Seven Fables about War: 7 Conquests (Poul Anderson)

Poul Anderson. 7 Conquests (1970) Anderson had a rather bleak view of human nature: War, chicanery, criminal intent and a propensity to violence are inbred in our species. This collection’s seven parables about the nature of war explore his thesis that war is species-specific behaviour. Or at any rate inevitable once our species achieved a city-based social system.
     The first tale, “Kings Who Die” meditates on Campbell’s Hero of a Thousand Faces. In “Cold Victory”, the contested thesis is that individuals cannot guide the course of history, that the great currents of social change merely carry them along. The story shows that the two propositions are compatible. It also mourns the tragedy of a family caught on opposite sides. “Inside Straight” posits an extreme version of the Libertarian fantasy of absolute individual freedom and responsibility, presented as a society in which almost every transaction is a wager. It’s contrasted with a rigidly authoritarian society, whose representative misreads the absence of centralised control as military weakness.
     A good collection. ** to ***