Poul Anderson 45 min read

Captain Dominic Flandry wakes aboard an alien ship, kidnapped by the horned Scothani who mean to conquer Terra, and who've just handed the Empire's ace saboteur the chance to wreck their plans.

Poul Anderson's 1951 story is a rousing military-SF space opera, an early Dominic Flandry tale. Vivid, witty, superbly told. Read it for classic Flandry, Anderson's dashing, cynical secret agent of a decadent empire, turning captivity into sabotage among would-be conquerors, in a fast, clever golden-age adventure of intrigue and derring-do across the stars.

In its time

Published in 1951, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

45 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Herman B. Vestal