The Snows of Ganymede/The War of the Wing-Men

No cover

Poul Anderson: The Snows of Ganymede/The War of the Wing-Men (Paperback, 1958, Ace Books)

Paperback

Published Jan. 1, 1958 by Ace Books.

ASIN:
B00HWM5DLK
3 stars (1 review)

1 edition

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3 stars

Any good bookstore will have a section with really old books. I got this at the Housing Works Bookstore in Manhattan for $3, which by my math is over a 750% increase over the original 35 cents it was going for when it was released in 1958, but I still think I got a good deal out of this. If nothing else, it made for a unique tactile reading experience because of how the spine was falling apart, and I wish you could smell just how old this book is.

I think I like the ~idea~ of old-timey pulp adventure and science fiction books more than the execution, but I was surprised here with two separate, surprisingly dense political plots. Both stories had similarities around engineers being stranded on dangerous planets with harsh environments and being forced to play two opposing factions against each other for their own interests. But …