Question and Answer
Encyclopedia
Question and Answer is a science fiction
novel
by Poul Anderson
that originally appeared in the June and July 1954 issues of Astounding Science Fiction. It was reprinted in 1956 as part of Ace Double D-199 under the title Planet of No Return, and again as a stand-alone Ace novel in February 1978 under the original title.
with a story proposal: a scientist would create a world, and then he, Isaac Asimov
and James Blish
(Asimov thought the third writer might have been Blish's then-wife, Virginia Kidd
) would write novellas set in that world. The three novellas would then be published as a book, together with an essay by the scientist who created the scenario. This formula, which Pratt called a Twaine Triplet, had already resulted in the 1952 book The Petrified Planet.
The scenario created was that of a binary star
system in the Messier 13
globular cluster
with an Earthlike planet called Troas
(or more informally, Junior) located at one of the system's Lagrangian point
s. An earlier expedition to Troas had suffered some mysterious disaster, and a second expedition was being mounted to determine if the planet was suitable for colonization, and to find out what happened to the first expedition.
Anderson finished his story, and Asimov finished a story called "Sucker Bait
", but Blish (or Kidd) never completed the third story, and the proposed book never saw print. Anderson was able to sell Question and Answer to Astounding (where it appeared a few months after "Sucker Bait") and later to Ace Books
.
from Lunopolis who is recruited by the Lagrange Institute for the second expedition to Troas. At this time, Earth
is still recovering from a two-century-long era of war and chaos that began with the Soviet
conquest of North America in World War III
and ended with the unification of the Solar System
at the conclusion of a war between Mars
and Venus
. Twenty-two years after the discovery of a faster-than-light
drive, Troas is the only Earthlike world to be discovered, and enthusiasm for interstellar travel
is waning. If Troas is not opened to colonization, humanity may give up interstellar travel altogether.
The effort to mount a second expedition to Troas is plagued with difficulties. The Lagrange Institute is unable to charter a starship
and must build its own, the Henry Hudson
. The construction of the Hudson is hampered by delays, cost overruns, and at least one act of outright sabotage
. The voyage of the Hudson to Troas is also troubled, as tension rises among the members of the expedition. Edward Avery, the expedition's psychomed, is unable to maintain group harmony aboard the ship, and at least one fight breaks out.
Upon arrival at Troas, the crew of the Hudson find no trace of the first expedition. After it is determined that there are no harmful microorganism
s on Troas, a base camp is established on the planet. Eighteen days later, a group of aliens appears. Avery is assigned to learn the aliens' language, and he reports that it is extremely difficult to understand. He is eventually able to determine that the aliens are called the Rorvan, and that they are native to Troas. This is bad news for the expedition, since planets with native intelligent species are off limits to colonization. The Rorvan invite a small group of humans, including Avery and Lorenzen, to accompany them to their settlement.
As the group of humans and Rorvan travel, Lorenzen listens to Avery's conversations with the aliens and realizes that their language isn't nearly as difficult to understand as the psychomed claims. By the time they reach the Rorvan settlement, Lorenzen has learned through his eavesdropping that Avery and the Rorvan are conspiring to deceive the other humans. When Lorenzen finally confronts Avery, the psychomed admits that he and his clique within Earth's government have been deliberately stifling interstellar travel, since they feel that humanity isn't ready for it. The members of the first expedition were interned after returning to the Solar System, and the Rorvan are not native to Troas after all. Avery pleads with Lorenzen to help him maintain the deception, but Lorenzen refuses. He wants humanity to expand into the galaxy.
future history, there are good reasons to doubt that it forms part of that series. First, Anderson himself did not include "Question and Answer" in a timeline of the Psychotechnic League stories that he created to accompany the novella "The Snows of Ganymede" in the Winter 1955 issue of Startling Stories
, even though the story had already been published in Astounding by then. He also failed to mention any connection in his introduction to the 1978 Ace Books edition of the story.
