Dominic Flandry

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Dominic Flandry is the central character in the second half of Poul Anderson's Technic History science fiction. The space opera series is set in the thirtieth century, during the waning days of the Terran Empire. Flandry is a dashing field agent of the Imperial Intelligence Corps who travels the stars to fight off imminent security threats to the empire from both external enemies and internal treachery. His long-time archenemy is Aycharaych, a cultured but ruthless telepathic spymaster who weaves plots for the expansionistic, rival empire of the alien Merseians. Similar to James Bond, every new adventure brings Flandry another beautiful damsel to woo and rescue.

Flandry is a flawed hero who is not above partaking in the pleasures offered by his society's decadence. The illegitimate son of a minor nobleman, he rose to considerable power within the decadent Empire by his own wits, and enjoys all the pleasures his position gives him. Still he is painfully conscious of the impending fall of the Terran Empire. His career is dedicated to holding off for as long as possible the empire's inevitable final collapse and the subsequent "Long Night" of a galactic Dark Age.

Flandry's willingness to cross the line and use his foe's tactics against them included essentially mind-probing his own son into a vegetable in "A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows," and in that same book, bombarding Aycharaych's homeworld of Cherion into radioactive ruin to punish Aycharaych for his part in fostering trouble in the marches of the empire.

Flandry is featured in the novels Ensign Flandry (1966), A Circus of Hells (1970), The Rebel Worlds (1969), Agent of the Terran Empire (1965), Flandry of Terra (1965), A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows (1974) and A Stone in Heaven (1979). He also appears in the novel The Dark Dimensions (1971), part of the John Grimes series written by A. Bertram Chandler.