Even though I consider myself fairly well-read, there are a great many authors whose work I haven’t truly explored. One of the most important of those is Poul Anderson, undoubtedly one of the most prolific and influential speculative fiction authors out there. I don’t know exactly why I haven’t read more of Anderson’s work, but it certainly isn’t through any dislike or aversion. The Broken Sword was harder-going for me than The Lord of the Rings, but like that more famous novel, it was all the more rewarding as a result. I also have a copy of Three Hearts and Three Lions somewhere in my great pile of unread books, and no doubt more than a few short stories of his among the dozens of anthologies I haven’t looked through. Still, I never got around to pursuing more additions to the shelf: perhaps the sheer breadth of his work was daunting in itself.

It may seem rather presumptuous of me to then write a post regarding an author about whom I have little prior knowledge. Suffice it to say that I know just enough about Poul Anderson to ken that he was/is hugely influential and worth looking into. Upon hearing of his birthday, I decided to mosey about the internet just a bit to see if there was anything online. I came across “On Thud and Blunder,” an essay on verisimilitude in world-building that draws from Anderson’s clearly vast reference pool–ocean, more like–and makes a stand for getting the details right. Having read and re-read it many times, I consider it one of the very finest writings on the subject of world building out there.

Anderson’s profuse knowledge on medieval miscellanea shines through, as he explains convincingly and lucidly what life would be like for the average serf in a feudal system, how exhaustion and energy affect horses as much as men, and a more brutally realistic model of combat and injury. Something I noticed early on is that, while plenty of sub-par authors have supernatural horses, fifty pound broadswords and simplistic governments, I found that just about everything Anderson recommended could be found in Howard’s writing. For all the brouhaha about the “three helmets” of The Hour of the Dragon and the stirrups in “Worms of the Earth,” it’s really astonishing just how often Howard got it right, and how it takes someone familiar with the period to truly appreciate it. Birds of a feather, and all that.

Also like Howard, Anderson’s impact on later works is considerable. Publication of The Broken Sword roughly coincided with The Lord of the Rings, both utilizing Norse mythological motifs to forge an inspiration to future authors and readers. Tau Zero is one of the most highly regarded “hard science-fiction” novels, of which William Gibson, Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear (who’s married to Poul’s daughter, Astrid) are the current torchbearers. Even in the 21st century, his influence is apparent: the upcoming James Cameron epic Avatar shares many elements with Anderson’s 1957 novella Call Me Joe.

I thus highly recommend any fledgling fantasy or historical authors, or simply anyone wanting a rough guide to the period, to read “On Thud and Blunder.” Reading it has given me far more appreciation for Anderson than I had back when I read The Broken Sword, and I have a fancy to track down Three Hearts and Three Lions, as well as hunt down some of the novels and yarns that caught my eye–The High Crusade, “Wildcat,” “Unnatural Enemy” and ”The Last Viking” series. I think I’ll move Poul Anderson to the top of my future reading list.