The High Crusade

Far from sophisticated writing, but an enjoyable read nonetheless. Simple plot and simple characters prevent me from giving it 5 stars, but a sufficiently interesting premise that I recommend it as light reading.

In the year of our Lord 1345, a big, silvery spaceship lands in a small barony in England. First contact is tough; one blaster blast from them, and a whole lot of clothyard shafts, lance tips, and sword blows from us, and Sir Roger the Baron de Tourneville finds himself in possession of a spaceship sufficient to hold his knights, men-at-arms, archers, wives, villagers, and livestock. Naturally he piles everyone in for a quick conquest of France (this being early in the Hundred Years’ War) and onward to liberate the Holy Land. Naturally things go rather wrong.

Tricked by their captured alien Wersgor, they travel not to the Holy Land but back to one of the Wersgor empire colony planets. The Wersgor, accustomed to easy conquests and battles limited to space, are no match for the English in hand to hand combat and the English quickly learn to turn their own weapons against them. The story is framed as the account of Brother Parvus. He’s present for most of the story as a confidant of his lord and the only available interpreter; what conversations he doesn’t witness, he freely admits he makes up for the sake of his account. Parvus is the narrator, but The High Crusade is the story of Sir Roger. Roger (Article 1, Section 9, Clause 8 and scoreboard, England) is the heart of the story, as he protects his people with equal bluster and deception (at one point suggesting Ireland as a planet under their dominion), as the strain of it all begins to break him, as his ambition begins to consume him. The story keeps a very narrow focus, which is perhaps why Anderson can keep it to 200 pages instead of a dozen volumes. It’s Roger’s story, with the only other really important characters being Brother Parvus, Roger’s wife Lady Catherine, and Sir Owain, a knight in his service (in keeping with the deeply medieval feel, the tradition of courtly love plays a key role).

The High Crusade has a lot going for it. Knights IN SPACE is a fun, interesting concept. It’s well written. It’s damned funny at times without ever belaboring the point. It’s a standalone and quite short for a novel (the real reason I picked it to read and discuss first). And, best of all, it’s different.

As much speculative fiction as I read these days, stories that do something different are highly prized. And the variety and imagination offered is one of the reasons I love speculative fiction in the first place. (Weirdly and annoyingly, the would-be literati and tastemakers of speculative fiction seem very committed to fitting speculative fiction into as small a box as possible.) The High Crusade isn’t just an example of a very weird and long forgotten subgenre (What else belongs? A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court?). It does three things foreign to modern SF.

First, the language. Anderson’s medieval denizens sound, well, medieval. The language is archaic and beautiful and most importantly perfectly in line with the setting. This is something that Tolkien did extremely well—yet is wrongly and too often criticized for—and that even very good modern writers like George R.R. Martin and Miles Cameron can’t or won’t do. It’s something that modern editors probably wouldn’t let fly even if authors could pull it off, which is a shame, because it adds a certain effect and complements the story.

Second, Christianity is front and center. It’s a factor in every decision the human characters make. They go through constant minor religious crises—for example when they realize the much longer days of the alien world they wind up on prevents them from properly tracking the Earth Sabbath—and they constantly find resolve in their faith. This is, again, perfectly in keeping with the setting. Christianity is inextricable from medieval Europe (this is just Miles Cameron’s argument for including very thinly veiled Christianity in his Traitor Son Cycle—without Christianity medieval Europe is no longer recognizable; you can’t pull Monday through Saturday for your setting without bringing Sunday along for the ride). Ironically, the filing of the Christian serial numbers in medieval Europe-inspired fantasy has a lot to do with the devout Tolkien, whose Middle Earth looks much more pagan than Christian.

Finally, Anderson is entirely unabashed in giving us English badassery. (The English in less are even less self-conscious.) That’s not the sort of thing you’ll see anymore. It is also admittedly more than a little ludicrous. But those guys didn’t build an empire on which the sun never set by accident. (That last joke Anderson sneaks in would be verboten as well.)

Oh, and my copy has cigarette ads.

