Reading in timeline order and there is a big jump between books. This one has Flandry with a grown son almost 27. His life seemed like it was on the upswing, a son he liked and enjoyed spending time with, a new woman who brought love into his life and then he loses it all. Then he has to destroy a treasure planet to stop an old enemy. I confess, my very favourite character in all these books is CHIVES. ( )

Spoiler warning: This is a well-written book about one of my favorite characters, but the plotline is extremely depressing. Just about all the important characters end up unpleasantly dead, except Flandry and his faithful "man" (actually Shalmuan) Chives. It begins with Flandry enjoying meeting his son Dominic Hazeltine (by Persis d'Io in Ensign Flandry). The son is also in Terran Naval Intelligence, and tells him about an alleged attempt at provoking rebellion on the planet Diomedes (site of the Van Rijn story War of the Wingmen aka The Man Who Counts) supposedly sponsored by a team from the "Serbic" culture planet Dennitza.The team had allegedly been killed except for one young woman, Kassara, niece of the autonomous ruler of Dennitza (the planet is part of the Terran Empire, but chafing at an imperial attempt to absorb its independent self-defense force). Kassara (improbably) is supposed to be sold to a brothel, but Flandry rescues her (virginity intact). She has been implanted with false partial memories to conform the subversion story, but Flandry is able to break them and find she had in fact been sent by her uncle to find out why people who were supposedly Dennitzan were engaged in a plot contrary to their ruler's intentions. It turns out the "Imperial Intelligence" people who had captured her and submitted the false report about subversion were in fact Merseian agents led by Flandry's old rival the non-Merseian telepath Aychraych. Flandry and Kassara (who have fallen in love and plan to marry) return to Dennitza to reveal the truth to the Dennitzan parliament, in the course of which shooting breaks out and Kassara is killed, though the Merseian agents are defeated and the possible Dennitzan revolt against the empire averted. One of the Merseian agents turns out to be Hazeltine; in a very painful scene, Flandry forces his son to admit his role and then has him subjected to hypno-probing, which destroys his mind (as he is deeply conditioned against it) . The probe reveals the location of Aycharaych's home planet, where it turns out he is the only surviving member of his people (though he has fooled the Merseians into thinking otherwise). Flandry, after scouting the planet, leads a Dennitzan strike force in destroying it, despite the remains of the once-beautiful culture there. Presumably, Aycharaych, head of Merseian Intellegience, is killed, as a reprisal for his plot against Dennitza. Flandry come back successful but devastated to take part in the burial of Kassara. (There is a brief postscript saying she later becomes a saint in the planet's semi Eastern Orthodox religion, of which she was a devout member. One possible error --at one point Anderson has her reciting a western-style Ave Maria instead of an Orthodox prayer to the VIrgin.) Overall, the book is very sad, and Flandry's trademark wit and cheerfulness rarely appear. ( )

The last (for me) Dominic Flandry tale. Pretty good interstellar intrigue. ( )

In his never-ending battle to hold back the Long Night that faces the crumbling empire, Sir Dominic Flandry investigates a planetary system where some sort of intrigue threatens unity. The intrigue turns out to be more than a local incident, but a major threat to the empire from the reptilian Mereians which seeks to weaken the empire for future war. Good story. Great finish from one of the best of the science fiction fraternity of writers. ( )

Cool, loved this series my entire life. ( )