Captain Flandry, Poul Anderson
Captain Flandry, Poul Anderson
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Captain Flandry
Defender of the Terran Empire

Author: Poul Anderson

Narrator: BJ Harrison

Unabridged: 20 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 01/19/2021

Categories: Fiction, Science Fiction


Synopsis

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.

Contains mature themes.

About Poul Anderson

Poul Anderson (1926-2001) grew up bilingual in a Danish American family. After discovering science fiction fandom and earning a physics degree at the University of Minnesota, he found writing science fiction more satisfactory. Admired for his hard science fiction, mysteries, historical novels, and "fantasy with rivets," he also excelled in humor. He was the guest of honor at the 1959 World Science Fiction Convention and at many similar events, including the 1998 Contact Japan 3 and the 1999 Strannik Conference in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Besides winning the Hugo and Nebula Awards, he received the Gandalf, Seiun, and Strannik, or "Wanderer," Awards. A founder of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, he became a Grand Master, and was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Tim on January 27, 2012

You have to be aware that Anderson has always played a character. He makes me think of a cross between Mr. Rogers and Ralph Drabble in his bubble-pipe advance role. And he's always been a lecturer, very big on the "You see, ...." style with pages and pages of sociology. He's always been careful with......more

Goodreads review by John on April 05, 2011

Anderson used to be one of my "automatics," but now I just find all THE CONSTANT, LENGTHY, TEDIOUS LECTURES too obnoxious. I see that even in the early going, as revealed in this collection, he was doing it--so plainly it didn't used to bother me so much.......more

Goodreads review by Phoenix on August 21, 2018

The Best of Tales and the Not So Great Growing up I always admired the cynical roguish charm of Anderson's Dominic Flandry and I'm quite grateful to Baen and Hank Davis for republishing this series, which holds up well after all these years. Yet I hesitated on this second (of 4 volumes) as the first......more

Goodreads review by Ron on August 17, 2024

One of Anderson's greatest sentences is in this book. " We are the first ones they have to smash. Or so they believe. And so, we believe. Never mind what the unascertainable objective truth of the matter may be. Belief is what brings on the killing." Whether it is Ukraine, Gaza, or the Stars, war is......more

Goodreads review by Rob on September 28, 2010

...All in all I was not too impressed with this collection. Thankfully the two works really worth reading make up some two-thirds of the total collection so the four mediocre stories ending it don't make it a disappointment. Captain Flandry does suffer from repetitions of various kinds. Flandry or a......more