A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows

Flandry #7

by Poul Anderson

Raconteur, bon vivant, troubleshooter for the decaying Terran Empire, Dominic Falndry doesn't crave further danger in the service of galactic unity.

But duty calls, so it's back to the spaceways for the most elegant Special Agent is a hundred star systems--straight into the well-laid plans of his lifelong enemy Aycharaych.

Win or lose, though, the long night of human civilization is coming and Flandry knows it. How many more battles can he stand to win in a losing cause? And how many planets will die meanwhile?

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

184 pages, Hardback

First published January 1, 1975

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

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows was serialized in the October and December issues of If magazine in 1974. It's one of the later books in his Dominic Flandry series and sees the celebrated adventurer engaged in a campaign no less ambitious than trying to save the decaying Terran empire. He plays a clever cat-and-mouse game against a backdrop of interstellar rebellion and unrest. It's a good stand-alone story set near the end of Flandry's illustrious career and is one of my favorites of the books I've read by the very prolific Anderson.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I originally gave this 3 stars & am revising that upward slightly. It's an excellent story in many ways. Anderson puts it into his larger universe, although that isn't terribly important. I am glad that I'd read Trader to the Stars first, but that just meant I recognized a name & could place the story in his universal time a bit better.

There are several Flandry books & stories, I believe. I've read a couple of others here & there over the years, but remembered this as the best. That's about all I remembered, though. I found the story interesting, but not terribly gripping until the last quarter & then I couldn't put it down. Fantastic ending.

It's a twisty mystery & space opera of the finest kind. Excellent characters & full of political intrigue. I definitely recommend it.

[blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid Poul Anderson space opera that combines political intrigue with romance, as was his specialty. It's dark, of course, but not nihilistic. Great head fakes—the primary antagonist, barely seen in the actual events—is a telepath (and the eponymous knight, perhaps) so we know he's controlling things behind the scene, but not how much. There are so many ways for a story like this to go wrong, but it mostly works, because Anderson doesn't go for the cheap twist.

The word usage is noteworthy, I thought: Besides making up words for sci-fi purposes, he also derives a lot of words from slavic, since the main human population is derived from Serbia. He's not above just plain making up a word (e.g., "scrittle") and certainly not above using a word in its archaic sense. This works descriptively but sometimes can be a challenge when trying to figure out which of the four situations you're in.

Anyway, very typical Anderson story, so if you like him, you'll probably like this, or if you don't know his style, this is a pretty breezy short book to get to know him.

[Leif · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frank talk: I bought this from a local used bookstore because of its cover. On purchase, the bookseller remarked on how cheesy and fantastic the cover was. That's what we're dealing with here: an artefact of genre history, and not something to be mistaken for contemporary prose.

The story itself is meandering and yet also direct, much to its salvation, but the prose is... muddled and arch, frequently undercutting its aims through a kind of superfluous sophistication. About the characters, probably the least said the better.

I'll close this way, it's not the best Anderson I've read, and it's not something I'd recommend whole-heartedly. But it survives better than many of Anderson's contemporaries, and that's nothing to sneeze at.

[Pete · Rating 2 out of 5]

Several months ago I started reading Anderson's Flandry series in order of publication thinking that the books would get better as Anderson matured as a writer. This is mostly true, but this novel is a misfire--there is simply too much boring exposition about politics and the plot suffers. Like many of the previous novels, this one involves a plot by the Merseians and Aycharaych to disrupt the empire. Of course, there is a woman involved. The highlight of this book the revelation of Aycharaych's motives and why he is allied with the Merseians. Unfortunately, this part is essentially an epilogue.

[Baron Greystone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. Really a triumph of character development. We've seen Flandry grow from a callow green ensign to where he is in this book. We've followed the politics and power struggles and intrigue. This is the apogee of Flandry's adventures. Don't bother reading it if you haven't read all that comes before, because it will be wasted on you. But do begin with the early stories and work your way here. I can't recommend the journey enough.

[James Rickett · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last, so far as I know, Flandry, tying up several loose ends from prior novels.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Des · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strong entry in the series, though I wouldn't recommend it as an entry point.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great ending. Makes me wish Anderson had written something from Aycharaych’s POV.

Also, a joke near the beginning of the book made me actually belly laugh.

[Matt Sears · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't realize this was part of a series. Maybe it'd make a difference if I already like the main character and the world. At any rate, I had a hard time keeping track of the alien planets, the alien governments on those planets, and which alien races lived on which plant and was trying to stir up political discord where. The writing style is a bit flowery or high fantasy or something for my taste. It's a short enough book, but I had to power through the last hundred pages to get to s sort of interesting but not very satisfying ending. Not my cup of tea.

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A rare misstep in an otherwise solid series. The opening and closing pages are affecting, but every scene in between consists of exposition on exposition. Anderson describes alien scenery in exhausting detail, then has his characters explain the political situation in oblique characterless phrases, and then the scene ends. Scenes stack on scenes and the effect is stupefying.

Character also takes a knock on the head. Two characters have a romance doubly implausible - the characters are unappealing AND untrustworthy - so that the reader balks when they start cozying up. Self-pitying "mature" Flandry loses everything about the character that was appealing in the first place. None of the new characters introduced here are worth remembering. And the shift of focus from alien psychology to human robs the series of one of its greatest strengths.

Anderson is still a good writer, and some of the scenes (particularly the finale) are partly redemptive. But the overall result is so lackluster it's hard to recommend this to anyone but diehard fans of the series.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

The culmination of Dominic Flandry's story.


Let's begin with honesty. I know the limitations and strengths of this genre, and still found this book wonderful. Dominic Flandry was born in pulp magazine short stories, but he turns into as complex a character as Monte Christo (another pivotal hero born in short stories). This is the first Flandry story that I found superb in all regards. Poul Anderson finally moves beyond short story brevity to approach his characters and themes in firm detail. I found some incredible world building, emotionally powerful dialogue, and a great theme of mortality and purpose flit around the shadows of this book.

[Doug Dandridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dominic Flandry rocks.
Part of the Imperial Terra series, which takes place after the
Polysotechnic League, Dominic Flandry is an agent of Naval Intelligence
during the last days of the Empire. While the rest of humanity enjoy their
prosperity, ignoring the catastrophe to come, Flandry schemes and fights
across space to hold the dike in place again the coming of the younger,
more vital cultures.

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite of this series.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Dominic Flandry novel.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cool, loved this series my entire life.

[Dwagon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old-style SF; action-adventure, with not much characterization.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Flandry book - well written - I keep meaning to re-read these

[Chuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome space opera. Espionage agents clash in a Cold War on a galactic scale. Poul Anderson's writing is superlative.

[Anthony Faber · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another Flandry novel.

[SciFiOne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grade C-. Book A7.