Saturday 25 February 2023

Scotha And Dennitza: Compare And Contrast

In The Technic Civilization Saga, the pre-Flandry periods comprise twenty-four instalments collected in three omnibus volumes whereas the Flandry and post-Flandry periods comprise nineteen instalments in four omnibus volumes. There are more full-length novels as the series proceeds.

Volume IV is Young Flandry. Volume VII, Flandry's Legacy, features Admiral Flandry and the post-Flandry periods.  Thus, the earlier-written Captain Flandry series is collected in Volume V, Captain Flandry: Defender of the Terran Empire, and Volume VI, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight of Terra.

Captain Flandry began in "Tiger by the Tail" (1951) and ended in A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows (1974).

In "Tiger...," Flandry:

visits the extra-solar planet, Scotha, inhabited by horned humanoids;
has an ambiguous relationship with the Scothan Queen Gunli;
foments revolutions that destroy the Scothanian interstellar empire;
thus, prevents Scothanian attack on the Terran Empire.

In A Knight..., Flandry:

has been knighted;
so far, has avoided promotion to Admiral;
visits the extra-solar planet, Dennitza, colonized by human beings and Merseians;
becomes engaged to the niece of the Dennitzan head of state;
prevents Dennitzan secession from the Terran Empire.

Thus, there are some parallels between the original short story and the eventual novel.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

But Flandry received the rare honor of a knighthood long before A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS. We first see him addressed as "Sir Dominic" in "Honorable Enemies."

I think it was mentioned somewhere Flandry was knighted because of how he scotched the Scothan threat.*

Ad astra! Sean


*Apologies for the bad semi-pun!

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

Thank you for pointing out that there was a pun.

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I wasn't sure it would be noticed!

Ad astra! Sean