Let us re-imagine Flandry's opening novel, Ensign Flandry, without Flandry's input.
Without Flandry
On Starkad in the Saxonian System, land- and sea-dwellers are natural enemies, like men and wolves on Earth.
Merseians back the sea dwellers so Terrans back the land-dwellers.
Lord Hauksberg travels from Terra to Starkad to Merseia to negotiate an end to the Starkadian conflict with Brechdan Ironrede, Protector of the Roidhun's Grand Council.
Commander Max Abrams, chief of Terran Naval Intelligence on Starkad, joins Hauksberg's delegation to Merseia as an expert on Starkad.
A Merseian cyborg spy, turned by Abrams, steals Brechdan's secret file on Starkad, a set of numbers requiring interpretation, but the cyborg is mortally wounded by blaster fire while escaping from Brechdan's office.
The Starkad file will not be transmitted to Terra or interpreted by Intelligence.
The Merseians will maneuver the Terran Fleet into mobilizing around the Saxonian System just as a rogue planet hits Saxo, destroyibg the star, its planets and the Fleet.
Terra will be defenseless.
With Flandry
Ensign Flandry, a Naval aerial reconnaissance pilot on Starkad, is shot down by Merseians but survives and returns to base having become a personal ally of the land-dwellers and also bringing a Seatroll prisoner.
Abrams, debriefing Flandry, sees his potential and persuades him both to transfer to Intelligence and to accompany him as his aide to Merseia.
Flandry daringly smuggles the Starkad data off Merseia, interprets it and conveys it to the Admiral on Starkad.
Fleet and Terra saved by Flandry.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Needless to say, the Merseians would have vastly preferred the first scenario!
I might have written this: "Brechdan's plan called for gradually provoking the Terrans into marshaling more and more of their Fleet around the Saxonian System before a rogue planet hits Saxo, destroying the star, its planets, and the Fleet."
Been thinking of reading "The White King's War," to see how it might differ from the final text incorporated into A CIRCUS OF HELLS. The original story is in one of my collections of Anderson's tales pub. by NESFA Press.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I have not got "The White King's War." I find the NESFA volumes unsatisfactory because they contain mainly previously collected stories and the few other pieces are not that good.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I am inclined to agree with you, even tho NESFA would probably argue they were focusing on republishing the shorter works of Poul Anderson. And I wish they would concentrate on collecting the stories and essays I listed in my "Uncollected Works of Poul Anderson" article.
Yes, some of Anderson's stories, esp. the earlier ones NESFA did republish, were not as good as later works. Which is not surprising, a good writer's duds tend to be his earlier efforts. E.g., "Genius" is one such failure.
But "The White King's War" should be good reading!
Ad astra!
Post a Comment