” pentru că nu am mai citit de la “Steaua Pandorei” încoace pasaje de acțiune atât de bine scrise.

Și dacă vă place să citiți literatură SF ce te trimite în aventuri dincolo de universul cunoscut, în lumi improbabile, fascinante sau stranii, “Avatarul” este sigur una dintre cărțile pe care le căutați.

Nota acordată romanului : 8

[Tony P · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cautious 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4. It's a pleasure to read such good writing, for a change I'm sorry to say. You may not always like Anderson's subject matter (his semi-historical sagas set me yawning), but damn, the guy could write. Here the plot is classic science-fiction, interplanetary politics, space adventure, time travel, and philosophical interpolations.

It degenerated a little in the middle into a sort of Universe Travelogue; however Anderson handles this much better than Piers Anthony, whose 'Macroscope' has a similar ending. It seems for a while as though the original political adventure plot-line has been abandoned. But Anderson does not end with the travelogue; he pulls it together, and we come to understand the purpose behind it. The political issues are wrapped up satisfactorily, if a bit facilely.

Not Anderson's absolute best, but a fine book which I thoroughly enjoyed.

[Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Goodness this was a bit of a mud walk. It didn't grab me at all, although the ideas portrayed therein were interesting. The idea of having a sequence of star gate with combinations to travel through which would result in destinations not just spatial but temporal is interesting (how Stargate would have been different if 'chevron 9' allowed a temporal shift...)
I think the issues are the grubby cardboard politicking between Ira Quick and Makarov on Earth and Hancock on Demeter which is vague nastiness, combined with the babbling between the shipmates of the Ulysses-like Chinook starship as it pootles between gate to gate in the search for the 'others' progressively losing individuals and its way and time. The Alien race, the Betans (really?) are daft and the orbit and day/year of their planet makes no sense: whilst the Physics might be sound, the Biology ain't.

[Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is the second time I have read tis book. I was a teen and an avid sci-fi fan the first time I have read it.
My opinion remains the same. This is an amazing book after we pass the the first part, which is very political. This however explains and sets in motion antagonists and decisions made by all the characters.

The characters are variated, with very differentiated psychological traits, although very strong. None of them is a victim of circumstances, which makes sense as they are all space explorers.

The "free love theme" may get boring after a while, however I feel that this is more a reflection of the times the book was written on. Altogether a really good book for sci-fi fans, that explores the concept of civilisations type 1, turning into type 2 - as the human race and the "others" - a civilisation type 3 with some aspects of a civilisation type 4.

[Carl Barlow · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know Poul Anderson is a classic SF author of some regard... which is why I was quite surprised not to enjoy this book. On the face of it, it's all there: ancient alien civilisations, star hopping over almost intergalactic distances, action and adventure. However, all of this gets almost drowned by poor characterisation (we're talking stereotypes and caricature here), eye-rolling sexism (never nasty, but certainly very patronising), clunky and laboured style -especially where dialogue is concerned- at total odds with what it depicts, and so much concentration on who's currently shagging who that the book becomes more Soap Opera than Space Opera.

I confess to skimming the latter half - not something I expected to do on beginning this book.

[Rusty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poul Anderson has written many science fiction books. I rather liked this story because of the political ramifications elaborated upon and thespeculation about an alien species he refers to as The Others. The protagonists, Rijn and David Falkayn and Dan Broderson set out to win the stars and an empire for earth. Broderson searches for the Emisary, a lost ship that has been captured by an alien. His goal: To rescue some of the explorers on the Emisary held by the alien. To do so, he must find The Others, who can send them home. A very nice read from a most accomplished science fiction author.

[Robert Bush · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very dry, rather slow going. I enjoyed it okay, but I wouldn't read it again and don't know if I'd recommend it to anybody.

Supposedly the "purest" of the characters is also the one with the loosest morals. It also bothers me that the captain constantly professed how much he loves his mistress...and then as an after thought would state that he loved his wife just as much. Not believable at all. I do believe it is possible for a man to love two women equally, but the way it was presented in this book didn't sell me on that at all.

The story line itself? Not bad. Maybe 4 stars. The filler details? They left me disliking pretty much every character. That lowered my rating.

[Bill Ramsell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poul Anderson is one of the greatest writers of science fiction and fantasy I've ever encountered. He left the world a legacy of imagination and possibility that's hard to describe. That being said...

I didn't much like this book. Sorry Mr. Anderson. I think one of the problems was that there were too many concepts introduced all at once. At the same time everybody seemed to be trying to sleep with each other in a way I can only describe as annoying.

If you're a Poul Anderson fan (like me), read it. You'll recognize the imagination and scope he was trying to achieve.

If you're new to PA, I wouldn't start with this one.

[Krishna Shah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more that i did. There was a lot of hippy action going on and not sure I buy into that. As the world that he described didn't seem like the place that would be normal. I also thought it took too long to get to the exciting part. There was a lot of stuff gone into in the beginning setting up the adventure and i would have rather like more writing on the adventure itself.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is made up of two halves. The first half has a bunch of politics that I found extremely boring. The second half is a random exploration of time and space. I didn't care much for the cloying love theme throughout the book, but the discoveries along the way kept me interested enough to keep reading.

[Chris H-C · Rating 1 out of 5]

It wasn't written very engagingly, its ideas were few and over-explained, and it had that unfortunate tendency of trying to justify non-monogamous relationships and other present-day social taboos in a society that was written to have already gotten over them.

[Kurt Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has been many years since I read the book but my general comments are the same as with Poul Anderson's other books --- often unexpected twists and deep stories which in some cases defined the genre for later authors.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-reading this after many years. Interesting looks at wonders of our universe and some examination of relationships. Was perhaps less engaging than I remembered and some aspects felt more like teaching than entertaining.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still one of my favorites by Poul Anderson. Not what you'd think from the cover at all, and the free love bit gets annoying after a while, but on the whole the story is good anyway.

[Andy]

AMERICAN EDITION - 'HIS MASTERWORK'

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The first one I've read of his works since school. Writes nice, clean English with intent. Thoroughly enjoyable characters and story line.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just didn't quite gel for me

[Robert Riddell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book one of my favorites.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stupendous tour of the (imagined) universe!

[Bent Andreassen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Poul Anderson's best novel. Very close to being a masterpiece.