The premise of After Doomsday by Poul Anderson is fairly straightforward. A ship full of human explorers returns to Earth after a three-year mission, only to find the planet destroyed and guarded by hostile missiles. They decide to investigate what happened and hunt for other survivors. What makes After Doomsday stand out is Anderson’s clever takedown of the typical alien societies we see in sci-fi. He argues that the concept of a massive Galactic Federation is ridiculous; given the sheer scale ...

Hatred of the murderers crowded out fear and grief alike. Hatred focused so sharply on the thing which pursued her ship that it seemed the steel must melt.Writing in the early 1960s, Poul Anderson develops a more engaging, plausible tale than many current science fiction authors. Two challenges interweave throughout the narrative. His failure to anticipate the digital and solid-state revolution definitely dates After Doomsday, but that hardly makes him unique among his peers.They could be anywhe...

After Doomsday by Poul Anderson is definitely showing its age and leans heavily into sci-fi kitsch, yet it manages to be surprisingly entertaining in its own peculiar way. The highlights—or perhaps lowlights, depending on your perspective—include characters casually smoking pipes aboard a spaceship, a Russian character who speaks in a caricature-like ‘ve must do zis’ accent, and the leaders of a supposedly advanced spacefaring civilization being depicted as thick-headed, Viking-esque brutes. It ...

I really enjoyed Poul Anderson's Tau Zero, but After Doomsday was pretty mediocre. Anderson is such a talented writer that, at times, my rating for this book climbed as high as 3.5 or even four stars, but there were simply too many issues to justify a high final score. He introduced an overwhelming number of worlds, species, and cultures, and did so far too briefly. One particular planet and species were introduced so quickly and then sidelined for so long that when they reappeared later, I coul...

Still a great sci-fi read

I first read After Doomsday by Poul Anderson 40 years ago and thought it was fantastic. I just revisited it, and while the core storyline still holds up perfectly, some of the cultural norms from that era feel a bit dated now. It definitely takes a little bit of the edge off what is otherwise a really enjoyable yarn. This is becoming increasingly common with classic science fiction; as a genre, it can sometimes show its age faster than others.

After Doomsday by Poul AndersonThis is a book I’ve read so many times that I wore the glue right off the spine, leaving it held together with a rubber band for years until I finally tracked down a replacement copy. I’ve read it at least half a dozen times, maybe more. If any books truly stand the test of time, they are the ones written by Poul Anderson. Sometimes, the secret to great science fiction is keeping the technical descriptions of gadgets vague while grounding them in enough solid scien...

I expected a quick, disposable read when I grabbed a copy of After Doomsday at a discount bookstore, but I really should have known better than to underestimate Poul Anderson. The back-cover blurb makes it sound like a straightforward, run-of-the-mill post-apocalyptic story about the fall of humanity, but it is anything but. Instead, you get a wild ride packed with interstellar adventure, genuine mystery, cool retro-futuristic tech, and non-stop excitement. I ended up devouring the whole thing i...

The late Poul Anderson was always one of my favorite science fiction authors, and After Doomsday is an absolutely vintage specimen of his work.Perhaps I have one very minor gripe. I always preferred the title used for the magazine version in Galaxy—"The Day After Doomsday." Somehow, the shorter title loses some of the oomph, but it is not important in the grand scheme of things.In this gripping sci-fi novel, human explorers return to find the Earth destroyed, and they desperately need to figure ...

The core action in After Doomsday by Poul Anderson and the mystery driving the narrative were quite enjoyable. However, I felt the character work was a bit thin; only one individual received any real development, and even then, he felt more like a caricature than a fully realized person. I didn't mind the use of the breakthrough as a plot device—given the desperation and the influx of new information, it felt like a plausible narrative choice. Overall, I liked the story and the conclusion, thoug...

At my science fiction book club’s Christmas gift exchange, someone handed me a “vintage” paperback. You know the type—the used bookstore takes a dusty old book that hasn’t fallen apart yet, seals it in a plastic bag, and charges you ten times the original price instead of the usual discount. Naturally, the original cover price of After Doomsday by Poul Anderson, back in 1962, was a mere 35 cents, so half-price wouldn’t have even covered the cost of the plastic bag. This book was a quick read, t...