Young Flandry

Small correction for the listing: the publisher is Baen, not Bean. This is also an omnibus containing three complete novels: Ensign Flandry, A Circus of Hells and The Rebel Worlds.

The Terran Empire is old, complacent and beginning the long decline that everyone can sense but nobody in government wishes to place on the agenda. Its administrators are preoccupied with rank, privilege and internal politics, while hostile powers test its borders and ambitious governors examine the Imperial throne from a speculative distance. Civilisation is deteriorating, but fortunately the paperwork remains in excellent order.

Into this twilight comes Dominic Flandry, initially a young ensign in the Imperial Navy and not yet the celebrated intelligence agent, seducer and professional nuisance of Poul Anderson’s later stories. He is clever, observant, ambitious and already developing the useful ability to recognise treachery before his superiors have finished dismissing it as administratively unlikely.

Young Flandry collects the first three novels of his career, following his rise from ensign to lieutenant commander. Across these adventures, Flandry learns that defending an empire requires rather more than loyalty. It requires deception, espionage, improvisation and an ability to remain charming while lying to nearly everyone in the room.

In Ensign Flandry, he is sent to Starkad, where two native powers have become proxies in the growing rivalry between Terra and the expansionist Merseian Empire. The Terrans support one side, the Merseians support the other, and the inhabitants of Starkad enjoy the traditional benefits of becoming strategically important to distant governments. Flandry soon discovers that the official mission conceals a much larger game and that his nominal allies may be nearly as dangerous as the enemy.

The Merseians are formidable opponents: disciplined, patient and entirely willing to encourage the Terran Empire’s decline while presenting their activities as reasonable foreign policy. They understand that a decaying civilisation need not be conquered immediately if it can be persuaded to mismanage itself. Flandry’s task is generally to ensure that the Empire survives despite the energetic assistance of its own officials.

A Circus of Hells finds the now more experienced Lieutenant Flandry assigned to the remote planet Ironclaw. What appears to be a tedious posting develops into an investigation involving criminal interests, Merseian intrigue and the mysterious rogue planet Wayland. Flandry sets out with Djana, a woman whose background and motives are considerably more complicated than the mission briefing might prefer.

Wayland is a wandering world filled with automated machinery left behind by a vanished civilisation. Its systems have continued operating, adapting and elaborating long after their creators disappeared, producing an environment that is ingenious, lethal and utterly indifferent to visitors. It is the ultimate triumph of unattended technology: everything still works, nobody remembers why and the customer-support department has been extinct for millennia.

In The Rebel Worlds, Flandry faces a crisis within the Empire itself. Admiral Hugh McCormac has rebelled against the corrupt regime of Emperor Josip III, apparently with honourable motives and substantial military support. Flandry must penetrate the rebellion and decide where loyalty lies when the government he serves is dismal but civil war may be worse. Saving a civilisation becomes morally awkward once one has met its management.

This tension runs throughout the Flandry stories. He knows that the Terran Empire is decadent and ultimately doomed, yet he also believes that its sudden collapse would bring a galactic dark age of conquest, fragmentation and suffering. He is not fighting for perfection; perfection has failed to submit the necessary application. He fights to postpone the Long Night and give civilisation a little more time before history switches off the lights.

Anderson combines large-scale space opera with political intrigue, hard-headed diplomacy and a deep interest in the rise and fall of civilisations. His galaxy contains alien cultures shaped by their environments, rival strategic interests and conflicts that cannot always be resolved by firing the largest available weapon. Flandry frequently succeeds because he understands what people want—and because what people want is often more predictable than what they claim to believe.

Flandry himself belongs to the tradition of the elegant imperial adventurer: resourceful, cynical, fond of luxury and noticeably attentive to attractive women. He can fight, negotiate, spy and seduce, occasionally doing several at once. Beneath the charm, however, is an increasingly sombre awareness that every victory is temporary. He may defeat a conspiracy or stop a war, but he cannot permanently reverse the movement of history.

This 2010 Baen collection forms part of The Technic Civilization Saga, Poul Anderson’s immense future history charting centuries of exploration, trade, empire and eventual decline. It includes an introduction by Hank Davis and a chronology by Sandra Miesel, useful for readers attempting to locate Flandry within a civilisation whose history is nearly as involved as our own but contains more habitable planets.

Ideal for admirers of classic science fiction, galactic empires, espionage stories and heroes who regard a diplomatic reception as both a battlefield and a dating opportunity. These are energetic adventures, but behind the starships and conspiracies lies Anderson’s melancholy question: what does an honourable man do when the civilisation he protects is no longer particularly honourable, yet the alternative promises to be considerably worse?

This copy is in Good condition, showing ordinary signs of previous ownership but remaining ready for renewed Imperial service. Offered by Crappy Old Books, it contains three full-length adventures in which Dominic Flandry saves a declining empire that barely appreciates him—excellent preparation for anyone who has ever worked competently within a large organisation.

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