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eBook Category: Science Fiction
eBook Description: In The Fletcher Chronicles we follow Dag Fletcher's extraordinary career in a collection of short stories. As Controller and trouble-shooter for European Space. Through his six year military stint with the Inter Galactic Organisation. His rise to Chairman in the Space Corporation. And, finally, elevated to General (retired). The Fletcher Chronicles also spans the career of John Rankine. Two's company was Rankine's first story--written in 1964. The Heart of the Flame his most recent--written in 2002.

eBook Publisher: Golden Apple, Wallasey, Published: UK, 2002
Fictionwise Release Date: April 2004

17 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [223 KB] , ePub (EPUB) [210 KB] , Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [196 KB] , Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [689 KB] , Palm Doc (PDB) [223 KB] , Microsoft Reader (LIT) [261 KB] , Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [241 KB] , hiebook (KML) [509 KB] , Sony Reader (LRF) [278 KB] , iSilo (PDB) [185 KB] , Mobipocket (PRC) [228 KB] , Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [269 KB] , OEBFF Format (IMP) [297 KB]
Words: 66951
Reading time: 191-267 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Portable Document Format (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

Every tale is told in a setting. When that setting is more than the tale, it is a History or maybe a Geographic Survey. The conflict that hooks the reader to follow the thread and turn the page is what lies between the men and the women who inhabit the space. And that dynamic has not changed much over the millennia.

There is a backdrop painted in to start a train of thought. It could be a castle or a cave or a Greek Expeditionary Force--anything that makes a credible excuse for the characters to enter and circle around. Nothing happens until somebody says--"I like the way you turn your head and smile."

The creation of a planetary web is as good a backdrop as any other for a journey of discovery. A space cruiser is an okay stage for the Power Executive to harbour emotions of passion or dislike for the elegant Communications Lieutenant. They share their destination with Darcy and Elizabeth or Anna and Vronsky.

And, anyway, the sophisticated world of Fingalna is no further outside the everyday experience of a dweller in Brooklyn or Manchester than the mannered world of an Eighteenth Century landowner is to a Twenty-First Century high-rise city dweller.

Dag Fletcher was imagined as the Hornblower of the Space Lanes. Basically diffident and prone to self-criticism, he has to talk himself into action. Once committed, he is an unstoppable force. Where Hornblower has a Ship-of-the-Line, Fletcher has a Space Cruiser and covers the immense distances of space by the adjustments of Rationalised Time.

So, all the reader has to do is to suspend disbelief and wait with growing interest to see how the wheel comes full circle and the two protagonists recognise that: "Amor Vincit Omnia,"--as the Prioress wisely had it! John Rankine. 17/10/2002