Question and Answer (novel)

1954 science fiction novel by Poul Anderson

Question and

Cover of the first edition.

Author| Poul Anderson
Cover artist| Ed Valigursky
Language| English
Series| Troas
Genre| Science fiction
Published| 1956 Ace Books
Publication place| United States
Media type| print (Paperback)
Pages| 105
Preceded by| Sucker Bait

Question and Answer is a science fiction novel by American writer Poul Anderson. It originally appeared in the June and July 1954 issues of magazine  Astounding Science Fiction, and was later reprinted in 1956 as part of Ace Double D-199 under the title Planet of No Return, and again as a stand-alone Ace novel in February 1978 under the original title.

## Planet Troas

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Anderson was approached in 1953 by Twayne Press editor Fletcher Pratt with a story proposal: a scientist would create a world, and then he, Isaac Asimov and James Blish (Asimov thought the third writer might have been Blish's then-wife, Virginia Kidd)[1] would write novellas set in that world. The three novellas would then be published as a book, together with an essay by the scientist who created the scenario. This formula, which Pratt called a Twayne Triplet, had already resulted in the 1952 book The Petrified Planet.

The scenario created was that of a binary star system in the Messier 13 globular cluster with an Earthlike planet called Troas (or more informally, Junior) located at one of the system's Lagrangian points. An earlier expedition to Troas had suffered some mysterious disaster, and a second expedition was being mounted to determine if the planet was suitable for colonization, and to find out what happened to the first expedition.

Anderson finished his story, and Asimov finished a story called "Sucker Bait", but Blish (or Kidd) never completed the third story, and the proposed book never saw print. Anderson was able to sell Question and Answer to Astounding (where it appeared a few months after "Sucker Bait") and later to Ace Books.

## Plot summary

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John Lorenzen is an astronomer from Lunopolis who is recruited by the Lagrange Institute for the second expedition to Troas. At this time, Earth is still recovering from a two-century-long era of war and chaos that began with the Soviet conquest of North America in World War III and ended with the unification of the Solar System at the conclusion of a war between Mars and Venus. Twenty-two years after the discovery of a faster-than-light drive, Troas is the only Earthlike world to be discovered, and enthusiasm for interstellar travel is waning. If Troas is not opened to colonization, humanity may give up interstellar travel altogether.

The effort to mount a second expedition to Troas is plagued with difficulties. The Lagrange Institute is unable to charter a starship and must build its own, the Henry Hudson. The construction of the Hudson is hampered by delays, cost overruns, and at least one act of outright sabotage. The voyage of the Hudson to Troas is also troubled, as tension rises among the members of the expedition. Edward Avery, the expedition's psychomed, is unable to maintain group harmony aboard the ship, and at least one fight breaks out.

Upon arrival at Troas, the crew of the Hudson find no trace of the first expedition. After it is determined that there are no harmful microorganisms on Troas, a base camp is established on the planet. Eighteen days later, a group of aliens appears. Avery is assigned to learn the aliens' language, and he reports that it is extremely difficult to understand. He is eventually able to determine that the aliens are called the Rorvan, and that they are native to Troas. This is bad news for the expedition, since planets with native intelligent species are off limits to colonization. The Rorvan invite a small group of humans, including Avery and Lorenzen, to accompany them to their settlement.

As the group of humans and Rorvan travel, Lorenzen listens to Avery's conversations with the aliens and realizes that their language is not nearly as difficult to understand as the psychomed claims. By the time they reach the Rorvan settlement, Lorenzen has learned through his eavesdropping that Avery and the Rorvan are conspiring to deceive the other humans. When Lorenzen finally confronts Avery, the psychomed admits that he and his clique within Earth's government have been deliberately stifling interstellar travel, since they feel that humanity is not ready for it. The members of the first expedition were interned after returning to the Solar System, and the Rorvan are not native to Troas after all. Avery pleads with Lorenzen to help him maintain the deception, but Lorenzen refuses. He wants humanity to expand into the galaxy.

## Psychotechnic League

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Although "Question and Answer" is similar in background to the stories that make up Anderson's Psychotechnic League future history, Anderson himself did not include "Question and Answer" in a timeline of the Psychotechnic League stories that he created to accompany the novella "The Snows of Ganymede" in the Winter 1955 issue of Startling Stories, even though the story had already been published in Astounding by then. He also failed to mention any connection in his introduction to the 1978 Ace Books edition of the story.[2]

Further, the outcome of World War III, as well as events in the centuries immediately following the war, is inconsistent between "Question and Answer" and the Psychotechnic League stories. In the book, as noted, the Soviet Union conquered North America and Europe fell into a centuries-long devastation and chaos; conversely, in the Psychotechnic League history, the Soviet Union was totally destroyed, the survivors of its population reduced to the condition of "howling cannibals", while Europe recovered from its war devastation within a single generation.

In "Question and Answer" there is no mention of the Psychotechnic Institute. (In "Marius" it is noted that psychotechnics was started by the Finnish Professor Valti - a staunch opponent of the Soviets, who had a major role in freeing Europe from their occupation; obviously, Valti's life and scientific career would be completely different in a history where the Soviet Union won the war).

In Psychotechnic League stories and books, psychotechnics stands for human peace and prosperity, for unification of Earth and afterwards of the entire Solar System - as against the forces of militarism, nationalism, political and religious extremism, which have caused World War III and might, if not stopped, cause "another war which humanity may not survive" (as described in "Marius"). On these terms, Anderson is obviously on the side of psychotechnics and the characters representing the author's point of view act accordingly.

In "Question and Answer", however, psychotechnics - having succeeded in establishing peace and stability - sets itself squarely against spaceward expansion, seeking to keep humanity within the protecting cocoon of the Solar System and prevent its spread throughout the Galaxy. With this at stake, Anderson (and the character representing his point of view) turns against psychotechnics and for galactic expansion. This is inevitable, given Anderson's staunch support and advocacy of space flight in all periods of his fiction and non-fiction writing.

The basic theme of the book is similar to that of Asimov's The End of Eternity - though this similarity becomes evident only towards the respective ends of both books. In both - one dealing with spaceflight and exploration and the other with time-travel - an organization of well-meaning meddlers interferes to "guide" and manipulate the course of human history, with the aim of promoting safety, security and stability, and with the price being to stifle spaceflight and galactic exploration and colonization. And in both, the protagonist finally decides to abort these efforts and opt for galactic expansion, even at the cost of instability and uncertainty.

## References

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1. ^ Asimov, Isaac, In Memory Yet Green, Section 55, Subsection 8. (ISBN 0-380-75432-0)
2. ^ Anderson, Poul, Question and Answer (Ace Books, 1978), Introduction. (ISBN 0-441-69770-4)

## Sources

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* Tuck, Donald H. (1974). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Chicago: Advent. p. 9.

## External links

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* Question and Answer title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
* Question and Answer parts one and two on 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 Saturn Game
* 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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