Another Dickson anthology: Ancient, My Enemy

Gordon R. Dickson. Ancient, My Enemy (1974) Another selection by Dickson. The title story tells of conflict between an intelligent alien species and the human colonisers. The planet suffers terrible day to night temperature changes, the aliens are cannibals (because there’s very little plant life), and have a culture of individual violence. This does not end well.
    The other tales are mostly ones I’ve read either in their original magazine publication or in later anthologies. Rereading them was a treat. This collection is essential for a Dickson fan, and a good intro for anyone else. Dickson’s aliens are better imagined than most, although (like any SF writer) he creates then by pushing some human traits to extremes. He’s less reliable as a builder of planets. Their climates and ecosystems are always some part of Earth’s climate and ecology spread over a whole globe, which doesn’t make sense. Nevertheless, his stories are satisfying. *** to ****
This will be last Dickson review for a while.