The Boat of a Million Years

by Poul Anderson

Book Overview

Others have written SF on the theme of immortality, but in "The Boat of a Million Years," Poul Anderson made it his own. Early in human history, certain individuals were born who live on, unaging, undying, through the centuries and millenia. We follow them through over 2000 years, up to our time and beyond-to the promise of utopia, and to the challenge of the stars.A milestone in modern science fiction, a "New York Times" Notable Book on its first...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812531353
• ISBN13: 9780812531350
• Release Date: June 1993
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Voyaging from Phoenicia to the Stars.

"The Boat of a Million Years " is one of the best novels written by Poul Anderson. It is constructed as a series of short stories telling about immortal people (or almost immortal). The different characters crisscross their ways along centuries and millennia. The outcomes of these encounters are sometimes friendly, sometimes antagonistic; never innocuous. Poul Anderson show his talent to mix action, drama and humor with deep meditations about meaning of life, ethics, gender conflict, ethnic discrimination and many subjects more. He includes accurate different historical backgrounds for each episode ranging from ancient Greece thru far future. The story is great; it mainly follows Phoenician seaman Hanno in his eternal quest to find more people like him. He is very special. He never get sick or old, his teeth grows up again when he loose one, he recover very quickly from injuries. He soon discover that his bless is also his curse. He remains unchanged yet consorts and descents grow old, die and vanish. Neighbors usually react violently to his "witchery" blaming him to practice strange deals with demons. To evade these circumstances Hanno becomes a master in changing personalities and evading suspicion. The narrative starts to catch momentum and conclude with a very interesting piece situated in a far future full of new possibilities. Take a joyful romp thru it, you won't be disappointed! Reviewed by Max Yofre.

Not Quite Science Fiction; Defies Classification

In Poul Anderson's The Boat of A Million Years, a group of humans who for some reason never age beyond young adulthood, never grow sick, and never die unless killed, live their lives thru the wasteland of time on planet earth. This is less a novel than a series of short stories, vignettes, and novellas, that tell of episodes in the existences of eleven men and women who must bear the brunt of ongoing life. Beginning in the 300's BC on a sailing vessel crewed by Hellenistic explorers, we meet the oldest of the known "immortals" a slightly sad, though resolute man of science, who does not understand his condition but endures it with an end to eventual comprehension. After this, we pass from ancient Rome, to Byzantium, Tartar-age Kiev, Scandinavia, rural China, Shogunate Japan, Renaissance France, pre-Civil War Ohio, the American west among a settlers versus Comanche's standoff, Stalingrad in 1942, Turkey in the mid-twentieth-century, America in the 1980's, during a time of a political witch hunt nearly reveals the existence of the immortals who have loosely gathered together for protection and mutual understanding. Finally the novel pushes on into unnumbered time. We are introduced to an earth eons yet to come, and see the remaining immortals planning to leave their home planet behind and venture into space, making their greatest voyage yet, still ignorant as to the truth of what they are, still searching for answers... A long, demanding book, but one full of interesting and well-though out hypotheses. Here eternal life is less a blessing than a curse and we sense the pain and tragedy such an existence would bring. By the novel's mid-point, we do not envy any of these men and women what they have. I found this book highly realistic in its psychology, in its minute details (many of which made me stop and think, "I'd never have thought of that.") and remarkable in its achievement of recreating historical periods down to the tiniest detail. A fine classic!

A great story, beautifully told

This is a tale of immortals. The direct ancestor of this book is Robert A. Heinlein's "Methuselah's Children." This is hardly surprising, given the libertarian affinity of Anderson and Heinlein. However, Anderson's work is much more detailed and ambitious. He starts in the Bronze Age and ancient Tyre and travels through our own age into the distant future. As usual, Anderson laces his writing with older words and descriptions not found anywhere except ancient epics. (It just wouldn't be Anderson without a "yonder" in there!) In his treatment of the immortals, Anderson describes the practical problems of memory, learning new languages, avoiding "witch burning," and finally, even our own scientific acquisitiveness. Unlike Heinlein's immortals (like the loquacious Lazarus Long), Anderson's people remain people; a bit wiser than the average, but not immune from their own prejudices, pasts, and proclivities. Indeed, by the end of the book, the immortals become the only "real" people left.I love this book, and highly recommend it to lovers of science fiction and history.I found it interesting that Anderson made all of his protagonists into libertarians. He gives a lot of examples of how governments turn against their citizenry as they acquire more power. Anderson describes how immortals would chafe at erosions of personal freedom. He also shows how America's civilization, too, can fall. He particularly takes shots at the IRS.Much of the book consists of the immortals searching for others like themselves. Our immortals come from all over the world: Phoenician, Syrian, Russian, Gaul, Native American, Chinese, Japanese, and African-American slave. The latter part describes the future, and how the immortals cope with a world where they can at last reveal themselves, but which has passed beyond their understanding. The future Anderson depicts closely resembles the future he describes in the Harvest of Stars series. I just love the way this book ends. It offers hope and closure.If there is a downside to the book, it is that some of the characters and chapters are not as interesting as others. Hanno, the eldest immortal, is the most opinionated, creative, and paranoid of his kind. Some of the chapters surrounding the other characters do not move as quickly. I found myself skimming past some sections that I'd read before.Perhaps the least believable immortal in my mind is John Wanderer, the Indian (Native American, or pick your own favorite title). He seems to accept the lot of his people rather too easily. Mind you, I don't have an immortal's viewpoint, but I think I'd become depressed or mad as hell, not so assimilationist, as he comes to be. The rest of the immortals seek and find inner peace in their own ways, and their behaviors seem reasonable from my own limited view.Also, sometimes Anderson's desire to provide sensory detail can get intrusive. By golly, he puts you into third century Gaul, but enough with the smells already! And oddly enough, just arou

Diamond in the Rough

This is a rather short work not like Anderson's usual stuff. It is a series of vignettes about "eternals", individuals who are destined to live forever. Anderson brings these immortals to life (pardon the pun) with his ever-journeying tales of the past and the far, far future. It is his extraordinary vision of the future and how, in the end, it is companionship and love that matter. Our bodies may face and we may become all mind (doubtful since our brains require sensory input in order to conceive most concepts)but we will always be human and need human relationships. This is one of those superior scifi books (like Pamela Sarents' THE SHORE OF WOMEN) which serve as reminders that amid the garbage and throw away pamphlets, there exists stories that still have the power to invoke wonder and awe.

Outstanding

The best SF book I've read in the last three or so years. Immortality may seem to be a blessing, but when your spouse, children and friends all die before you, and when you must wander the earth for fear of being discovered and killed, the blessing seems faint indeed. In this historically accurate, episodic novel, Anderson introduces us to a series of immortals who strive to survive through the ages, and try to find a meaning and purpose in their life. The historically accurate settings vary from the shores of ancient Phoenicia to interstellar space, and watching how these characters reacted to the march of history was a treat indeed.