Mirkheim

from the back cover of the December 1977 Berkley Medallion edition A STAR EXPLODES and a billion years later, a galaxy explodes in war. When the heavymetal ruin of Mirkheim is discovered at the edge of Known Space, the gigantic planet becomes the center of a war that is fought in all the far reaches of Earth's dazzling and corrupt empire. This epic adventure of the end of a thousand-year civilization sweeps from hyperspace skirmishes in the radio glare of dark suns, to the bloody deals in the corridors of Earth itself, where the stars are traded like coins.

This novel takes place in the latter days of Poul Anderson's "Polesotechnic League" future history, which is part of the "golden age" of science fiction which began in the 1940s and extends perhaps into the late 1960s. (See my reviews of "Trouble Twisters" and "Trader to the Stars" for the basic premise of the series).In Mirkheim, the Polesotechnic League is a sprawling civilization encompassing many worlds and intelligent races. Unlike many other science fiction prognostications of the future, the Polesotechnic League is based on commerce--none of this "Star Trek" stuff about people not needing money and so on. Here, people and aliens act pretty much like humans do today, and for the same reasons. This means that while charitable and ethical motives exist, people and some aliens alike are out to make a buck (well, a credit). Notwithstanding this similarity to present day humans, Anderson does manage to make his aliens different from humans, and he generally has a pretty good scientific basis for these differences. His speculations along these lines are often quite interesting.In this novel, the Polesotechnic League is faced with essentially a civil war between two rival factions, for mysterious reasons that the protagonists, Nicholas Van Rijn, David Falkayn and his "Trouble Twister" team, are trying to understand and overcome. This is really a conflict between freedom and big government, and there is some typically Poul Anderson debate about the desireablity of big versus small government. My only complaint about the novel is that it ends on something of a depressing note.This is a "must read" for readers who have enjoyed other Poul Anderson stories set in the "Polesotechnic League" universe. A very interesting and readable yarn.