From Library Journal
In the far future, a poet and a revolutionary find themselves in the midst of a conspiracy to liberate the human spirit from the benevolent but stifling patronage of the machine intelligence: Teramind. Veteran sf author Anderson demonstrates his talent for prose and narrative economy in this latest addition to a series that includes Harvest of Stars (Tor Bks., 1993). Deceptive in its brevity and simplicity, this gemlike story of passion and the poetic soul belongs in most sf collections.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
This is the third volume (the last was The Stars Are Also Fire ) in Anderson's saga about humanity's strife-ridden future among the stars. Anderson spellbindingly demonstrates the complex rivalry between human and machine through the eyes of both a human and a cybernetic protagonist. Jesse Nicol is a Terran poet who longs for a greatness in his craft that only adventure can inspire and whose wish is granted by his love for the wild, moon-born revolutionary Falaire. Nicol's android counterpart, Venator, carries the resurrected consciousness of a long-dead human whose talents are needed by the ubiquitous Teramind to forestall a possible rebellion against the cybernetic-controlled Federation. The fates of poet and android intertwine when Venator tracks the rebel leader to a well-armed starship bound for the solar system's outermost world, Proserpina, and Nicol joins Falaire on board. Anderson fuses elegiac prose and a sweeping vision of man's technological future as only he can--brilliantly. Already, at its current three-book length, this is one the best sf future histories. Carl Hays


Review
"Fast, elegant, and visionary....Poul Anderson is one of the pillars of modern science fiction and this is Poul Anderson at his best."--Michael Swanwick

"With Harvest the Fire, Poul Anderson takes us again to the farthest edge of technology and human imagination."--Venor Vinge

"Anderson fuses elegiac prose and a sweeping vision of man's technological future as only he can--brilliantly. Already, at its current three-book length, this is one of the best SF future histories."--Booklist



Review
"Fast, elegant, and visionary....Poul Anderson is one of the pillars of modern science fiction and this is Poul Anderson at his best."--Michael Swanwick

"With Harvest the Fire, Poul Anderson takes us again to the farthest edge of technology and human imagination."--Venor Vinge

"Anderson fuses elegiac prose and a sweeping vision of man's technological future as only he can--brilliantly. Already, at its current three-book length, this is one of the best SF future histories."--Booklist



Book Description
Poul Anderson, a legend of SF, is the writer whom the mantle of Robert A. Heinlein descended upon. Anderson devoted his career to the visionary enterprise of creating science fiction set in a carefully extrapolated human society of the future in the spirit of Heinlein.

Nowhere does he succeed more powerfully than in the works set in the future history that began in Harvest of Stars, continued in The Stars Are Also Fire, and now leaps into the distant future in Harvest the Fire. This is no less than the tale of the expansion of humanity to the limits of the solar system and beyond. It also chronicles the evolution of machine intelligence, until humans and machines come into conflict in an age when the outward urge and the urge to change are the chief barriers to utopia for many humans--and for their machines.

Harvest the Fire is the story of politics and poetry: of a poet, Jesse Nicol, who aspires to great work in an era when human literary greatness is apparently all in the past, who travels to the Moon and falls in love with a beautiful revolutionary, Falaire--a woman determined to escape from the care of machines. For the machines are now the masters of humanity, and the great work of Falaire is freedom, which must be stolen from the machines.

With the precision and clear focus of a master, Poul Anderson tells a sharp and poignant tale against an epic interplanetary background. Harvest the Fire is hard SF raised to the intensity of poetry.



About the Author
The bestselling author of such classic novels as Brain Wave and The Boat of a Million Years, Poul Anderson won just about every award the science fiction and fantasy field has to offer. He has won multiple Hugos and Nebulas, the John W. Campbell Award, The Locus Poll Award, the Skylark Award, and the SFWA Grandmaster Award for Lifetime Achievement. His recent books include Harvest of Stars, The Stars are also On Fire, Operation Chaos, Operation Luna, Genesis, Mother of Kings, and Going for Infinity, a collection and retrospective of his life's work. Poul Anderson lived in Orinda, California where he passed away in 2001.

ANNOTATION

A story of politics and poetry, Jesse Nichol aspires to great work in an era when human greatness is in the past. He loves a revolutionary named Falaire, a woman determined to escape from the care of machines, now the masters of humanity. The great work of Falaire is freedom, and she must steal it from the machines.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This is no less than the tale of the expansion of humanity to the limits of the solar system and beyond. It also chronicles the evolution of machine intelligence, until human and machine intelligences come into conflict in an age when the outward urge and the urge to change are the chief barriers to utopia for many humans - and for their machines. Harvest the Fire is a story of politics and poetry: of a poet, Jesse Nicol, who aspires to great work in an era when human literary greatness is apparently all in the past, who travels to the Moon and falls in love with a beautiful revolutionary, Falaire - a woman determined to escape from the care of machines. For the machines are now the masters of humanity, and the great work of Falaire is freedom, which must be stolen from the machines.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

In the far future, a poet and a revolutionary find themselves in the midst of a conspiracy to liberate the human spirit from the benevolent but stifling patronage of the machine intelligence: Teramind. Veteran sf author Anderson demonstrates his talent for prose and narrative economy in this latest addition to a series that includes Harvest of Stars (Tor Bks., 1993). Deceptive in its brevity and simplicity, this gemlike story of passion and the poetic soul belongs in most sf collections.

BookList - Carl Hays

This is the third volume (the last was The Stars Are Also Fire ) in Anderson's saga about humanity's strife-ridden future among the stars. Anderson spellbindingly demonstrates the complex rivalry between human and machine through the eyes of both a human and a cybernetic protagonist. Jesse Nicol is a Terran poet who longs for a greatness in his craft that only adventure can inspire and whose wish is granted by his love for the wild, moon-born revolutionary Falaire. Nicol's android counterpart, Venator, carries the resurrected consciousness of a long-dead human whose talents are needed by the ubiquitous Teramind to forestall a possible rebellion against the cybernetic-controlled Federation. The fates of poet and android intertwine when Venator tracks the rebel leader to a well-armed starship bound for the solar system's outermost world, Proserpina, and Nicol joins Falaire on board. Anderson fuses elegiac prose and a sweeping vision of man's technological future as only he can--brilliantly. Already, at its current three-book length, this is one the best sf future histories.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Fast, elegant, and visionary....Paul Anderson is one of the pillars of science fiction and this is Paul Anderson at his best. — Michael Swanwick

In Harvest the Fire, Paul Anderson, as always, demonstrates his extraordinary set of resources; extreme intelligence, flexibility, imagination, charm, an encyclopedic knowledge of everything worth knowing, and sheer linguistic facility. — Jack Vance