This belongs in the same subgenre as Harp's BRIGHT HORIZONS, Drake's RANKS OF BRONZE, FOREIGN LEGIONS, and Weber's EXCALIBER ALTERNATIVE. A group of "primitive" humans meets advanced aliens and wreck havoc on the aliens.

What I liked best about this book was how Anderson's research showed through. The Englishmen don't speak like moderns, their cadence, slang, and manners are feudal. They are smart enough to recognize the difference between the Jair's true republic and the Wesorg's sham meritocracy. The Englishmen's way of looking at the world is also feudal. This is an advantage. Their system of ranks and nobility allows them to keep order even when the plot twists and betrayals come.

Another way we see medieval life is through the ceremonies and bright colors of the Englishmen. Whenever they greet potential allies or enter negotiations, they carry their banners, have honor guards, and wear their full regalia. The aliens are taken aback by this because their uniforms differ only in rank insignia and thus reduce individuality.

An important aspect of the English life was their faith. This is treated with respect throughout the book. While the aliens are not sure what to think of the true faith, the English live by it and prosper.

As best I can tell, I read this book about 25 years ago when I borrowed it from the local library, and yet I never managed to pick up a copy for my very own, a failing I remedied when I saw the Baen 50th anniversary edition, with a plethora of loving introductions and the 1983 short story sequel "Quest". All of those parts add a little more meat to the book, for all in large part they consist of modern sci-fi authors admitting "I ripped off The High Crusade when I wrote X". Silverberg's introduction also points out some of the humour and in-jokes Anderson slipped in to his work: I'm sure there is a lot more there too.

As to the story itself, what can I say? All the other reviews are right: this is about knights in space, full of God and the right and Englishness (in all its Saxon-Viking-Norman glory). The tale is both completely improbable and improbably gripping. You think "that could never happen" and then you think - because you want to - well, hold on, I suppose...

It also helps if you sometimes look around at civilisation and wonder how we'd cope with a sudden invasion of take-no-prisoners barbarians.

This is sci-fi, adventure, tragedy and comedy. You laugh out loud at the audacity of writing it, and wonder whether Anderson ever read (and expanded the concept in) Manly Wade Wellman's "Day of the Conquerors" out of Amazing Stories magazine. Its just good clean fun at its finest. You can't ask for more than that.

If you watched many of the old B&W Hollywood knights/swordsman's movies from the 1950's, this book is for you. Anderson may have gotten his idea from this style of film and turned it into one of the classic of science fiction. Aliens invade the Earth and instead of their advance technology overwhelming the medieval knights, the opposite happens and the strong will & cunning of the English conquers the aliens and their known space. A short fast good read. Talley Ho!"

From the time the English men-at-arms and archers storm the alien spaceship to the forging of an inter-stellar alliance the action is non-stop and vigorous. However the writing is quite basic, the word "unsophisticated" springs to mind. Likely this style was common in the era when Anderson wrote this book. It would be a good introductory science fiction book for a teenager.

This was one of my favorite books as a high school student in the late 1960's. A story of how a medieval man uses his wits to defeat a VERY advanced space civilization--using medieval war methods that the advanced civilization had utterly forgotten.
I loved the cleverness of it.

A science fiction classic, as much fun as I remembered.

Such a fun read

I have to say, I love Poul Anderson's writing, and Tau Zero is easily my favourite of his novels. The High Crusade too, is a terrific piece of writing. The best theme in this novel is the recognition that our ancient ancestors were every bit as clever and adaptable as we are, even if they were not familiar with advanced, space-age technology. After all, how many people today really understand how our technology works?
Sir Roger's band of audacious English don't need to understand the workings of the Wersgorixian technology to take advantage of the aliens' miscalculation, and turn their own world-conquering technology against them. Similarly, The High Crusade well demonstrates the theme of how leadership is often less about knowing the details of everything, and more about projecting confidence in the goal and vision of one's enterprise. The details can be left to one's loyal, competent followers. Just be sure that they are both loyal and competent. So, in the end, The High Crusade is an entertaining lesson in how a clear goal, executed with boldness and adaptability can lead one to conquer new worlds; both literally and figuratively.