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The Year of the Ransom book cover
The Year of the Ransom
1988
First Published
3.58
Average Rating
291
Number of Pages

Part of Series

SF veteran Anderson revives his Time Patrol series for this brisk, intricate tale of crime and pursuit across the centuries. The trouble starts when bandits from the far future stage a raid on the fabulous ransom that Francisco Pizarro demanded in 1533 for the Inca Emperior Atahuallpa. In the confusion, a resourceful conquistador steals a time machine, maroons a Time Patrol agent in the distant past and ends up kidnapping the agent's niece in 1985. Anderson's mosaic of interlocking episodes allows readers to fit the puzzle together for themselves. He also has some thought-provoking ideas on our own cultural myth of historical progress and on the foolishness and danger of underestimating people from other cultures or eras.

Avg Rating
3.58
Number of Ratings
64
5 STARS
14%
4 STARS
44%
3 STARS
31%
2 STARS
8%
1 STARS
3%
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Author

Poul Anderson
Poul Anderson
Author · 152 books

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

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