Young Flandry: The Technic Civilization Saga Review

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.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Young Flandry: The Technic Civilization Saga

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.

Click here for more information about Young Flandry: The Technic Civilization Saga

Read More...

Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight of Terra (Technic Civilization) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)"Earthman, Go Home". Although the natives prefer he leave, Captain Sir Dominic Flandry of the Intelligence Corps, Imperial Terrestrial Navy visits the lost world Unan Besar. His mission is to bring the planet back into the Terran Empire before the Merseians use it as a military base.
"Hunters of the Sky Cave". Flandry helps a woman escape from a Merseian supported insurgency while setting up a counterinsurgency, but ponders that "We Claim These Stars" even while the Terran Empire will go the way of previous superpowers during the Long Night
"The Warriors from Nowhere". Flandry battles his Merseian adversary Aycharaych, who has the advantage of telepathy.
"A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows". The Terran Empire is rapidly decaying as fortyish Flandry knows due partly from high level corruption. When Molitor seizes control, Flandry supports him as he believes a strong military leader is the only hope to prevent the Empire from imploding immediately. He also recently learns he has a son after a tryst with Persis the dancer and begins one with aristocratic slave Kossara from Dennitza. However, he will soon find out that his greatest success leaves him empty with nothing more than pride for accomplishing his job, no challenges left that matters, and a despondent look back at what he achieved and what he failed at.
The four reprints are entertaining tales of outer space daring do. The first three star the carefree James Bond in space swashbuckling hero, which feel somewhat repetitive although Hunters of the Sky Cave hint at a darker outlook. The last contribution is superb as a middle age Flandry muses that all he did over the last couple of decades was place his thumb in the dyke while the slow flood of rot and decay spreads; he concludes he slowed down the death of the empire as all nations turn to stardust.
Harriet Klausner


Click Here to see more reviews about: Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight of Terra (Technic Civilization)

Captain Dominic Flandry has been knighted for his many services to the Terran Empire—an Empire which is old, jaded, and corrupt, as Flandry well knows. And while that "Sir" before his name may be an added attraction to comely ladies (not that he has ever lacked for the pleasant company of the same), he expects that it will also bring him less welcome attention from envious "colleagues" within the empire. What it is not likely to do is make him more of an object of interest to the Merseians, whose plots he has repeatedly foiled and who are much too aware of how much simpler their plans to replace the Empire would be if he were the late Sir Dominic Flandry. Flandry himself has come to understand that there may be no more point to all his victories than that a few trillion of his fellow creatures may live out their lives before the inevitable coming of the Long Night of galactic barbarism. At best, he may have postponed its coming and shortened its duration. But if that is the most he can achieve, so be it—he'll keep on fighting, hoping that the barbarians too will pass, followed by a new round of civilization.

Click here for more information about Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight of Terra (Technic Civilization)

Read More...

Rise of the Terran Empire: The Technic Civilization Saga (Technic Civilization Series) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Poul Anderson was one of the undisputed Grand Masters of Science Fiction, and these are some of his better stories. Poul Anderson created a dazzling "future history" scenario in which mankind has perfected cheap and reliable interstellar space travel, and expanded into the Galaxy. In doing so, mankind meets many alien races, and author Anderson is a master at imagining biologically and psychologically credible alien races. The author also postulates that when humans travel to the stars, they will bring with them all of our flaws--avarice and greed. Capitalism and freedom (the author believes that the two go hand-in-hand) require elbow room, says the author in one of these stories, and the Galaxy is the ultimate elbow room in which capitalism, for a time, flourishes.
These stories range from the beginning to the end of what the author calls Technic Civilization, more specifically the Polesotechnic League ("League of Selling Skills") -- a sprawling, brawling combine of merchantilist corporations spread throughout the Galaxy. Their interactions with alien cultures and races is the overarching theme of the book. In short, here Mr. Anderson seeks to answer the questions of what humans will find when they achieve interstellar travel and what this will do to mankind.
These stories are more or less arranged chronologically within the future history series. "Mirkheim" is placed at the beginning, which is appropriate as that novel heralds the end of the Polesotechnic League and the beginning of the Empire stage of Technic Civilization. In my opinion Mirkheim is one of the best Technic Civilization novels. Each of these stories stands very well alone, and these are all wonderful speculative reads. Highly recommended. RJB.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Rise of the Terran Empire: The Technic Civilization Saga (Technic Civilization Series)

Nicholas van Rijn, the most flamboyant member of the Polesotechnic League of star traders, could see dark times ahead. Fellow league members were using tactics verging on outright piracy, and others were all too eager to sell starships and high-tech weapons to alien barbarians. A planet not previously known for interstellar commerce suddenly revealed a secret fleet of armed starships, and started building an empire. Even if Van Rijn and his right-hand man David Falkayn could find a way to stop this blatant aggression, the glory days of the League were over. Hereafter, for its own protection against well-armed alien marauders the Earth must maintain a strong military fleet, and one charismatic man would found an empire that would learn nothing of the lessons history taught about the fates of other empires as it began annexing other star systems, whether they wanted to join the Terran Empire or not . . . This is the third volume in the first complete edition of Poul Anderson's Technic Civilization saga, and it includes a classic novella which appears here in book form for the first time. And the next volume begins the adventures of Poul Anderson's other legendary character, Captain Sir Dominic Flandry.

Click here for more information about Rise of the Terran Empire: The Technic Civilization Saga (Technic Civilization Series)

Read More...

