This is the first book of the Poul Anderson series, "Flandry, Agent of Imperial Terra" and it was published in the mid-sixties. I say this up front because the book, story and characters live outside the copyright date and achieve that timeless quality you expect from authurs like Asimov, Burroughs and of course Poul Anderson. Flandry is just an ensign when we meet him in this story and at first, he doesn't even feel like the staring character. As the story unfolds, we expect more and more from our young ensign until the fate of Terra and other worlds hang on his every decision. Don't get me wrong, he's not made Emporer by books end. Through and through, he is just an ensign who plays the cards that are dealt him. It is said that great events make great men and we see Ensign Flandry take on a captivating shape. I haven't read the next books in the series, but have high hopes for the Long Night of the Terran Empire.

Murasaki star system contains a duo of inhabitable planets that orbit each other: Genji - a high-gravity world with a dense, soupy atmosphere; and Chujo - an arid, wintry world of canyons and wind-swept plains. Neither is perfect for humans - on Genji they must wear pressure suits in addition to getting used to gravity levels half-again as high as on Earth; Chujo is more forgiving, though it can be intensely cold. Both planets serve home to sapient races: the Ihrdizu of Genji - low-tech amphibians that congregate in small villages; and the humanoids of Chujo - aloof, mysterious beings that ignore the humans entirely. It is here that the first manned interstellar expeditions will arrive, bearing humans of all frames of mind - Earthlings and off-worlders, atheists and philosophers, mystics and iconoclasts...

Instead of being a collaborative novel, "Murasaki" is a mixed bag of science fiction stories that share a setting, each written by a different award-winning author. Mind the fact that the only interesting part is the fairly in-depth world-creation notes (included as appendices), and that the stories are pathetically shallow and lead virtually nowhere...

...That is precisely what I though about this "science fiction novel in six parts" prior to reading the last two parts, which are so refreshingly, profoundly excellent that I almost wept with awe. A mystery of interplanetary proportions is suddenly built up and then revealed in flying colors.

It's really a pity that the rest of Murasaki doesn't follow suit.

I became interested in this book after reading Otherness by David Brin. One of the short stories in Otherness is actually a chapter in Murasaki. The book itself is has a very intruiging storyline and I enjoyed reading much of it. The only problam I had was the mental transition I had to make with each chapter of the book, as they are all written by different authors.

All in all, I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who likes the work of Brin, Bear, Anderson, Pohl, Kress etc etc etc.. They all wrote parts of it.

A good read.

Imagine a rifle clip loaded with rounds of different caliber and type. That's the impression this book left on me. Just a bunch of loosely related stories of varying quality, all about a subject that I personally found less than interesting. "The Jungle" is approximately 1000 times better.

While this book won't be winning any awards it is still a good book. But only if you enjoy military Sci-Fi...