Twilight World

by Poul Anderson

"The time is shortly after the great nuclear spasm: in all the world there is nothing but ruin, famine, barbarism. Worst of all, residual radiation is causing an ever increasing rate of abnormal births. The human race is doomed to slow extinction, but among the ever increasing number of mutants a few are not less but more than what came before." And these. "An apocalyptic science fiction novel of post-World War Three and 'Tomorrow's Children' surviving on a planet devasted by nuclear bombs, and where the number of mutant children caused by radiation is constantly increasing."
"Post-holocaust story. By an accident of genetics, the mutants became the precursors of a new master race."

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Apocalyptic, Post Apocalyptic, Fantasy

250 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

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

[Kevin Kuhn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven’t read much of Poul Anderson. This was a relatively short (250 pages) standalone novel from 1961. It doesn’t stand the test of time (e.g., plant life on Mars), but I found it interesting. Of course in 1961, Mars had not yet been explored. The story begins after a nuclear holocaust with survivors attempting to rebuild civilization. Radiation is causing plant, animal, and human mutations. Anderson, though the tale, explores the implications of mutation as characters wrestle with the possibilities of a human race that is changing and largely failing. Happily, the primary characters argue against eugenics and democide. Eventually the plot focused on super mutants who have a variety of special abilities. A group is put together to travel to Mars to establish a beachhead for future colonization. There is further conflict, but I’ll stop there. I enjoyed the epilogue which could almost be a standalone short story.

Three stars for this early exploration of the aftermath of nuclear war and the resulting mutations. An interesting look back, but a limited tale compared to the many that have followed.

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 3 out of 5]

ENGLISH: Post-apocalyptic vision of the Earth after an atomic war, with a biosphere sunk under the weight of the multiple mutations caused by radioactivity. The first of the three stories, which coincidentally is the first story ever published by Poul Anderson, is the best of all. The second is a bit simple, and the third, with the terrestrial war, now between mutants, moved to the planet Mars is a bit hopeless (we will never learn, seems to be the moral).

"A canticle for Leibowitz" seems to me a much more credible post-apocalyptic novel than this book. Here the survivors recover too fast, as in 30 years they are ready to send a spacecraft to Mars.

ESPAÑOL: La traducción española del título de este libro es incorrecta, debería ser "El mundo crepuscular", no "El crepúsculo del mundo".

Visión post-apocalíptica de la Tierra después de una guerra atómica, con la biosfera hundida bajo el peso de las mutaciones provocadas por la radiactividad. El primero de los tres cuentos, que casualmente es el primer cuento que publicó Poul Anderson, es el mejor de todos. El segundo es un poco simple, y el tercero, con la guerra terrestre trasplantada entre mutantes al planeta Marte es un tanto desesperanzado (no aprenderemos nunca, parece ser la moraleja).

"Cántico a San Leibowitz" me parece una novela post-apocalíptica mucho más verosímil que este libro. Aquí los supervivientes se recuperan demasiado aprisa, pues en 30 años están ya en condiciones de enviar naves espaciales a Marte.

[Tex-49 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tema che avrebbe potuto essere sviluppato meglio!

[Denis · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 1961 as a book club hardcover, it is actually a 'fix-up' novel composed of earlier stories with new material added:

"Tomorrow's Children" (1947) with F. N. Waldrop
"Chain of Logic" (1947)
"Children of Fortune" (1961)
"Epilogue" (1961)

The whole is built upon two 'base' post atom bomb apocalyptic stories (published only two years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki). It is a story of life after a global-wide event, where there are few survivors and many are born physically mutated. Inevitably, a new sort of class prejudice arises: that of the mutated and the non-mutated.

A jet pilot has been sent out by the U.S. government to survey the state of the populous and discovers that things are worse than expected: famine and near barbarism and, as mentioned, mutations. Some of these mutated however, could actually be classed as supermen.

Poul Anderson is sometimes compared to Heinlein, but I found this one was written more from the school of van Vogt, save maybe the extreme weirdness.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anderson grafts a couple of things together here and I'm reminded of The Winter of the World in its unexpected direction turn. Does it start in the reasonably-accurate aftermath of global nuclear war? Yes, and then it segues lightly into eugenics and a space race that will determine the surviving political system of the planet. And for a book that features post-apocalyptic raiding gangs there is an _awful_ lot of talking.

[meagan · Rating 2 out of 5]

lets take a really cool concept like a nuclear war destroying most of humanity and permanently altering human genes for the foreseeable future and turn it into a story not about how humanity might grasp with the social inequity between normal people and "mutants" but instead about how some americans are gonna fight serbians on mars. like. seriously. there was a lot of potential here and a lot of interesting characters that got zero depth and did zero interesting things because poul anderson decided they needed to go to mars and fight some serbians. boring!

[Andrew Post · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit disjointed, but an intriguing tale about the aftermath of a nuclear war, a world filled with (realistic) mutants, and post-nuclear geopolitics. I'd really like to see this get turned into a high-production TV series.

[Arthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was remarkable. Especially on how Poul Anderson (the author) managed to explain details and expression. Sure, granted the ideas are badly outdated or much of it was insignificant then. At times it felt encrypted and at times it felt clear. However it's a fantasy about human civilization surviving a nuclear fall out and this particular book was published in 1961. What that means is that most of the ideas are from the 50's of what the world would look like if it survived a nuclear Holocaust. It's about war and humanity and mutant survivors. It's about bringing back humanity into civilization and helping those lucky enough to be alive. It's about coming up with alternatives using what means they would have had in the 50's or the epoch of the changeableness of the decade after. It's also funny to see how easy the story moved along without much technology or computers and communications we take for granted today even though this is a sci-fi fantasy book.

[Johann · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books. Read it when I was young as part of a stack of books I got from my dads collection. Something about picturing him reading sci-fi at night under the covers with a flashlight may have made me love this book.

It's a quick read and something about it speaks to me. Brilliant.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A post-apocolyptic novel, with mutations. I've always been a sucker for these.

[Tim Pendry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another disappointment ... hack work that starts out as something with real promise and then plods into a variant of Heinlein's Rocket Ship Galileo only more puerile if that were possible. It was apparently knocked out in 1961 though this edition has a 1981 copyright attached.

There are two distinct halves that makes it look like a mash-up between two novellas - one with considerable potential and the second not worth reading and which we can summarise as standard rocket to Mars adventure and a Cold War battle with evil post-apocalyptic Soviet-like rivals. Yawn!

This is a shame because the initial core idea is interesting and the writing is often evocative of landscape and character. Anderson postulates that the genetic damage to humanity of a nuclear war is far greater to all earthly life than had been envisaged. Mutation becomes normal.

There was a point when I thought I would not be able to put the book down as this idea is developed not only as a story of post-apocalyptic survival but of how a remaining system of governance (a benign military temporary dictatorship) might deal with the problem both practically and ethically.

There appears at one point to be an opportunity for a 'Herrenvolk' to emerge. This is enables a brief and even courageous moral discussion of this option which would still have been touchy only fifteen years after the defeat of the national socialist regime. It is rejected as impractical and wrong.

This could have led to a precursor of Marvel's X-Men series which first appeared in 1963 or, much later, of Darwin's Radio (1999) and Darwin's Children (2002) by Greg Bear but Anderson bottles it. He abandons development for some quick thrills.

The mutant young people might find themselves briefly in a version of the Xavier Institute but their transition is to a simplistic story about building a new world for mutated humanity on Mars. It is crass and poorly thought out. Credible (for 1961) hard genetic science collapses into the incredible.

This is a shame. I can only recommend that you read up to the decision to go to Mars about half way through the book and then just stop unless you like wasting your life as I do on 'completism'. You may get something out of the first half that you will definitely lose in the second.

For Poul Anderson completists this story might have the virtue of being another working out of his frequent obsession with the best forms of governance for human conquest of space. There is a rather touching and well written postscript that 'justifies' his preferred progressive strategy.

His view of earth-based humanity is nevertheless depressingly negative with the attitudes that led to apocalypse leading to the same type of conflict post-apocalypse. One suspects a negative view of the human ability not to resort to violence is in-built somewhere in the American psyche.

The irony of it is that this pessimism is matched to another American trait - a complete inability not to see any other system of human thought as something that can be compromised with to common ends. The 'Siberians' are regarded as simply wrong and so free to be killed.

The 'optimism' in the postscript is essentially based on humanity ceasing to be human as we understand it and to have 'mutated' into something 'better', adapted to new weird environments much as we were supposed to have been mutated from apes.

[Kieran McNairn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This could have been a lot better.

I know Poul Anderson is no novice, but I feel that in the hands of a modern scifi author, this could have been excellent instead of middling.

Both the dialogue and science are quite dated.

The story took far too long to get to the interesting part, which was then rushed for some reason.

I'm keen to read more of Anderson because I know The Saturn Game is well-regarded, but this one was rough.

[Linda J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Badly dated. But written in 1950s, so much of the science and technology we take for granted was inconceivable at that time. Social and moral issues are touched upon, but the book would have benefited from more thoughtful treatments.

[Winter D'Arcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love vintage science fiction so much. This novel weaved a somewhat simple tale but one that was entertaining to read. I’m very excited to read more of the authors novels. I picked up a few at the bookstore today.

[Ismael Julio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Empieza muy muy bien pero la última parte es un poco más floja, con un argumento cogido con pinzas y un poco alejado de la que esperaba de la línea argumental planteada al principio

[Xian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contiene los relatos:

El crepúsculo del mundo (Tomorrow's Children, 1947)
Encadenamiento lógico (Chain of Logic, 1947)
Los hijos de la Fortuna (Children of Fortune, 1961)
Epílogo (Epilogue, 1961)

[Marsha Valance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mutants gradually evolve to rule a post-apocalypse Earth. A Science Fiction Book Club selection.

[Georgia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Should have been longer? Three broad sections which could have benefited from more depth.

[Warren Givens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very outdated, science doesn’t make the leap.

[Scythan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shallow/unrealistic characters, uninspired plot, predictable. The writing itself was fine, though.

[Howard Brazee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The novel is based upon ideas about mutations that were out of date when it was written when I was a school kid.