This is one of the stories written in Anderson's strongly anti-pacifist phase, like Operation Chaos. Interesting, it appeared in 1964, well before the major protests against the Vietnam War. It is also a forerunner of the plot of Ensign Flandry in which the Terran Empire and Merseia face off over a planet rather as the Solar Federation and the Aleriona face off here over New Europe, a human-settled planet near Aleriona space. In this one, Aleriona has taken the planet and claims virtually all the human population are dead. A Hungarian wandering singer (easily the most colorful character in the book, and one of Anderson's best, whose presence provides an excuse for including vast numbers of lively singable songs, reaches earth withe evidence that the humans on New Europe are alive a resisting, but he is ignored by peace-minded politicians until he wins the support of Gunnar Heim, a retired Space Navy captain with a successful company, who, with the legal backing of the French, sets off with a privateering ship, the Fox II (named for his Navy ship Star Fox) to raid Aleriona supply routes to New Europe. Stopping off in Staurn, a planet whose alien feudal culture cheerfully sells atomic weapons to all comers, he is briefly hijacked by a former lover now in league with earth's pacifists, but manages to trek back to safety (not unlike treks in other stories, notably Circus of Hells; both treks involve encounters with killing machines). Then after a successful series of raids he lands on New Europe to contact the colonists (and take a sample back to earth) but (very foolishly in my view) goes along to a parley with the Aleriona and is recognized and captured. He manages to rejoin his ship and meet the Aleriona leader Cynbe (a vividly tragic character) for a final battle. ( )

An oldie but goodie from the prolific Poul Anderson. This one pits an outpost human civilization -- New Europe -- against the distinctly nasty Alerionia. Terra won't help its threatened colony, so it's up to Gunnar Heim to save the day. Evenually, of course, he does. The book is deepened by the evocation of a distinctly European culture, and by Gunnar's rediscovery of a couple of lost loves -- and one new one. ( )

My feelings for this book are so biased by the super-crap pulp I'd finished before. But Anderson is a totally enjoyable author and the story never devolves into a tale of privateers (kind of bummed about that, but I understand why). He focuses instead on the enjoyable characters and a look at how different folks do it differently and how folks should probably remember that.

Enjoyable space battles and political lawyering. I didn't even get bored with those parts! ( )