The Game of Empire

Flandry #9

by Poul Anderson

Introduces Diana Flandry, the illegitimate daughter of Dominic Flandry, and her indomitable accomplice, Targovy the Tigery

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space Opera, Fantasy, Collections, Classics

278 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Pseudonym A. A. Craig, Michael Karageorge, Winston P. Sanders, P. A. Kingsley.

Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories. He received numerous awards for his writing, including seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards.

Anderson received a degree in physics from the University of Minnesota in 1948. He married Karen Kruse in 1953. They had one daughter, Astrid, who is married to science fiction author Greg Bear. Anderson was the sixth President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, taking office in 1972. He was a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America, a loose-knit group of Heroic Fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized in Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! anthologies. He was a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Robert A. Heinlein dedicated his 1985 novel The Cat Who Walks Through Walls to Anderson and eight of the other members of the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy.[2][3]

Poul Anderson died of cancer on July 31, 2001, after a month in the hospital. Several of his novels were published posthumously.


Series:
* Time Patrol
* Psychotechnic League
* Trygve Yamamura
* Harvest of Stars
* King of Ys
* Last Viking
* Hoka
* Future history of the Polesotechnic League
* Flandry

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm an on-again, off-again Poul Anderson reader, and have mixed memories of the Dominic Flandry series. I picked this one up on a whim -- Jo Walton has been rereading and recommending some old Poul A. books and the cover of this one caught my eye... (can't say why, lol)

I had fun with this one. The protag is Diana, a daughter of Flandry. She's an engaging character, as is her alien co-protag. The MacGuffin here is an Admiral trying to seize the aging Terran Empire, and it's... adequate. Fortunately, PA's world-building is at its best here, as is his writing. Old-fashioned planetary romance done right. Recommended.

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Diana is an engaging character, I loved the Tigery and the Woden characters even more. Flandry makes a small appearance to reward the heroes in the end. This was one I had not read before and as the ending to the Flandry series it is light-weight.

Now that Dominic Flandry is of an age more suited to deciding the fate of empires from behind the throne, others must take up the challenge of courting danger on strange planets filled with still stranger creatures. So begins the career of Diana and her faithful Tigery companion.

[Ari · Rating 1 out of 5]

I normally like Anderson. But I didn't care for this novel and had to struggle to finish. The setting is interesting, the premise and plot is a fine one, and the characters in concept are plausible but the execution didn't work for me.

The premise is that the Terran empire is wobbly and Admiral Magnussen stages a revolt and claims the throne. Meanwhile, the Mersians, the enemy aliens, are lurking and plotting and we don't know exactly what they are aiming at.

The nominal hero of the story is Dominc Flandry's daughter. She's the one named and blurbed on the cover. But in fact she does very little that matters for the plot except talk in an exaggerated dialect. She isn't aware of any of the political context, isn't trying to do anything about anything, and just sort of stumbles around looking wide-eyed and being flirtatious. Her alien companion Targovi is the one who does anything about the problem and resolves the central conflict. He'd be an interesting character if we could get more into his head and could follow him more consistently.

The story is heavy on description, light on action. The settings are interesting but the plot sort of plods. There are too many characters who we hear about and are perspective characters for a few pages and then disappear. We have no reason to care about them and I didn't.

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fantastic opening, introducing three new and interesting characters, that thereafter hits brick wall after brick wall of exposition, infodumps that seem pasted in directly from a worldbuilding file, and detached, frivolous discursions that attempt to increase the scope of the paltry narrative. All the promise of the opening - the characters and their worlds - is utterly squandered. A poorly handled mess from a fallen master that reads more like a cash-grab than a coherent and worthwhile story.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

A typical Anderson potboiler albeit more polished than many. The final book in the Flandry series chronicles an adventure of his daughter, Diana. Several important characters are aliens, and Anderson does a good job bringing these characters to life. However, the story is typical for a Flandry novel and involves a revolution against the Empire and a Merseian scheme. While written in the mid-eighties, the novel is quite dated. The idea that Flandry probably has many illegitimate children is treated lightly. In addition, while Diana was an engaging character, her characterization was quite shallow. I find it hard to swallow that she would feel no resentment towards her famous but absentee father.

[Baron Greystone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book from Anderson. Same setting, but little of Flandry in it. That turned out OK though. Although I'm currently reading all the Flandry fiction I can find, I still enjoy reading Anderson in general. I think it best if you're somewhat familiar with the series before you read this one, though.

[Des · Rating 3 out of 5]

REad a lot of FLandry. Most is pretty good. This didn't set my world on fire.

[Kiersten Powers · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little hard to follow the storyline otherwise great adventure

[Colin · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you are a serious fan of the Flandry series, then read this book. Otherwise, don't bother.

Dominic Flandry has only a minor part in this story, most of the focus being on his daughter, but in fact, not much really happens in this book.

[Dj · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at early young adult sci fi.
Sometimes the plot doesn't really seem to hold together and some of the things that are brought up seem very cliche now, but this is still a good read and one that while seeming a tad rough now was probably quite cutting edge in its time.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a late story in the Flandry series and the weakest of them to me. I still enjoyed it but it wasn't up to the standards of the earlier books in the series.

[Norman Howe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Daughter of Dominic Flandry is dragged into her father's profession