Memory (Poul Anderson)

1957 novelette by Poul Anderson

"Memory" was originally published in the July 1957 Galaxy as "A World Called Maanerek"
Cover art by Jack Gaughan

"Memory", formerly A World Called Maanerek, is a science fiction novelette by American writer Poul Anderson, first published in the July 1957 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction magazine.

## Plot summary

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In a far future, people are distributed over numerous planets, many of which have lost contact with Earth's civilisation. On a far ring planet, known as World Called Maanerek by its inhabitants, only a weak memory of Earth has survived, and technology has declined to preindustrial. Maanerek is coveted by a highly developed civilization because it is situated at a location of strategical value.

As the story opens, the protagonist Torrek jumps down onto a large bird with a wing spread of nine meters, kills it and lands with it in the sea, to prove himself worthy of marrying Sonna, a girl of the local tribe.

Torrek and Sonna are seized in invisible bonds and abducted in a spaceship. It is revealed that Torrek was a member of the same military unit of the abductors. In a neurological experiment, he has been sent to Maanerek with his memory emptied, for the sake of infiltrating the natives so that they willingly cooperate. The natives have accepted him as a somewhat strange, but friendly fellow.

With his memory restored, Torrek begins talking as if no time had passed, sharing all the biased views of his military comrades about the natives. He now considers himself the officer Korul Wanen again, and reproaches his leaders for having sent him to the planet, because he could have died there.

They bring him to the girl, hoping to obtain information from her that will make it easier to eradicate her people; but Wanen still feels a strong sympathy towards her. To change that, he is commanded to rape and to kill her. Wanen finds confederates and frees Sonna forcefully. He steals a spaceship and flees, leaving his earlier "civilised" companions behind him, in a fireball.

Though his memory of having been Torrek is gone, Wanen's loyalty is now with the inhabitants of the planet, whom he would help to develop technologically and be better prepared for any new incursion by his former compatriots.

Many competing groups try, each in its own way, to reunite the disparate planets of the former Empire.

## Editions

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Memory was first published in the Science Fiction magazine Galaxy.[1] It was published together with six other narrations by Anderson in the collection Beyond the Beyond, in 1969.

## References

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1. ^ Poul (William) Anderson[usurped]. SciFiArchive.Com, 2009-12-31

## External links

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* Memory title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
* A World Called Maanerek at the Internet Archive

* v
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Works by Poul Anderson

Hoka|

* Earthman's Burden
* Star Prince Charlie
* Hoka!

The Psychotechnic League|

* Star Ways
* The Snows of Ganymede
* Virgin Planet
* The Psychotechnic League
* Cold Victory
* Starship

Technic History|

| Polesotechnic League period
of Nicholas van Rijn|

* War of the Wing-Men
* Trader to the Stars
* The Trouble Twisters
* Satan's World
* The Earth Book of Stormgate
* Mirkheim
* The People of the Wind

|

Terran Empire period
of Dominic Flandry|

* Ensign Flandry
* A Circus of Hells
* The Rebel Worlds
* The Day of Their Return
* Agent of the Terran Empire
* Flandry of Terra
* A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows
* A Stone in Heaven
* The Game of Empire
* The Long Night
* Let the Spacemen Beware

History of Rustum|

* Orbit Unlimited
* New America

Maurai|

* Maurai and Kith
* Orion Shall Rise

Other science fiction novels|

* Flight to Forever
* Vault of the Ages
* Brain Wave
* Question and Answer
* No World of Their Own
* The Long Way Home
* Perish by the Sword
* War of Two Worlds
* The Enemy Stars
* The High Crusade
* Murder in Black Letter
* Twilight World
* After Doomsday
* The Makeshift Rocket
* Murder Bound
* Shield
* Three Worlds to Conquer
* The Corridors of Time
* The Star Fox
* The Fox, the Dog and the Griffin: A Folk Tale Adapted from the Danish of C. Molbeck
* World Without Stars
* Tau Zero
* The Byworlder
* The Dancer from Atlantis
* There Will Be Time
* Fire Time
* Inheritors of Earth
* The Winter of the World
* The Avatar
* The Demnon of Scattery
* The Devil's Game
* The Boat of a Million Years
* The Longest Voyage
* War of the Gods
* Starfarers
* Genesis
* Mother of Kings
* For Love and Glory

Collections|

* Strangers from Earth
* Un-Man and Other Novellas
* Time and Stars
* The Horn of Time
* Beyond the Beyond
* Seven Conquest
* Tales of the Flying Mountains
* The Queen of Air and Darkness and Other Stories
* The Worlds of Poul Anderson
* The Many Worlds of Poul Anderson
* Homeward and Beyond
* The Best of Poul Anderson
* Homebrew
* Winners
* The Night Face & Other Stories
* The Dark Between the Stars
* Explorations
* Fantasy
* Winners
* Cold Victory
* The Gods Laughed
* Starship
* The Winter of the World / The Queen of Air and Darkness
* Conflict
* The Long Night
* Past Times
* The Unicorn Trade
* Dialogue With Darkness
* Space Folk
* Alight in the Void
* The Armies of Elfland
* Inconstant Star
* Kinship With the Stars
* All One Universe
* Going for Infinity
* Swordsmen from the Stars

Operation Otherworld|

* Operation Chaos
* Operation Luna

Other fantasy novels|

* Three Hearts and Three Lions
* The Broken Sword
* Hrolf Kraki's Saga
* A Midsummer Tempest
* The Merman's Children
* Conan the Rebel
* War of the Gods

Historical novels|

* The Golden Slave
* Rogue Sword
* Mother of Kings

Novellas and short stories|

* "Brake"
* "Call Me Joe"
* "Delenda Est"
* "Entity"
* "Eutopia"
* "Goat Song"
* "The Light"
* "The Longest Voyage"
* "The Man Who Came Early"
* "Marius"
* "Memory"
* "Night Piece"
* "No Truce with Kings"
* "The Pirate"
* "The Queen of Air and Darkness"
* "Quest"
* "Sam Hall"
* "The Saturn Game"
* "The Sensitive Man"
* "The Sharing of Flesh"
* "Un-Man"

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