Plausibility

By contrast with the space operatic early instalments of the Captain Flandry series, A Stone In Heaven reads much more like something that might just possibly happen - accepting the premise of faster than light interstellar travel, of course. Whereas Duke Alfred of Tauria had abducted Princess Megan of Luna and hidden her in his harem, Grand Duke Edwin of Hermes merely fails to provide the Imperial legate with figures on the production and consumption of palladium, essential to protonic control systems, thus to military machinery. However, both Dukes plan rebellion and both are foiled by Flandry. Unfortunately, Edwin is the last Duke to be foiled by Flandry. In the following volume, the last of the Flandry period, Admiral Olaf Magnusson's rebellion is foiled by Flandry's daughter and her companions while Flandry himself awaits the outcome after being placed under arrest by none less than Magnusson. Again, it is plausible that Flandry should, for once, suffer such a reversal although it is far less plausible that this new team of Diana, Targovi and Axor would be able to carry out:

"'...a coup more dramatic and decisive than [Flandry] had dared fantasize.'"

-Poul Anderson, The Game Of Empire IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June 2012), pp. 189-453 AT CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE, p. 451.

Fortunately, the author is free to fantasize.

Again, in A Stone In Heaven, interstellar travel is made to sound as credible as trans-Atlantic travel:

"'...the Queen of Apollo arrives next week. She starts back to Hermes three days later, and first class accommodations are not filled.'" (III, p. 42)

We have become used to reading about small private space speedsters but a larger ship seems more plausible for such a long voyage.