Second, the outcome of World War III, as well as events in the centuries immediately following the war, is inconsistent between "Question and Answer" and the Psychotechnic League stories. In the book, as noted, the Soviet Union
conquered North America and Europe fell into a centuries-long devastation and chaos; conversely, in the Psychotechnic League history, the Soviet Union was totally destroyed, the survivors of its population reduced to the condition of "howling cannibals", while Europe recovered from its war devastation within a single generation.
Logically, given the above, the development of psychotechnics itself is quite different, and in "Question and Answer" there is no mention of the Psychotechnic Institute. (In "Marius
" it is noted that psychotechnics was started by the Finnish Professor Valti - a staunch opponent of the Soviets, who had a major role in freeing Europe from their occupation; obviously, Valti's life and scientific career would be completely different in a history where the Soviet Union won the war). Still, Anderson evidently assumed psychotechnics would be still be developed, even under vastly different historical conditions.
Aside from the above, the basic difference between The Psychotechnic League and the present book is in Anderson's attitude to psychotechnics. In Psychotechnic League stories and books, psychotechnics stands for human peace and prosperity, for unification of Earth and afterwards of the entire Solar System - as against the forces of militarism, nationalism, political and religious extremism, which have caused World War III and might, if not stopped, cause "another war which humanity may not survive" (as described in "Marius"). On these terms, Anderson is obviously on the side of psychotechnics and the characters representing the author's point of view act accordingly.
In "Question and Answer", however, psychotechnics - having succeeded in establishing peace and stability - sets itself squarely against spaceward expansion, seeking to keep humanity within the protecting cocoon of the Solar System and prevent its spread throughout the Galaxy. With this at stake, Anderson (and the character representing his point of view) turns against psychotechnics and for galactic expansion. This is inevitable, given Anderson's staunch support and advocacy of space flight in all periods of his fiction and non-fiction writing.
The basic theme of the book is similar to that of Asimov
's "The End of Eternity
" - though this similarity becomes evident only towards the respective ends of both books. In both - one dealing with spaceflight and exploration and the other with time-travel - an organization of well-meaning meddlers interferes to "guide" and manipulate the course of human history, with the aim of promoting safety, security and stability, and with the price being to stifle spaceflight and galactic exploration and colonization. And in both, the protagonist finally decides to abort these efforts and opt for galactic expansion, even at the cost of instability and uncertainty.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Poul Anderson
Poul Anderson
Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories...
that originally appeared in the June and July 1954 issues of Astounding Science Fiction. It was reprinted in 1956 as part of Ace Double D-199 under the title Planet of No Return, and again as a stand-alone Ace novel in February 1978 under the original title.
Troas
Anderson was approached in 1953 by Twaine Press editor Fletcher PrattFletcher Pratt
Murray Fletcher Pratt was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy and history, particularly noted for his works on naval history and on the American Civil War.- Life and work :...
with a story proposal: a scientist would create a world, and then he, Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
and James Blish
James Blish
James Benjamin Blish was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling, Jr.-Biography:...
(Asimov thought the third writer might have been Blish's then-wife, Virginia Kidd
Virginia Kidd
Virginia Kidd was an American literary agent, writer and editor, particularly influential in science fiction and related fields. She represented some of science fiction's most important authors, including Ursula K. Le Guin, R.A. Lafferty, Anne McCaffrey, and Gene Wolfe...
) would write novellas set in that world. The three novellas would then be published as a book, together with an essay by the scientist who created the scenario. This formula, which Pratt called a Twaine Triplet, had already resulted in the 1952 book The Petrified Planet.
The scenario created was that of a binary star
Binary star
A binary star is a star system consisting of two stars orbiting around their common center of mass. The brighter star is called the primary and the other is its companion star, comes, or secondary...
system in the Messier 13
Messier 13
Messier 13 or M13 is a globular cluster of about 300,000 stars in the constellation of Hercules....
globular cluster
Globular cluster
A globular cluster is a spherical collection of stars that orbits a galactic core as a satellite. Globular clusters are very tightly bound by gravity, which gives them their spherical shapes and relatively high stellar densities toward their centers. The name of this category of star cluster is...
with an Earthlike planet called Troas
Troas (planet)
Troas is a fictional planet that serves as the setting for the science fiction novellas "Sucker Bait" by Isaac Asimov and "Question and Answer" by Poul Anderson as part of a proposed Twaine Triplet. It may have been created by Dr. John D...
