Anderson is an amazing science fiction writer. Includes a chronology and glossary.

FROM AMAZON: Others have written science fiction on the theme of immortality, but in The Boat of a Million Years, Poul Anderson made it his own. Early in human history, certain individuals were born who live on—unaging, undying—through the centuries and millennia. This story follows them over two thousand years, up to our time and beyond—to the promise of utopia, and to the challenge of the stars.

A milestone in modern science fiction and a New York Times Notable Book when first published in 1989, this is one of a great writer’s finest works.

Hito imprescindible en el desarrollo de la ciencia ficción contemporánea, La nave de un millón de años cuenta la historia de un puñado de inmortales en el decurso de las civilizaciones y culturas humanas, y constituye al mismo tiempo una especulación sobre un posible futuro entre las estrellas. Anderson vuelve, tras años de colaboraciones, a expresarse en solitario en la más ambiciosa de sus obras, una novela sofisticada, precisa en el aspecto histórico, inteligente y emotiva, que ofrece una visión panorámica de la humanidad, del Homo sapiens y del nuevo Homo inmortalis.

With its theme of immortality and its sheer breadth of vision, this reminded me somewhat of Charles Sheffield's Tomorrow and Tomorrow. However, in other ways it is a very different creature. While Sheffield's immortality is achieved through storing consciousness by artificial means, the characters in this work by Poul Anderson seem determined to preserve the intactness of their humanity, even when it eventually makes them misfits among their own species.

The greater portion of the book concentrates on the efforts of several ageless characters to survive through the centuries. Various places and times in antiquity are beautifully recreated, and the real power and depth of the story lies in its rich undercurrents of history and mythology. Anderson is very clever in that he weaves detailed information throughout the text without affecting the flow of the narrative. The lyricism of the writing just carries the reader along.

The characterisation is excellent, and although the names of the main players change at various points (ageless people must constantly change their identities in order not to arouse suspicion), the reader can often intuitively determine who individuals are from their personalities.

I do think that the story weakened a little after the viewpoint changed to the future of mankind. One reason for this might be that the main characters seem to become overly concerned with petty personal squabbles. One could argue, though, that Anderson was implying that even people who had lived for millennia may still find it hard to transcend selfish inclinations and view life from a broader perspective all of the time. This may be an inherent part of the humanity that the ageless ones are loath to relinquish.

As with all great literature, the reader will remember for a long time to come not just the story but also the reading experience itself. ( )

Big, interesting novel about a handful of people who don't age - they can be killed, but otherwise will stick around indefinitely. The first chapters are all about separate individuals, some of whom are really fantastic characters, while others are pretty annoying. Later chapters have the main characters meeting each other and doing things together. Each chapter comes chronologically after the previous ones, so the book spans a long time period - ~300 BCE to far in the future.

Strangely, the historical chapters (the last of which starts in 1975) were a lot more interesting to me than the final (long) future chapter, which is all about various theories of why we never hear from aliens if they exist, and how far-flung galactic "neighbors" might ever learn about each other. So it's some really cool bits of historical fiction (4 or 5 stars), with a more-or-less tedious sci-fi coda (2 stars). ( )

Anderson, Poul. The Boat of a Million Years. Tor, 1989.
Poul Anderson’s epic space opera, The Boat of a Million Years, was published a year and a half after Robert Heinlein died. One character listening to a friend rail against pacifism asks, “Plagiarizing Heinlein, are you?” Besides this direct homage, the novel as whole is a response to Heinlein’s Lazarus Long stories, especially Methuselah’s Children. We begin with a Phoenician sailor who seems to heal very quickly and does not age. If he loses a tooth, it grows back. He sets out on a quest to find immortals like himself. Unlike Heinlein’s Johnson family, his immortality is not the result of selective breeding but of a very unlikely cluster of genetic anomalies and mutations that do not breed true. They show up rarely in multiple cultures. They are not the racially identifiable redheads Heinlein imagined. As the title suggests, his quest takes him from prehistory to the far future. Along the way, Anderson shows us why he is a grandmaster of adventurous space opera and alternate history. He hardens the science of Heinlein’s Lazarus Long series and challenges its libertarian politics. A classic. ( )