Tiger And A Knight

In "Tiger by the Tail," the Terran Empire is a colourful setting for space opera: action-adventure fiction involving spaceships and sword fights. In A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, that same Empire has become the setting for serious speculation about the causes of civilizational decline. Flandry now works for a usurper and the experienced Imperial administrator, Chunderban Desai, expounds a cyclical theory of history. 

In "Tiger...," Flandry does not stay with Gunli because in those days he did not stay with anyone. And indeed, in this case, it would have been difficult for them to stay together. In A Knight..., he cannot marry Kossara Vymezal because she is assassinated. Thus, however the author contrives it, Captain Flandry remains a series with rotating heroines. Only in A Stone in Heaven, the single novel to feature Admiral Flandry as its central character, does he finally settle down with his old mentor's daughter, an outcome that Anderson cannot have anticipated when he peripherally mentioned Miriam Abrams in Ensign Flandry. In fact, adult sons and daughters of various characters become major players in the later novels of the Flandry period. Then the narrative leaps across several centuries from the novel about Flandry's daughter and Dragoika's son to the short story set during the Long Night.