(or more informally, Junior) located at one of the system's Lagrangian point
Lagrangian point
The Lagrangian points are the five positions in an orbital configuration where a small object affected only by gravity can theoretically be stationary relative to two larger objects...
s. An earlier expedition to Troas had suffered some mysterious disaster, and a second expedition was being mounted to determine if the planet was suitable for colonization, and to find out what happened to the first expedition.
Anderson finished his story, and Asimov finished a story called "Sucker Bait
Sucker Bait
Sucker Bait is a science fiction novella by Isaac Asimov. It was first serialized in the February and March 1954 issues of Astounding Science Fiction, and reprinted in the 1955 collection The Martian Way and Other Stories...
", but Blish (or Kidd) never completed the third story, and the proposed book never saw print. Anderson was able to sell Question and Answer to Astounding (where it appeared a few months after "Sucker Bait") and later to Ace Books
Ace Books
Ace Books is the oldest active specialty publisher of science fiction and fantasy books. The company was founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn, and began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns...
.
Plot summary
John Lorenzen is an astronomerAstronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
from Lunopolis who is recruited by the Lagrange Institute for the second expedition to Troas. At this time, Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
is still recovering from a two-century-long era of war and chaos that began with the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
conquest of North America in World War III
World War III
World War III denotes a successor to World War II that would be on a global scale, with common speculation that it would be likely nuclear and devastating in nature....
and ended with the unification of the Solar System
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
at the conclusion of a war between Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
and Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
. Twenty-two years after the discovery of a faster-than-light
Faster-than-light
Faster-than-light communications and travel refer to the propagation of information or matter faster than the speed of light....
drive, Troas is the only Earthlike world to be discovered, and enthusiasm for interstellar travel
Interstellar travel
Interstellar space travel is manned or unmanned travel between stars. The concept of interstellar travel in starships is a staple of science fiction. Interstellar travel is much more difficult than interplanetary travel. Intergalactic travel, or travel between different galaxies, is even more...
is waning. If Troas is not opened to colonization, humanity may give up interstellar travel altogether.
The effort to mount a second expedition to Troas is plagued with difficulties. The Lagrange Institute is unable to charter a starship
Starship
A starship or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for traveling between the stars, as opposed to a vehicle designed for orbital spaceflight or interplanetary travel....
and must build its own, the Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson was an English sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. Hudson made two attempts on behalf of English merchants to find a prospective Northeast Passage to Cathay via a route above the Arctic Circle...
. The construction of the Hudson is hampered by delays, cost overruns, and at least one act of outright sabotage
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
. The voyage of the Hudson to Troas is also troubled, as tension rises among the members of the expedition. Edward Avery, the expedition's psychomed, is unable to maintain group harmony aboard the ship, and at least one fight breaks out.
Upon arrival at Troas, the crew of the Hudson find no trace of the first expedition. After it is determined that there are no harmful microorganism
Microorganism
A microorganism or microbe is a microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters, or no cell at all...
s on Troas, a base camp is established on the planet. Eighteen days later, a group of aliens appears. Avery is assigned to learn the aliens' language, and he reports that it is extremely difficult to understand. He is eventually able to determine that the aliens are called the Rorvan, and that they are native to Troas. This is bad news for the expedition, since planets with native intelligent species are off limits to colonization. The Rorvan invite a small group of humans, including Avery and Lorenzen, to accompany them to their settlement.
