The Duke of Hermes is suspected of planning a coup. Miriam/Banner's Ramnuan oath-sister, Yewwl, enters the commercial center, Dukeston, on a pretext and transmits what she sees: secret production of military equipment and uniforms and of more palladium than necessary for a civilian economy - maybe also military rations and fissionable isotopes. Yewwl does not leave Dukeston alive but Flandry, acting on what she has seen, attacks from space, destroying first a particular building in Dukeston, then the military base on the outer moon. That is enough. The Duke, already in space, seeking Flandry, flees and his movement collapses, crews either surrendering or disappearing. If only it were always that simple.
Flandry refers to his last expedition and we really do expect that he and Chives will die in space at the end. They dispatched Miriam to Terra in the Hooligan while they manually flew the warheads towards their final target but she returns to rescue them. Thus, Flandry reviews his life but happily it does not end yet. In fact, he and Miriam begin a partnership that continues in the next novel.
2 comments:
Hi, Paul!
While I agree that sometimes a simple plot or line of development is best for a particular stary, that is not always possible or desirable. I enjoyed the complexities to be found in A CIRCUS OF HELLS and THE REBEL WORLDS precisely because Poul Anderson made that complexity plausible or realistic, something which logically and naturally developed from both the plot and the characters. And the acts and deeds of those characters.
Sean
Hi, Paul!
To be scrupulously comprhehensive, I sould add that I have read criticisms of A CIRCUS OF HELLS by readers who thought the book either disjointed or more like two very different stories cobbled together in an unsatisfactory way. That is, the first part focuses on Flandry's deal with Leon Ammon and his investigation of Wayland while the second part focuses on Flandry and Djana's captivity on Talwin and the steps taken by the former to escape.
I can see the point these critics are making while not agreeing with them. My view is Poul Anderson was able to integrate such complexities of plot convincingly.
Sean
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