(Im)Plausibility

In a Matt Helm novel by Donald Hamilton and in a Dominic Flandry story by Poul Anderson, our hero allows himself to be captured in order to gather intelligence while trusting in his own ability to turn the tables and make his escape whereas Anderson's Un-Men - in his Psychotechnic History - allow themselves to be captured in order to lead their organization to enemy headquarters, a much more sensible arrangement.

Donald Hamilton like many other authors wrote thrillers set in the twentieth century so that their readers were familiar with the general background, e.g., the international conflicts of the 1960s, whereas Flandry operates on exotic extra-solar planets where his author has invested considerable ingenuity in devising alien environments, biologies and psychologies. As Brian Aldiss commented, science fiction authors work hard for their living.