Grimes

A. Bertram Chandler, The John Grimes Saga VI, Gateway To Never (Riverdale, NY, May 2015).

My daughter, Aileen, approached me carrying what looked like a volume of The Technic Civilization Saga, although I could not remember having lent her such a volume. In fact, she had purchased the John Grimes volume shown here. Like The Technic Civilization Saga, The John Grimes Saga has recently been published by Baen Books and Volume VI at least has been edited by Hank Davis. Consequently, the book design and style of cover illustration are noticeably similar. I am beginning John Grimes with Volume VI because this volume includes The Dark Dimensions in which Grimes meets Dominic Flandry. 

Will the planets visited by Grimes be concretely realized environments like those described by Poul Anderson or will they just be interchangeable empty stages for space operatic adventures? I should find out what Chandler's texts have to offer instead of judging them in advance against the high standard set by Anderson's works. 

Unlike the cover shown here, mine displays the quotation:

"SF's answer to Horatio Hornblower."

-Publishers Weekly

This description certainly applies to Flandry but maybe also to Grimes. The latter seems to rise through the ranks in the same way as Hornblower and Flandry.

On the back cover:

"As Asimov chronicled the Foundation, as Heinlein built his Future History, so Chandler constructs the epic of the Rim Worlds."

-Analog.

"[Grimes] establishes a loyalty in his readers rather similar to that felt by readers of Hornblower. Indeed [Chandler's] space operas are among the most likeable and well constructed in the genre...."

-The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

We get a bit tired of reading about Asimov and Heinlein as the standard references and comparisons within sf.

The volume concludes with "Around the World in 23,741 Days," an autobiographical essay by the author, of interest to your friendly neighbourhood blogger because it is partly about this country before I was in it, thus also a contrast to Anderson's biography.

After reading The Dark Dimensions, will I want to read and reread the entire Grimes saga as I currently reread the Technic History and some series by other authors? Only time will tell.