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Title: A Disgrace
Review: Poul Anderson ought to be ashamed of himself. He took the worked-to-death theme of sentient machines, presented the same dead-tired ideas in a grandious backdrop - I suppose that was an attempt to make his readers think he said something new - integarated them loosely with some old short stories of his and called it a "new" book. What little story the book has lurches along until Anderson apparently got tired of writing and quit. It certainly had no ending in the normal sense of a novel. At times, Anderson's prose is almost poetry. It flows beautifully. Unfortunately, when examined for meaning, it's often complete nonsense. Add the fact that the only two characcters in the book are two dimensional strawmen that Anderson made no effort whatsoever to flesh out and what you get is a real stinker. The only interesting aspect is whether Anderson is a cynical old man trading on his reputation to grub some easy money or whether he's really that far over the hill.
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