Captain Flandry: Defender of the Terran Empire (The Technic Civilization Saga) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Captain Dominic Flandry of the Terran Intelligence Corps is the 31st Century James Bond. These excellent stories are set in a fabulous background in which mankind has established the sprawling Terran Empire across 400 light years and containing four million stars and countless inhabited worlds. But the Empire is decadent, and alien barbarians as well as other interstellar empires such as the Merseians are plotting its downfall. Dominic Flandry is a larger-than-life player in this game of interstellar intrigue and these stories, in which Flandry fights to save an Empire that he knows is on borrowed time, are great fun. Like James Bond, Flandry enjoys wine, women, and song and recognizes that "true decadence requires work to be appreciated--it isn't lolling around on cushions eating drugged custard!" But he is also an intellectual hero with an appreciation of history who sadly acknowledges that the Empire is in its late decadent stage, vulnerable to alien conquest or revolution from within.
Author Poul Anderson had a splendid gift for imagining and creating plausible aliens who truly were alien. In these stories the reader will come to know and like the Merseians, the Betelgeusians, the Scothans, the Urduhu and many others. These aliens are truly alien, with their own non-human motivations and characteristics. In particular the squaring off between Flandry and Aycharaych, the ace intelligent operative of the Merseians, makes for terrific enjoyment.
Poul Anderson was one of the greats of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. It is terrific that his works are being republished so that new generations of readers can enjoy these superb stories. (I look forward to the day when more of his works are available on Kindle.) Space opera does not get better than this. Those who like well-written science fiction yarns should not pass this one up. Most readers will read and enjoy these stories many times, as I have. Highly recommended. RJB.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Captain Flandry: Defender of the Terran Empire (The Technic Civilization Saga)

No longer a brash, young ensign, Captain Dominic Flandry has risen in rank, but now appreciates fully that the Terran empire is old and tired, wanting to be left in peace. But the enemies it has made and the competing empire of Merseia will give it no peace. Too evenly matched for open warfare not to destroy them both, the opponents engage in subtle thrust and counter-thrust, feint and counter-feint, with Flandry in the thick of it. Though through this and his succeeding adventures he will struggle gloriously and snatch victory from the alien jaws of defeat, Flandry is yet a tragic figure: a man who knows too much history, who knows that battle, scheme and even betray as he will, in the end it will mean nothing. For with the relentlessness of physical law the Empire is falling and the Long Night is approaching. If that darkness is not to fall in his own lifetime, if the things he cares about are to be saved, he must do what he can. And anyone, human or alien, who gets in his way will most definitely regret it.

Click here for more information about Captain Flandry: Defender of the Terran Empire (The Technic Civilization Saga)

Read More...

David Falkayn: Star Trader: The Technic Civilization Saga #2 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I finished David Falkayn: Star Trader: The Technic Civilization Saga #2 recently. I enjoyed reading the adventures of David Falkayn, Chee Lan, Adzel, and Nicholas Van Rijn again, and it's interesting reading them in chronological order and seeing how the times and people change... Poul Anderson wrote a long history of life and adventure among the stars, including other characters who came later. There's a chronology of Technic Civilization at the end, btw, that helps the reader see the big picture. David's ambition and drive and loyalty to his companions, Chee Lan's temper, and Adzel's gentleness--though not everyone sees beyond his size--and Nicholas Van Rijn's shrewdness are a fun mixture. And Poul Anderson's science background adds intriguing planets--and cultures.

Click Here to see more reviews about: David Falkayn: Star Trader: The Technic Civilization Saga #2

The Polesotechnic League of star traders was prospering, and Nicholas Van Rijn, its most flamboyant member, was prospering most of all as commerce flowed between the stars. But not all League members played fair when trading, nor did some of the non-human races of the galaxy object to dirty tricks. Van Rijn could not be everywhere, and relied on his representatives, foremost among them his young protégé, David Falkayn, and the members of David's trader team: Adzel, a large dragon-like being who practiced Buddhism, and Chee-Lan, a brilliant but hot-tempered felinesque extraterrestrial. This is the second volume in the first complete edition of Poul Anderson's Technic Civilization saga. And, after the three volumes chronicling the Polesotechnic League's rise and fall will come more volumes, telling of the rise of the Terran Empire and the adventures of Poul Anderson's other legendary character, Captain Sir Dominic Flandry.

Click here for more information about David Falkayn: Star Trader: The Technic Civilization Saga #2

Read More...

The Van Rijn Method: The Technic Civilization Saga #1 (Technic Civilization Series) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Anderson is one of the grand masters of the field, and these adventures -- carefully thought-out, with solid worldbuilding and scientific speculation, plus great characters and wonderful action -- are classics. If you want to know science fiction, you should read these. And if you want to have a great time... then read them for that, too.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Van Rijn Method: The Technic Civilization Saga #1 (Technic Civilization Series)

When the human race spread out among the stars, they took the profit motive with them, and none exemplified that fact better than Nicholas Van Rijn, interstellar trader and capitalist extraordinaire. He might look like Falstaff and talk in a steady stream of malapropisms, but anybody who might take him for a bumbling buffoon would quickly find themselves taken—to the cleaners! In Nick Van Rijn, Poul Anderson created one of the most memorable and popular characters in science fiction, and now, for the first time, all the stories of Van Rijn and the Polesotechnic League will be published in chronological order in three volumes. Also included are more stories of Van Rijn flamboyant exploits, plus stories set elsewhere in the Polesotechnic universe. And, after the three volumes chronicling the Polesotechnic League's rise and fall will come more volumes, telling of the rise of the Terran Empire and the adventures of Poul Anderson's other legendary character, Captain Sir Dominic Flandry.

Click here for more information about The Van Rijn Method: The Technic Civilization Saga #1 (Technic Civilization Series)

Read More...