Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)It is terrific that Poul Anderson's works are remaining in print. Mr. Anderson was one of the true greats of the "Golden Age of Science Fiction." His Technic Civilization future history series is a wonderful group of interrelated science fiction stories. These "Dominic Flandry" stories are part of this, along with the Nicholas Van Rijn and David Falkayn stories which are equally superb.
Dominic Flandry is a secret agent of the Terran Empire. The stories are set in Poul Anderson's "Technic Civilization" series which is a dazzling vision of the future of humanity. It is the 31st Century. Humankind has established itself in a sprawling interstellar empire across tens of thousands of settled worlds. But the governance of these worlds has fallen into decay, and the Long Night--the foreseeable period that will occur after the Empire government falls, is in sight. Dominic Flandry brilliantly does all that he can to postpone this evil day, but he knows in his heart that human civilization is in its Indian Summer, with the long Winter approaching.
The novels are characterized by a wonderful variety of human cultures and alien races. The reader will come to know and like the Merseians, Betelgeusians, Chereionites, and may other alien civilizations. Poul Anderson had a gift for conjuring up imaginative and realistic aliens and they are great fun in these stories. I became hooked on the Flandry series in the 1970s (my misspent college and military years) and trust me, these stories have as much zip now as they did then.
In these three stories we see Dominic Flandry recruited into the Terran Intelligence Service and in regular James Bond style he thwarts enemy plots to destroy the Empire. My favorite story in this trilogy is the first one. Earth is engaged in a brush-fire war against its major enemy, the Merseians, on the planet Starkad. The war at first seems to be a minor skirmish, but then Flandry learns a terrible secret that could destroy the Empire. More would be telling, but this is a great story, and it sets the stage for all of the future Flandry stories. This is space opera at its absolute best. Highly recommended.
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It is the twilight of the Terran Empire. The warriors who made it great are long gone now, and the Traders of the Polesotechnic League who made it possible are the dimly-remembered stuff of legend. Alien enemies prowl its outer precincts, and Sector Governors conspire for the Throne of Man. On Terra herself, those who occupy the labyrinthine corridors of power busy themselves with trivialities and internal politics, as outside the final darkness gathers. In this scene of terminal disarray one man stands like a giant: Dominic Flandry, Agent of the Terran Empire. In three full-length novels, he will rise from young ensign to lieutenant commander as he outthinks rivals and thwarts adversaries, blazing a trail across the galaxy in defense of an Empire which barely appreciates him and against alien enemies who appreciate him all too well.
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