Davis Bertram si meritò quel che gli accadde. Non aveva forse sempre desiderato di scoprire un pianeta abitato da sole donne per sentirsi valorizzato al massimo? Be', questo è esattamente quel che gli capitò quando volle lanciarsi da solo nell'esplorazione di una zona di spazio giudicata troppo pericolosa per arrischiarvi una spedizione ufficiale. Un pianeta abitato da sole donne! E dominato da altre donne che, su quel mondo, possiedono le antiche conoscenze scientifiche di una razza progredita. Le situazioni paradossali in cui il povero Davis viene a trovarsi sono fra le più divertenti. E il castigo peggiore per lui è di venire accolto su quel mondo non come l'Uomo promesso dalle antiche leggende, ma come un Mostro da distruggere. Certo, Davis, dopo tante avventurose peripezie, alla fine se la cava, ma proprio per il rotto della cuffia, in un modo che non può, onestamente, venir definito del tutto onorevole per un uomo!

This is one of Anderson's stories set in his earlier setting, the Psychotechnic League, though in this case the league is only significant in the opening when one of the "Cordy" administrators interviews the brash young hero and (skeptically) lets him set out alone on a scouting expedition. Before leaving, the hero tells a friend he hopes to find a planet full of beautiful women and stay awhile, and indeed he finds a planet populated entirely by women -- a culture which survived from a lost colony ship and reproduced by artificial means strictly controlled by a ruling theocracy who have built up Men to be virtually divine. Our hero signally fails to live up to this reputation,but after some disastrous attempts at intervention does finally contribute to the overthrow of the rulers. As for the beautiful young women, two end up flipping a coin for him. ( )

Take a standard fantasy, turn it on its ear. That's what Anderson does here; the man from the advanced civilization has to rely upon women who believe him to be a 'monster' (alien), since he failed the test of manhood. Light but fun. ( )

It's pretty easy to dismiss this as a case of the all-too-common male-fantasy, but Poul Anderson is a commensurate world-builder - there's little that you can point out as rubbish here. The story - and it's a cracking one - holds out even at novel length, and the most puerile things turns out to be the cover and title. It's almost a reverse parody - taking a silly concept and writing a pretty good novel out of it.

Male fantasy of a spaceman landing on an entire planet of women who have built up a mythology that the men will come for them some day. They war over him and they all want to sleep with him. Hilariously good read, but so puerile. ( )