As the group of humans and Rorvan travel, Lorenzen listens to Avery's conversations with the aliens and realizes that their language isn't nearly as difficult to understand as the psychomed claims. By the time they reach the Rorvan settlement, Lorenzen has learned through his eavesdropping that Avery and the Rorvan are conspiring to deceive the other humans. When Lorenzen finally confronts Avery, the psychomed admits that he and his clique within Earth's government have been deliberately stifling interstellar travel, since they feel that humanity isn't ready for it. The members of the first expedition were interned after returning to the Solar System, and the Rorvan are not native to Troas after all. Avery pleads with Lorenzen to help him maintain the deception, but Lorenzen refuses. He wants humanity to expand into the galaxy.
The Psychotechnic League
Although "Question and Answer" is similar in background to the stories that make up Anderson's Psychotechnic LeagueThe Psychotechnic League
The Psychotechnic League is a future history created by science fiction writer Poul Anderson. The name "Psychotechnic League" was coined by Sandra Miesel in the early 1980s, to capitalize on Anderson's better-known Polesotechnic League future history...
future history, there are good reasons to doubt that it forms part of that series. First, Anderson himself did not include "Question and Answer" in a timeline of the Psychotechnic League stories that he created to accompany the novella "The Snows of Ganymede" in the Winter 1955 issue of Startling Stories
Startling Stories
Startling Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1955 by Standard Magazines. It was initially edited by Mort Weisinger, who was also the editor of Thrilling Wonder Stories, Standard's other science fiction title. Startling ran a lead novel in every issue;...
, even though the story had already been published in Astounding by then. He also failed to mention any connection in his introduction to the 1978 Ace Books edition of the story.
Second, the outcome of World War III, as well as events in the centuries immediately following the war, is inconsistent between "Question and Answer" and the Psychotechnic League stories. In the book, as noted, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
conquered North America and Europe fell into a centuries-long devastation and chaos; conversely, in the Psychotechnic League history, the Soviet Union was totally destroyed, the survivors of its population reduced to the condition of "howling cannibals", while Europe recovered from its war devastation within a single generation.
Logically, given the above, the development of psychotechnics itself is quite different, and in "Question and Answer" there is no mention of the Psychotechnic Institute. (In "Marius
Marius (Anderson)
Marius is a science fiction short story by Poul Anderson that was first published in the June 1957 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the collections The Horn of Time and The Psychotechnic League...
" it is noted that psychotechnics was started by the Finnish Professor Valti - a staunch opponent of the Soviets, who had a major role in freeing Europe from their occupation; obviously, Valti's life and scientific career would be completely different in a history where the Soviet Union won the war). Still, Anderson evidently assumed psychotechnics would be still be developed, even under vastly different historical conditions.
Aside from the above, the basic difference between The Psychotechnic League and the present book is in Anderson's attitude to psychotechnics. In Psychotechnic League stories and books, psychotechnics stands for human peace and prosperity, for unification of Earth and afterwards of the entire Solar System - as against the forces of militarism, nationalism, political and religious extremism, which have caused World War III and might, if not stopped, cause "another war which humanity may not survive" (as described in "Marius"). On these terms, Anderson is obviously on the side of psychotechnics and the characters representing the author's point of view act accordingly.
In "Question and Answer", however, psychotechnics - having succeeded in establishing peace and stability - sets itself squarely against spaceward expansion, seeking to keep humanity within the protecting cocoon of the Solar System and prevent its spread throughout the Galaxy. With this at stake, Anderson (and the character representing his point of view) turns against psychotechnics and for galactic expansion. This is inevitable, given Anderson's staunch support and advocacy of space flight in all periods of his fiction and non-fiction writing.
The basic theme of the book is similar to that of Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
's "The End of Eternity
The End of Eternity
The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov is a science fiction novel, with mystery and thriller elements, on the subjects of time travel and social engineering....
" - though this similarity becomes evident only towards the respective ends of both books. In both - one dealing with spaceflight and exploration and the other with time-travel - an organization of well-meaning meddlers interferes to "guide" and manipulate the course of human history, with the aim of promoting safety, security and stability, and with the price being to stifle spaceflight and galactic exploration and colonization. And in both, the protagonist finally decides to abort these efforts and opt for galactic expansion, even at the cost of instability and uncertainty.