Seven Conquests: An Adventure in Science Fiction

This is a rather mixed bag of stories --the theme of "conquests" is only very loosely adhered to. The first story describes a coup against the former leader of Western European resistance against a now-defeated Soviet invasion, a hero who now thinks himself indispensible. The next story is about a group of time-travelling oil prospectors stranded in the Jurassic. The third story is about brothers on opposite sides in an interplanetary civil war; I think this sets up a twist ending unfairly; it says one brother tells the story '"in third person" but in fact it is told from the POV of the other brother, though not technically first person. It also assumes that the listeners who had heard of the success of one brother in turning the tide show more of the war would not be aware that he died in the victory."Inside Straight" is lot more fun, and involves a militarist space empire defeated by a culture based on sophisticated gambling. "Details" has some grim humor in assuming that the disastrous history of the 20th century on earth was due to mistaken interventions by well-meaning aliens.'License" is lighter again, assuming an exaggeration of 20th century America in which gangsters have become legal and unionized and kidnapping is a fairly honorable profession. "Strange Befellows" reminds me strongly of another Anderson story of the politics of supporting space enterprises. show less