Rereading A Stone In Heaven

Currently rereading Poul Anderson's A Stone In Heaven, I have completed Chapters I-VI of XIV. So far, Flandry has conversed with his servant, Chives, his adversary, Cairncross, and our heroine, Miriam/Banner. There has been discussion of Imperial decline and usurpation, Miriam's father who was Flandry's old mentor, Max Abrams, and the curious planet, Ramnu.

There has been one piece of action. Out of sight of Miriam, on the other side of her locked hotel room door, Flandry stunned a man who was trying to kidnap her. Opening the door, she sees a fallen form and a figure in a hooded cloak whom she recognizes as Flandry when he draws back the cowl - an appropriate way for our cloak and dagger (or blaster) hero to make his first appearance to the heroine.

But that piece of action is over in two short paragraphs. We have come a long way from Flandry's early action adventure stories in the magazine Planet Stories. A Stone In Heaven is a serious speculative novel about the future of mankind and about other forms of life.