| Author: | Poul Anderson |
| Copyright: | 1982 |
| Date Reviewed: | 12/10/84 |
| Rating: | 7.5 |
"Cold Victory" is the second anthology in "The Psychotechnic League" trilogy. Overall the stories in this book were better than those in the first. In that one, two of the four stories were essentially the same; one secret agent is killed and another takes his place. In "Cold Victory" the stories are more diverse. For the most part, each story is good, but with a most fascinating ending.
"Quixote and the Windmill" was the weakest story about two drunks bemoaning their misfortune because of the way a technically progressive society has passed them by.
On the other hand, "The Troublemakers", which is more a novella, is very interesting. It begins with an ensign on a generation ship being demoted down to the level of a crew member (it's not a classless society) and follows his fight back up the ranks all the way to the captaincy. The ending however was a little to pat.
In "Holmgang", the captain of a small ship (one passenger and one other crew member) looses command to the other crew member who had conspired to take the ship. The two combatants, stalemated on the ship, decide to do single combat on a nearby asteroid. Somehow I couldn't believe that would happen. I did like the way the captain finally defeated the other. He put himself into orbit with his oxygen tank and attacked his opponent from the other side. I also found interesting the captain's relationship to the female passenger. He criticized himself for being big and dumb and not being able to even talk to her. While being big and dump is the last of my problems, I understand very well his situation.
"Cold Victory" was about a captain telling a story in the third person about how he and two others destroyed an enemy ship in the Union/Humanist war only to be captured by his brother who was then captain of an enemy ship. Through trickery, he made the captain believe it was safe to send the fleet to do battle where they lost. The story had a nice twist when the captain explained he was the other brother.
"What Shall it Profit" began as a mediocre story about a reporter trying to uncover a story about how the 'Institute of Human Biology' has found a way to prolong life but is keeping it a secret. Although the investigation is far fetched, the eventual truth is wonderful. The institute can prolong life but only by keeping the patient deep under ground hidden from all radiation. The humans kept alive this way are more vegetable than animal.
"Brake" was similar to "Holmgang" about three passengers that try to take over a 15 man ship. They are defeated but during the fight one of the mutineers sabotages the propulsion system so that the ship can't slow down. The rest of the story, about how they use Jupiter's gravitation field to slow down, was not as interesting as the fight. This time I am looking forward to the next book in the series.