Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

Fairly good stories, some old stories reprinted. Usually one can expect anything by Poul to be good. Poul wrote these stories a long time ago. This book arrived very quickly, good bookseller.

Again, great stories from one of the grandmasters of SF. Only complaint, would love this in hardcover. Put all of Poul Anderson's Technic Civilization stories in hardcover, I would buy them again.

I am not particularly fond of Captain Flandry as a character. However, Davis's organization of Anderson's work is valuable and has provided new insights into how the "history" works, and why some of the stories were written. Recommended heartily to those who can put up with Flandry's arrogance.

When I received this book, I was embarrassed for my wife to see it because of the cover. Surely a better cover could have been created. The story was good but I would not recomment it to anyone because of the cover.