Publisher's Synopsis
Lieutenant Francis Raleigh, a young officer on the cruiser Edward Russel of the United Colonies Space Force, gets in trouble as his guest and friend, a Chando Alien whom he called Floyd, beats up a powerful local politician. Albeit from a wealthy family of landowners, Raleigh finds it difficult to protect his friend from the ensuing legal proceedings. But then he is offered a fishy deal which could get his friend out of trouble. Soon, that issue is almost forgotten because Francis Raleigh is deployed with the cruiser Edward Russel to aid Alien allies of the United Colonies in their struggle against the Ourland Federation, a highly industrialised civilisation which ruthlessly pursues its interests. One dangerous event chases the other and Raleigh is busy with surviving, when he sees again the politician whom he had trouble with in his home town. But now, that fellow's role had changed completely. With the cruiser Edward Russel damaged badly and Francis Raleigh being held captive by galactic terrorists, only the good nose of a certain friend could help him.Dancing with the Dragon is a science fiction novel that takes the reader into a distant future, where Humans and Aliens cooperate, compete, and occasionally also fight with each other, on the background of advanced hyperspace technology. Society is determined by the clashes of different interests, the most powerful being the landowners who call themselves the First Arrivals, for they conquered other planets and built up their civilisations on these worlds. The following generations of immigrants are challenging the predominance of the old class of real-estate possessing rich families, which leads to intensive political struggles. When a great war breaks out between the major civilisations in the galaxy, this is due to vested interests and pressure groups using mass media to stir up hatred among the general population and set the course for a fatal clash of mighty empires.In the middle of these struggles lives Francis Raleigh, young and from a rich family, but nevertheless affected by the political and military struggles which are going on. Doing his best to survive and remain an honourable gentleman, he faces difficult decisions and is challenged to the limits of his abilities by the demands of a remorseless war and an unforgiving environment.Space Force Grunts tells the story of soldiers conscripted to defend the Human Alliance, a civilisation that has spread over thousands of worlds after the invention of hyperspace flight. The space force soldiers are fighting an enemy they don't understand in a war they did not choose. Space Grunts is told mainly from the perspective of the rank and file of the Human Alliance ground forces, who face an eminent foe, commanding over far superior means. Space Force Grunts tells about the feelings and thoughts of these soldiers, reports their talks and the trials and tribulations they have to go through, as well as the little pranks they play to each other and their superiors.Space Force Grunts is a Science Fiction novel playing several generations into the future. After the human race has invented hyperspace flight, thousands of planets were colonised. Those new societies maintained their independence until the human race encountered an alien civilisation that also mastered space flight and hyperspace travel. Being so very different from the human race, those aliens were at first not even recognised as an eminent civilisation commanding over impressive, seemingly sheer unlimited means and a proficient use of advanced technologies. When the mistake was discovered, it was too late already for avoiding a clash of civilisations and a violent conflict had already started. The worlds settled by the human race gradually united ever more under the leadership of a centralising political movement. Conscription was introduced to provide for the newly re-created military forces' need for soldiers.
