James Nicoll Reviews

Poul Anderson’s 1965 Agent of the Terran Empire is a collection of Dominic Flandry stories. Agent can be designated the first Flandry collection¹. That is at least open to question and might well be wrong.

Dominic Flandry! A man as skilled with a blaster as he is with subterfuge, a man as profoundly depressed at the state of the decadent Terran Empire as he is unable to imagine better alternatives. A man who can therefore be depended upon to do the necessary thing, even when it is the wrong thing, because the only other options are worse.

As was the custom in those days, Anderson did not assume that his readers would have read the other stories in the Technic series. Consequently, a number of the stories feature setting-establishing boilerplate. It’s short and you can skim past all but the first one.

Flandry is a more jaded James Bond IN SPACE! Or at least, he would be if Dominic Flandry had not predated James Bond. The first Flandry story appeared in 1951. The first James Bond novel, Casino Royale², appeared in 1953. Really, James Bond is Dominic Flandry ON EARTH!

The cover of this collection is an earlyish Michael Whelan. Whelan is arguably the best cover artist the Flandry books ever got. There isn’t a one-to-one mapping between the original collections and the later Baen collections, but as I had to suffer through the Baen covers, you do too.

If possible, always hire Whelan.

The only reason Flandry isn’t just the worst jerk in the Technic stories is because if Poul Anderson’s other series protagonist, David Falkayn, does not hold the title, Falkayn’s boss Nicholas Van Rijn might. In fact, the conflicts that shape the setting of the stories, from Earth’s vicious factional politics to the bitter rivalry between Merseia and Earth, are to a surprising extent the fault of Falkayn and Van Rijn.

The frequency with which Flandry mistreats women is entirely on Flandry.

A something that I missed during my avid Poul Anderson phase is that Flandy’s justifications are the same ones used by some of Anderson’s villains to excuse their egregious sins. It seems perfectly reasonable to read these stories as tales about a flawed man enabling terrible things for reasons that don’t stand up to close examination.

How do you sell a series about a man like Flandry? By providing stories with interesting puzzles at their heart, stories that draw us into solving the immediate challenge facing Flandry. No time to ponder if Flandry’s interpretation of large-scale events is correct when there are far more immediate problems, like saving the emperor’s favourite granddaughter!

Anderson had a clear idea of what he wanted to deliver his readers. For the most part he succeeded. If you’re looking for interstellar tales of espionage, this collection will do.

Agent of the Terran Empire is available here (Amazon UK).

Otherwise, this particular arrangement of Flandry stories appears to be out of print. Alternative arrangements are available from NESFA Press and others.

Now for the nitty-gritty.

Tiger by the Tail • (1951) • novelette

Kidnapped by alien Scothani, surprisingly well-armed barbarians who are bent on doing to the Terran Empire what the Empire has done to four million worlds, Flandry must exploit Scothani virtues to hurt his captors.

“The Warriors from Nowhere” • (1954) • short story

What at first appears to be a barbarian raid on an outpost world turns out to be a covert bid for power by an ambitious baron. Flandry must save the emperor’s favourite granddaughter, Lady Megan of Luna, before she is used as leverage on her grandfather.

The reason ​“barbarian invasion” is a reasonable cover story is because Poul Anderson had a sense of scale. The Terran Empire might have four million subject star systems (it definitely does, because we are reminded of that fact over and over) but the galaxy contains a hundred-billion-star systems, and trade routes conveying high tech to backward worlds long predate the Empire.

Honorable Enemies • (1951) • novelette

The dastardly Merseians are scheming to establish an alliance with a minor power, Betelgeuse. It’s up to Flandry to confound them. Problem: the Merseians have their own Interstellar Being of Mystery: Aycharaych, telepath supreme. How can Flandry outwit an enemy who can read his every thought?

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I vastly prefer Aycharaych to Flandry. I don’t know if Aycharaych’s name is significant, so don’t ask.

Hunters of the Sky Cave • (1965) • novel

A mysterious race of aliens invades and occupies the minor imperial world of Vixen. Normally this would invite a quick visit from the imperial navy, but the navy is tied up in a face-off with the Merseians. Flandry is sent to deal with the problem, which is, no surprise, less straightforward than it first appeared.

Lurex and Gold: Poul Anderson’s Dominic Flandry Series • essay by Sandra Miesel

A detailed essay on Flandry.

Miesel wrote a bunch of essays about SFF and SFF authors, which if assembled would make a large volume. You could assemble a smaller but still quite reasonably sized book from her essays about Poul Anderson and his works. Meisel was very enthusiastic about Anderson and his work… until she wasn’t (blame The Avatar).

1: Observant readers will note that the cover of the 1980 Ace edition proclaims this as Book 3. Ace appears to have numbered their Flandrys thusly: 1966’s Ensign Flandry (which Ace republished in February 1979) as Book 1, 1965’s Flandry of Terra (which Ace republished in July 1979) was unnumbered, and 1965’s Agent of the Terran Empire (which Ace republished in January 1980) as Book 3, which implies that Flandry of Terra was Book 2.

Ensign Flandry takes place in 3019 AD, Flandry of Terra covers events from 3035 to 3038 AD, and Agent of the Terran Empire covers events from 3032 and 3042. Ace’s numbering tracks their own publishing sequence, but it doesn’t line up with the original publication order or internal chronology if (as implied) Flandry of Terra is Ace’s Book 2. Unless there was no Book 2. What the hell, Ace? This sort of nonsense is why people turn to drink.

To make matters that much more annoying, I cannot tell from the sources available which of two books, Agent of the Terran Empire or Flandry of Terra, was published first. Therefore, because Agent contains the very first Flandry story, I am declaring it volume one. Pity, because I prefer Whelan’s cover for Flandry of Terra.

WELL, SERIES ORDER MATTERS TO ME. A LOT.

2: I’ve only read the one Bond novel. I think it was You Only Live Twice. Anyway, the one where someone wades into boiling mud. Didn’t like it, don’t plan on tracking it down.