The Earth Book of Stormgate, by Poul Anderson

Rating: [I do not rate collections]

Objectionable material: none

Reviewed date: 2007 May 27

Pages: 434

• Wings of Victory: A first contact expedition finds a settlement of houses, and some large avian animals, but no sign of intelligent creatures.
• The Problem of Pain: An alien race has a unique viewpoint on the problem of pain: they view God as the great hunter, and one's life culminates in the great chase, with God and death victorious.
• How to be Ethnic in One Easy Lesson: Jim designs a presentation for the Festival of Man, a celebration of mankind's history and future.
• Margin of Profit: Nick van Rijn's ships to Antares Sector keep being waylayed and boarded by the Borthu empire, thus making the run too expensive to operate.
• Esau: Dalmady protects Solar's monopoly on bluejack from Baburites who intend to cut out the middle man by harvesting it themselves.
• The Season of Forgiveness: A Christmas celebration helps a Polesotechnic trading outpost that is trying to do business with two warring groups of natives.
• The Man Who Counts: Nick van Rijn is cast away on a primitive planet.
• A Little Knowledge: Three criminals hijack a spaceship from a relatively primitive planet, but the pilot outsmarts them and gains the upper hand.
• Day of Burning: Falkayn and the crew of Muddlin' Through try to help a planet that is about to be bombarded with radiation from a nearby nova, but the planet's governments are too fragmented to adequately coordinate the protection effort.
• Lodestar: Van Rijn seeks the source of Supermetals.
• Wingless: A human boy, alone among his winged Ythrian friends, saves his Ythrian friend's life during a boating accident.
• Rescue on Avalon: On Avalon, a lone hiker rescues a downed Ythrian, despite being intensely allergic to Ythrians.