Search Worlds Without End

The first of three volumes collecting ALL of the Psychotechnic League future history stories, from multiple Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning author Poul Anderson. After World War III ravages the globe, humanity, led by the Psychotechnic Institute, bands together to create peace on Earth and to spread that peace throughout the solar system and beyond. But soon the cycle of war and destruction begins anew. Includes short stories never before collected in a Psychotechnic League volume.

FROM THE ASHES OF WORLD WAR III

World War III has ravaged the globe. Once great nations have been brought to their knees. Now, a new science offers hope for the future: Psychodynamics, the ability to influence government and popular opinion. Led by the Psychotechnic Institute, humanity denounces its violent ways, once and for all. While peace reigns on Earth, humankind ventures out into the Solar System--and to the stars beyond. But soon the cycle of war and destruction begins anew.

The first of three volumes collecting all of multiple Hugo- and Nebula-Award winning author Poul Anderson's massive future history magnum opus. Includes short stories previously uncollected in a Psychotechnic League volume!

FROM THE RAVAGES OF WAR, HOPE FOR A BRIGHTER TOMORROW

After World War III has ravaged the globe and toppled once-great nations, a new science offers hope for the future: Psychodynamics, the ability to influence government and popular opinion. Led by the Psychotechnic Institute, humanity denounces its violent ways, once and for all. Peace reigns on Earth. Humankind shakes off the tyranny of gravity and ventures out into the galaxy. But no sooner is utopia realized than the cycle of war and destruction begins anew.

The second of three volumes collecting all of multiple Hugo- and Nebula-Award winning author Poul Anderson's massive future history magnum opus. Includes short stories previously uncollected in a Psychotechnic League volume!

Table of Contents:

• Quixote and the Windmill - (1950) - short story
• Holmgang - (1955) - novelette
• Cold Victory - (1957) - novelette
• What Shall It Profit? - (1956) - short story
• The Troublemakers - (1953) - novella
• The Snows of Ganymede - (1955) - novella
• Brake - (1957) - novelette
• Gypsy - (1950) - short story
• Star Ship - (1950) - novelette

Volume three of three collecting ALL of the Psychotechnic League future history stories, from multiple Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning author Poul Anderson. Includes stories never before collected in a Psychotechnic League volume! After World War III ravages the globe, humanity, led by the Psychotechnic Institute, bands together to create peace on Earth and to spread that peace throughout the Solar System and beyond. But soon the cycle of war and destruction begins anew.

After World War III has ravaged the globe and toppled once-great nations, a new science offers hope for the future: Psychodynamics, the ability to influence government and popular opinion. Led by the Psychotechnic Institute, humanity denounces its violent ways, once and for all. Peace reigns on Earth. Humankind shakes off the tyranny of gravity and ventures out into the galaxy. But no sooner is utopia realized than the cycle of war and destruction begins anew.

The final of three volumes collecting all of multiple Hugo- and Nebula-Award winning author Poul Anderson's massive future history magnum opus. Includes short stories previously uncollected in a Psychotechnic League volume!

Table of Contents:

• The Acolytes - (1951) - short story
• The Green Thumb - (1953) - novelette
• Virgin Planet - (1957) - novella
• Teucan - (1954) - novelette
• The Pirate - (1968) - novelette
• Entity - (1949) - short story with John Gergen
• Symmetry - (1954) - short story
• The Chapter Ends - (1954) - novelette

"Five of our worlds are missing". That was the essence of the report that shocked the galactic Nomads at their annual meeting. For each of the mighty star-ships reported vanished was a world of its own - a man-made, self-sustaining city-state housing thousands of people. The Nomads themselves were an unplanned by-product of man's conquest of the stars. They were the gypsies of the distant future, the restless rovers of outer space. But to Joachim of the peregrine tey represented a way of life that was to be dearly defended. So it fell to him to make his own world-ship the bait in a cosmic trap set to catch the galaxy's unknown foemen!

FOR 300 YEARS THE PLANET OF WOMEN AWAITED THE COMING OF MAN. THEN ONE ARRIVES...

He is Davis Bertram, a space-explorer. But how can he convince the he really is a man? Their legends have built Men into gods.

Trying to worthy of the Coming, the women imitate masculine virtues. they are warlike, ambitions, ruthless. Unless Davis can convince them he is a man, they will kill him for blasphemy. But if he does convince them, the Coctor-Priests will kill him to protect their own iron control of the planet....

IN THE BEGINNING WAS WORLD WAR III...

Out of the flames was born a new civilization, a new humanity dedicated to one world rather than to many nations, to one peace rather than many wars. Never again on Planet Earth would one group of humans "defend" themselves against another group equally convinced that all their actions were "defensive." Never again on Planet Earth.

But cycles repeat themselves endlessly. Earth is only the beginning of the human story. Next coms planer against planet, and then the stars themselves. Through it all the impersonal forces of historical necessity will tend to force that story into the pathways of tyranny, stasis, and war. And in the end they must prevail. But ever will humankind win free once more...

Table of Contents:

• 10 - Foreword (The Psycho-Technic League) - essay by Sandra Miesel
• 13 - Marius - [Psychotechnic League] - (1957) - short story
• 31 - Un-Man - [Psychotechnic League] - (1953) - novella
• 131 - The Sensitive Man - [Psychotechnic League] - (1954) - novella
• 201 - The Big Rain - [Psychotechnic League] - (1954) - novella
• 283 - Author's Note (The Psycho-Technic League) - essay

The Psychotechnic Institute

Born in the radioactive ashes of world War Three the Institute for Applied Psychotechnics had guided Planet Earth to a period of plenty that for the first time fulfilled Science's promise. But it is the central irony of human existence that prosperity bears the seeds of its own destruction, this time not just Earth but the entire Solar System would endure the flames of war. Cold Victory.

Table of Contents:

• 9 - Foreword (Cold Victory) - essay by Sandra Miesel
• 15 - Quixote and the Windmill - [Psychotechnic League] - (1950) - short story
• 31 - The Troublemakers - [Psychotechnic League] - (1953) - novella
• 112 - Holmgang - [Psychotechnic League] - (1955) - novelette
• 165 - Cold Victory - [Psychotechnic League] - (1957) - novelette
• 196 - What Shall It Profit? - [Psychotechnic League] - (1956) - short story
• 225 - Brake - [Psychotechnic League] - (1957) - novelette

THE WARS ARE OVER...

The conflicts of Planet Earth are forgotten now. Even The Solar System War with its Cold Victory is barely a memory. In this the third and final volume of The Psychotechnic League, the scale is immeasurably greater in Sace, in Time... and in violence.

Table of Contents:

• 9 - Foreword (Starship) - essay by Sandra Miesel
• 12 - Gypsy - [Psychotechnic League] - (1950) - short story
• 36 - Star Ship - [Psychotechnic League] - (1950) - novelette
• 83 - Virgin Planet - [Psychotechnic League] - (1957) - novella
• 183 - Teucan - [Psychotechnic League] - (1954) - novelette
• 211 - The Pirate - [Psychotechnic League] - (1968) - novelette
• 253 - The Chapter Ends - [Psychotechnic League] - (1954) - novelette
• 283 - A Chronology of the Psychotechnic Series - essay by Sandra Miesel