A Galaxy Trilogy: Star Ways/Druid's World/The Day the World Stopped

A Galaxy Trilogy #1

by Poul Anderson

Before Star Trek or Gene Roddenberry and before Star Wars and George Lucas, the science fiction writers of the 1950s and 1960s were writing some of the hippest genre literature of the era. Here are three imaginative novellas from some of these pioneers of pulp science fiction. Star Ways by Poul Anderson is an action-packed saga of the Nomads, space gypsies voyaging endlessly through the cosmos, and of Joachin of the starship Peregrine, who must act as both bait and trap for the deadliest foe the Nomads had ever known. In George Henry Smith's Druids' World, a fantasy of a crumbling civilization with ties to King Arthur's era, a strong leader, Adam Max McBride, faces off with both a corrupt ruling class and horrible nonliving polymorphs in a battle to save the homeland. In The Day the World Stopped by Stanton A. Coblentz, a US president and his advisors plan to use the ultimate weapon in "preventive war" against Red China, while a young senator who tries to avert the calamity gets unexpected help from space visitors who offer him the use of their special powers.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Audiobook, Anthologies

MP3 CD

First published April 1, 2007

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

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are 3 books & I reviewed them individually.

Druids' World by George Henry Smith got a 2 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

"Star Ways" was renamed to The Peregrine & is by Poul Anderson. It got 3 stars here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Day the World Stopped by Stanton A. Coblentz got 1 star as I could not finish it & is reviewed here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Overall, not the quality I expected. All the stories were dated & 2 of them shouldn't really have been republished, IMO.

[useFOSS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Omnibus of 3 short vintage SF novels:
Druids' World (1967) by George Henry Smith 5/5
Star Ways (1956) by Poul Anderson 3.5/5
The Day the World Stopped (1968) by Stanton A. Coblentz 4/5

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay...not a bad read. Old pulp fiction with a nostalgic feel. We open with a fantasy story based very (very,very) loosely on a science fiction idea...multiple universes.

The stories are pretty good, nice for a feel of science fiction history and to get a taste of the pulp sci/fi, fantasy. I won't recommend you run right out and find it but it might be good when nothing sounds good or for a rainy afternoon when you have nothing to do and nothing already planned to read.

[Clayton Yuen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three scifi stories of the past that were written in the classic methods: space opera!

Star Ways by Poul Anderson

Druid's World by George Henry Smith

The Day the World Stopped by Stanton A. Coblentz


These three novellas were excellent!

[Ace McGee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Three novelettes in no way connected.
Druids’ WORLD, the best, is book one of a series. (Which I will not seek out). Set in a parallel medieval world with links to ours and others life is full of intrigue and plots. Our hero, with ‘ancient blood ‘, Arthurian in this case, needs to keep it all in order.

Star Ways has a good premise of a klan of gypsy like space rovers who travel the stars trading and making a buck where they may.

The Day the World Stopped is your typical man on the brink of global disaster and only with the intervention of three of the stupidest aliens can it survive. Weakest of the three.

Audiobook

[Mark Stratton · Rating 3 out of 5]

The final story was so bad it brought down the whole thing

[David Munch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star Ways: 3/5
Druid's World: 3,5/5
The Day The World Stopped: 2/5

Narration of audiobook by Tom Weiner: 5/5

[A.J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook performed by Tom Weiner.
Mildly entertaining trilogy that is much improved by Tom Weiner's excellent performance. I found it satisfying background entertainment while working on other tasks. The third story "the day the world stopped" is rather silly and has three stooges as the alien protagonists.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star Ways **
Druid's World***.5
The Day the World Stopped **** (predictable but funny)

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

These stories throw me back to my preteens.

[Scott S.]

This one's Goodreads rating is below anything I would normally bother with, but it is narrated by Tom Weiner so I'm going to give it a shot.

[Noah · Rating 3 out of 5]

enjoyable