Hans Molitor, Boy, Youth, Man, Hero, Leader

Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, March 2012), pp. 339-606.

Hans Molitor is:

(i) "...a boy who deserted a strait-laced colonial bourgeoise home for several years of wild adventure in space..." (III, p. 379);

(ii) "...the youth who enlisted in the Navy..." (ibid.);

(iii) "...the man who rose through the ranks without connections or flexibility to ease his way..." (ibid.);

(iv) "...the hero of Syrax, where the fleet he led flung back the Merseians and enforced a negotiated end to a short undeclared war which had bidden fair to grow..." (ibid.);

(v) "...the leader who let his personnel proclaim him Emperor - himself reluctantly, less from vainglory than a sense of workmanship, when the legitimate order of succession had dissolved in chaos and every rival claimant was a potential disaster." (pp. 380).

(We have read of Syrax before: another future historical reference.)

Thus, a potential series character. The course of Molitor's career intersects with that of Dominic Flandry. The latter worked with Hans' son, Dietrich, a few times during the fighting and, by the time of A Knight..., Flandry might be the only person left with whom Hans can talk freely. The Technic History narrative has passed over so much. We want a Hans Molitor collection and a novel about the Terran civil war. At least.