pro libertate net

Obviously, my vacation reading list contains more books than I could possibly read during one vacation. The idea is rather to get started with a larger set of authors. The final author on my vacation reading list is Poul Anderson. Anderson wrote a lot of different series, primarily Science Fiction. For reading during my two summer weeks off I picked the first Dominic Flandry Novel: Ensign Flandry, first published in the sixties.

The novel describes a military / political conflict between the starfaring earth and some alien nation, mostly from the viewpoint of the young Ensign Flandry. The conflict focuses seemingly on one rather insignificant planet with two sentient races. Both races receive help from one of the two protagonist races, one of which is earth’s mankind. Though this is only a smoke screen. The ultimate goal is galaxy’s hegemony.

The novel is a nice example of the ways of international diplomacy. It is written within a futuristic Science Fiction setting. Yet, it could have been as well set on earth in our current time or immediate past as far as political or military strategy is concerned.

I wonder how Anderson develops his character Flandry in the next novels. So far, Flandry’s success seems to be a result of chance and accidents. Nevertheless – or maybe because of this –, he seems quite likeable.