This is excellent book in the vein of old-time adventure story, with thinking hero and people around him who are aware of the world around them and know very well realities of life.

Terran Empire, at its zenith, is fighting proxy war on a remote planet against their nemesis, Mersian Empire, the new super power on the horizon. Nobody knows why exactly are they on this planet, backwater as it is except they know that if their enemy wants to stay there then they need to prevent that from happening. People are drawing parallels with Cold War but this is story as old as people themselves - Rome vs Carthage, Rome vs Parthia, before that Alexander vs Persians, then Alexander's inheritors fighting between themselves, all the way to Dutch vs British, British vs French, Britain vs Spain, Great Game between Britain and Tsarist Russia etc etc etc. You get the idea- everybody following that old rule "I have no idea what I am doing here except to prevent you form making the foothold".

So on a remote world where Terran's back the land people and Mersians the inhabitants of the oceans proxy war is waged. And with every day it becomes uglier and uglier, escalating to direct confrontation between Terrans and Mersians. It is obvious something is happening in the background and lord Hauksburg, Terran representative decides to try to broker the peace before things get out of control. Everyone in the field is aware that Mersians are not that much interested in the peace itself (and Terran hawkish politicians are the same) but Hauksburg decides to give his best because alternative is utter destruction.

What happens next is a truly epic space opera - spies, politics, assassinations, theft of top secrets, treason, you name it, it is in this book. Our protagonist Flandry, junior Terran navy officer, attracts the attention of old spymaster Abrams and this puts him into the spotlight, for he will soon become key player in the games orchestrated by others and every wrong step he makes might be the last for the humanity.

Characters are just great - from Flandry, strong-headed, easily impressed nineteen year old junior officer who just inhales all the wanders of the alien civilizations but keeps his mind straight and what is most important (especially these days) he thinks with his head and uses all the lessons given to him by his training and more experienced commanders (does not let his emotions control him). On his journey he meets brave men and women (and women characters here are wonderful characters - from the Tigress leader that is not afraid of cutting a few heads to protect her clan and is fiercely loyal and fond of Flandry for the help he provided to her people to Persis, Hauksburg mistress, not just pretty head but a strong woman who knows what she is and what she can get) and this helps him to grow up (ahead of time, but alas such is his position).

Way that the story told is somewhat strange. On the one hand you have way that characters speak which is all "Arrr, me seamen, arrrrrr" like they all came from the golden age of sail - this was most disconcerting thing for me because in some parts I would be left to, arrrrr, scr'th me head 'bout w'at thee tried to tell me matey, arrrrrr. And on the other hand you have wonderful set piece where cyborg, now fully machine and without anything that relates to its biological self, communicates with the vehicles and weapons, breaks through electronic defenses in a way that gave me Cyberpunk goosebumps, and finally survives in a manner that would not be strange to find in Jon Williams', Neal Asher's or Banks' book. Not to mention space battles with huge ships obliterating each other in missile salvos and direct gunfire that brings memories of Star Wars, Starfishers and (regarding the physics, vulnerability and agility of ships) Expanse. Action is wonderful and keeps you glued to the pages until the very end.

And to complement all of this there is very rich description of both empires, cultural differences, intrigues, spy actions, and people and cultures involved in the war on the barren rock in the middle of nothing. Even the very twist at the end sounds so real - politic is very bad business (unfortunately it is necessary evil, there are some parallels with whoring but cannot remember the correct quotations) and what is one day said to be ideal to sacrifice everything for, tomorrow is so easily dismissed, all victims, all destruction just get pushed under the carpet like it never happened and field of destruction (usually third party) is left devastated and to its own devices, while they get deleted from super power's history and memory. Here similar thing happens but mixed up with pride of the native people that hated each other for millennia and are not easily swayed to actually save the lived of their own men, women and children from the coming disaster.

Book is so contemporary and it shows on every page, every comment related to politics and war. I just wish that dialect used is more modern and not something that is usually heard in old shanty songs.

Highly recommended to fans of space opera, spies and action oriented Foundation-like story. Now that I think of it entire book reminds me of Vorkosigan saga, another beautiful space opera with excellent characters and very live and realistic universe.

I am definitely looking for other books in the series. ( )

http://pro-libertate.net/20090822/89-read-ensign-flandry ( )

The backstory of Dominic Flandry, pilot, spy and patriot to the Terran Empire.

"No, son, we're mortal- which is to say we're ignorant, stupid and sinful- but those are only handicaps. Our pride is that nevertheless, now and then, we do our best. A few times we succeed. What more dare we ask for?"

Re-read 12/3/2022. ( )

The origin Novel about Dominic Flandry, once a Space officer, and how he got into the real business of saving, if not worlds, at least, sentient races. It is one of Poul Anderson's better books. Mine was the 1966 Ace paperback. ( )

This is the first in chronological order (not writing order) of the Flandry stories about a dashing agent of a corrupt decaying Terran Empire trying to stave off collapse and more particularly the Merseians, an aggressive reptilian/humanoid feudal but technologically advanced culture. In this book, Flandry is an inexperienced young Ensign in the Terran space navy, originally a pilot, not a spy. He helps the landbased Tigery alien culture of the planet Starkad old off the sea-based "Seatroll" people who are backed by the Merseians, and then is drawn into attempts to negotiate a settlement of the conflict led by Hauksberg, an ambitious high-ranking Terran imperial politician who believes in reconciliation not only on Starkad but with the Merseians overall, a view not shared by Flandry or his mentor Abrams, a neoIsraeli Terran intelligence officer. There are echoes of the later Cold War period in which the story was written, but the rival Starkadian cultures are vividly described, as usual for Anderson, and even the Merseian leader is portrayed sympathetically. Ultimately, while on Hauksberg's futile mission to merseia, Flandry is able to retrieve information from a Terran/Merseian double agent and (aided by Hauksberg's concubine Persis d'Io) escape with the data back to Starkad. Anderson later creates ink back to these events in later stories about the older Flandry: the two peoples from Starkad, now transported to Imhotep, appear in The Game of Empire, Persis's son by Flandry appears in a later story, and Flandry finally marries Abrams's daughter. ( )