Rating: 
Summary: Exciting...In a way
Review: I've read Poul Anderson before and this is not his best work, but I would still recommend it. The way he tolled the story in fine detail was great except that it went on for the whole book. This novel would have been great! If it were about a 150 pages less.
Rating: 
Summary: Yet Another Entertaining Poul Anderson Novel
Review: In Starfarers, Poul Anderson explores once more how existence rewards those who dare to strive for something beyond themselves. He does this with a monumental journey of exploration as his backdrop, the saga of the crew of the starship Envoy on a 10,000 year voyage to make first contact with an alien civilization. Being the excellent storyteller that he is, he doesn't let the science or the vistas overwhelm the human dimensions of the tale (in fact, the few parts of the book that dragged for me were when he was focusing on the science and technology as opposed to how those things affected people).If you're an Anderson fan (as I am, in case you hadn't noticed!), I believe you will definitely enjoy this book. While the theme in it is similar to that of Anderson's recent Guthrie books (and echoes themes found throughout much of his earlier work), being a single-volume novel it's a tighter and more riveting story, more like the excellent Boat of A Million Years. The human characters are believable, the alien settings and cultures startling but well-drawn, and the writing downright moving at times.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing and dull
Review: Long and disjointed, I forced myself to finish this book, hoping against hope that the ending would rescue it. Not worth the effort to read and not in the league of Anderson's other work. I've never written a review, I actually felt the need to warn people about this book.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing and dull
Review: Long and disjointed, I forced myself to finish this book, hoping against hope that the ending would rescue it. Not worth the effort to read and not in the league of Anderson's other work. I've never written a review, I actually felt the need to warn people about this book.
Rating:
Summary: Poul Anderson rocks!
Review: Once again, origional ideas presented in a brain-candy coating. Of course it probably won't be our real future, but it is fun to entertain the notion that our true heroes who sacrafice everything are forgotten, hated, and looked down upon for their ignorance. A story that keeps you thinking, impecable layout and presaentation, and unconventional theories make this book the new pinnacle of star exploration fantasy novels!
Rating:
Summary: An example of bad sci-fi
Review: Sometimes it's nice to read a bad novel. Just to remember what makes a good book one. Should you have such urges I strongly recommend reading Poul Anderson's Starfarers. It will be difficult to surpass this utterly boring succession of cliches which is a downright insult to science-fiction. No wonder some people do not consider SciFi 'litterary'. The storyline is the backbone of any book: well it's poor, can't see where it's leading, constantly interrupted by meaningless apartes which do not contribute anything. Actually they do: they make the reader distinctly feel the writer was lacking imagination for his main story and needed breaks to fill up his quota of words. The ending is appalling. The characters are achingly stereotyped. Noble captain, genius-scientists, good-hearted ex-soldier etc etc. All of which cite poetry all the time (as all scifi scientists always do...), have the purest noble feelings, can resolve complex scientific questions at their whim and have human relationships limited to basic let's have sex. Great. When's the last time the author met some real scientists or, by any means, people ?! I can't even say it's well written, it's not. I guess Mr. Poul Anderson was feeling a bit short of cash and decided to write up something quickly to have a bite.
Rating:
Summary: Tau Zero, NOT
Review: TERRIBLE! Where are the editors who should have told him, cut out about 200 pages. The endless pseudo-deep thought, the 1960's free love motifs, and a lot of material that did absolutely nothing to move the story forward made this volume extremely tedious. I have considered myself an Anderson fan for many years but I have to tell him to stick to shorter novels, he never has handled these epic tomes well. Don't bother with this one.
Rating:
Summary: Gives Science Fiction a Bad Name
Review: The one word that best describes this book is "predictable". The characters are uncompelling, paper-thin, boring. The plot is threadbare, having been used so many times before. The rationalizations, assumptions and conclusions laughable. I saw not a single new idea or innovation on an old one here. Anderson appears to have fallen victim to the malady he predicts for mankind a few millenia early. One can read the first page and the last page and fill in the rest in a far more entertaining fashion than did the author.
Rating: 
Summary: Good But Not Great
Review: There is a somewhat unfortunate tendency in the scifi genre to write stories about the ultimate fate of human civilization or the human race. All very serious and apocalyptic, dealing with grand themes. Personally, I find all this a little weighty. I would much rather read a good, fast-paced story with a main character that engages my interest and keeps me amused and/or guessing about what will happen next. This book takes on some interesting themes and ideas (i.e. the time disparity between high speed space travelers and the civilization they leave behind, contact with another intelligent race, and the cultural costs and benefits of extended space travel), but as often happens, the story is overwhelmed in the process. It ended up being slow and the action sequences to few and far between. It was interesting in an intellectual sort of way, but not a real page-turner. I never felt involved to the point that I just couldn't wait to find out where it was going. It has some things to say, but I had to push myself to get through it.
Rating:
Summary: Had potential but author didn't follow through.
Review: This book had plenty of good ideas and potential, but everytime you thought something should happen or a revelation should occur, nothing ever happened. Poorly written and a waste of time.
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