Poul Anderson was a major author of hard science fiction and space opera. A seven time winner of the Hugo Award, he received the Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement from the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1978.

“So much American science fiction is parochial — not as true now as it was years ago, but the assumption is one culture in the future, more or less like ours, and with the same ideals, the same notions of how to do things, just bigger and flashier technology. Well, you know darn well it doesn't work that way...”