For Love and Glory

By Poul Anderson

Book Overview

On the uncharted planet Jonna lies the archaeological find of a lifetime. An immense artifact left behind by the mysterious race known as the Forerunners, who predate all the known cultures in the seafaring galaxy and had long vanished before any intelligent species had taken to the stars. But human Lissa and her Tyrannosaurus look-alike partner, Karl, aren't the first to make the discovery. Two freeboaters whose motives aren't purely scientific are also after the object. The Forerunners had revolutionized entire fields of technology, and each discovery has reaped huge financial rewards. If the same holds true for the newest discovery, Lissa realizes only she and Karl stand between what could be the scientific discovery of a lifetime or an unsolved mystery waiting to be unleashed.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812540395
• ISBN13: 9780812540390
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

A Daughter To Make a Father Proud

For Love and Glory is a novel about the forerunners and human tenacity. Lissa Davysdaughter Windholm of Asborg is a specialist on wilderness survival. On Jonna with a planetological team, she and her companion, Karl, a sauroid from Garganthua, track down unannounced visitors in a wilderness camp. There she finds Torben Hebo and his partner, Dzesi, an anthropard from Rikha, studying a forerunner artifact in the nearby river. Lissa and Karl are invited into the camp for talk and refreshments and learn that Torben and Dzesi are freelance entrepreneurs gathering information to sell. Since Jonna is an unclaimed planet and the pair are harming neither the relic nor the habitat, Lissa and Karl just enjoy the company. Later, Karl saves both Torben and Dzesi from drowning when the river rises unexpectedly. Everything is congenial until Torben makes a brash pass at Lissa and is ordered to desist at pistol point.Thereafter, Torben and Dzesi go off to sell their information and then they part company, both returning to their homelands: Dzesi to Ghazu on Rikha and Torben to Earth. After 900 years of life, Torben is beginning to have memory problems and other symptoms of information overload. He needs to have his memories edited and Earth has the best technology of that sort in the known galaxy. Not only can the memories be removed, but the Earth technology can store the deleted memories for subsequent perusal.When the survey of Jonna is terminated, Jonna and Karl also part, with Karl returning to Garguantua and Lissa to Asborg. There she rests for a while and then becomes involved in a speculative voyage to unclaimed space to investigate a report of long-term, large-scale and secret scientific examination of seemingly empty space by the Great Confederacy, the largest Susaian government.When Torben leaves Earth, he travels to Asborg with intentions of visiting Lissa, learns of her investigative voyage, but finds that she has returned and left once more for a five year study of Jonna. Nevertheless, he stays in the Sunniva system and finds investors to bankroll a commercial development on Freydis, the sunward planet from Asborg. Moreover, he has a long-range plan for further investigation of the forerunners.This story is most clearly an Anderson tale. It has the characteristic courage, brashness and technology, yet also the optimism and wonder of such stories. In one respect, however, this novel is not typical: the main character, Lissa, is very naive about the wickedness of mankind. Most of Anderson's characters are rather cynical in addition to the previously mentioned attributes. Such cynicism comes from experience and Lissa, despite her own beliefs, has been protected very thoroughly by her family and society. Thus, she has several rude shocks within this story, but is strong enough to carry on anyway. This new approach to a female character, and her father, very probably reflects the author's own experience raising his daughter. Having

great future space opera

In the very distant future, mankind has colonized the stars while the people of Earth have evolved into something quite different. Science and technology has advanced so that people can live several centuries with rejuvenation treatments. Information is sought after and the person who delivers it is rewarded handsomely and regarded as a hero.Lissa of planet Asborg belongs to a powerful house so she has the freedom to do what she loves: explore planets and space phenomenon. On a scientific expedition to the planet Jonna she meets Captain Hebo and his partner an anthropoid from planet Rikha. They discovered a Forerunner artifact that they are going to sell to the highest bidder. Lissa leaves them to go on an expedition to see two black holes collide. She meets up again with Hebo on the planet Freydis where she helps the Susalans colonize a new world. He offers her a chance to visit a part of the galaxy where countless Forerunner artifacts might be found and she grabs at the opportunity realizing that she is embarking on the most dangerous mission of her career.Fans of the early Andre Norton and Robert Heinlein space operas are going to have a lot of fun reading FOR LOVE OR GLORY. Humans and other sentient species are realistically portrayed and the space battle scenes are exciting because it is difficult to guess how they will turn out. Hugo and Nebula award winner Poul Anderson has written a work that is rich in atmosphere and will make readers believe the author has written a "semi-autobiographic" book about what he has seen in the future in outer space.Harriet Klausner