Poul Anderson's beefy, beery, big-brained van Rijn, merchant adventurer extraordinary, stars in three long novelettes [in Trader to the Stars]—good ones—and proves for all time that when science fiction's sachem of swashbuckle sets out to write a story, he thinks first. He thinks clear across the spectrum … on micro- and macro-cosmic terms. Add many a bloody fight and flight, a clear and sometimes edged view of human societies and motivations, and you have what's given Anderson his high status in the field. The long view—that is, considerations not on the biographical scale but on the historical and geological scales—is not only refreshing: it's vital. There is literally no other way in which humanity can be made to realize, and therefore made to prevent, the tragic repetition of its own errors. (p. 1075)

Theodore Sturgeon, "Anyone for …?" in National Review (© National Review, Inc., 1964; 150 East 35th St...