The Longest Voyage

"The Longest Voyage" is a science fiction short story by American writer Poul Anderson. It won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1961.

Plot summary

On a distant world the equivalent of the Age of Exploration is beginning. A party of daring explorers attempts to circumnavigate their world. In unknown waters they encounter an island civilization which claims to have a prophet who fell from the stars.

Reception

"The Longest Voyage" won the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Short Story.

Jean-Daniel Brèque has described "The Longest Voyage" as "a rousing adventure yarn", "solidly plotted, like a well-oiled mechanism", and "also a work of poetry".

Gardner Dozois, upon selecting "The Longest Voyage" for inclusion in his 2000 anthology Explorers: SF Adventures to Far Horizons, said that it is "nearly unmatched" in science fiction for its "lyricism, compassion, subtlety, thoughtfulness, and above all the relish it takes in the bristling strangeness and wonder of the world".

Steven H. Silver commented that what distinguishes "The Longest Voyage" from similar stories is that "Anderson provides strong motivation for both the explorers and the natives".

References

External links

• The Longest Voyage title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

1. I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
2. Voyage, voyage
3. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
4. "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman
5. The Longest Johns
6. The Longest Journey
7. Indian Ocean
8. The Way of Cross and Dragon
9. Neutron Star (short story)
10. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series)
11. The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World
12. The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World (short story)
13. USS Zumwalt
14. Carnival Splendor
15. Hothouse (novel)
16. Ursula K. Le Guin
17. Poul Anderson bibliography
18. Maestre Anes
19. Ray Bradbury
20. USS S-3