Poul Anderson's future [in The Enemy Stars] bears no resemblance to anything. This could be a less than admirable example of his work, for he is renowned among sci-fi addicts. Although written with basic simplicity I found it very hard to understand. One is blinded by pseudo-science, then treated to rather eager statements about Man and God and the Universe.

Essentially it is the old, old story of four contrasting men trapped together in an unpromising situation…. Danger lurks, escape is essential and, of course, character shows through. Anderson's trap is a vast space ship off course and magnetically fixed to a planet which is just a lump of iron.

The scientific mumbojumbo is just not good enough to blind us to the fact that his characters are more than usually weak stereotypes—the golden youth, the cynical (but clever) older figure, the pilot who confesses himself frightened...