The remorseless aggressors had everything in the galaxy on their side--except the little idiosyncrasies of the human mind!
the perspiringly earnest King Humphrey the Eighth as a tyrant. There were titles, it was true, but they were life appointments to the planet's legislative Upper House. Kandar was a tranquil, quaint, and very happy world. There were few industries, and those were small. Nobody was unduly rich, and most of its people were contented. It was a world with no history of bloodshed--until now.
Bors brushed absently at his uniform as he walked the two hundred yards to the palace. He abstractedly acknowledged the sentries' salutes as he entered. Much of the palace guard had been sent away, and most of the palace's small staff would hide from the Mekinese. The aggressors had a nasty habit of imposing special humiliations upon citizens who'd been prominent before they were conquered.
He went unannounced into King Humphrey's study, where the monarch conferred dispiritedly with Captain Bors's uncle, the exiled Pretender of Tralee, who listened with interest. The king was talking doggedly to his old friend.
Like many of Leinster's books, this is typical sci-fi space opera--an adventure set in space. It's a diverting, light-hearted story.
Its main theme is similar to that of an episode of Star Trek DS9 in which three eccentric people with very special talents make predictions about the future of the federation in its war with one of its mortal enemies whose name escapes me at the moment.
It also reminded me of Asimov's Foundation series which used of the science "psychohistory" to predict the future. However, in Talents the predictions are much more short term and based more in the paranormal than in science.
If you like this book, try the Foundation series which is much better.
