Baen, 1985, $2.95, ISBN: 0-671-55988-5, 245 pages, paperback

There's nothing like a cover with an 11th century knight peering over the shoulder of a high-tech operator to get me to pick up a book. That, the author's name, and a 50-cent pricetag means instant purchase.

This must be one of Dalmas' early efforts, if not the first. No other book titles from him are listed, but I've read a number of his later works. Fanglith is satisfactory and shows promise, but is not as smooth as his later novels.

Basically, a teenage brother and sister must evade some Imperial Security cops and find their parents--who happen to be wanted (political) fugitives. The plot hinges on two points: brother was playing hookey from school and the cops never checked the school for his sister. Maybe they were parking at the Intergalactic Donut Shoppe, but it's a big if...

Ah, make that three points: they never check any of the outbuildings of the farm--and completely miss finding a fully stocked, fueled, and loaded spaceship in a barn.

Ah, make that four points: They neglect to leave anyone at the farm to catch any other fugitives. Good help is hard to find in a service industry, I guess.

Anyway, brother and sister fly off to the planet Fanglith, which is like 11th century Earth--an abandoned world some 646 parsecs away from the abandoned frontier. And they started on a planet 1100 parsecs from the central Imperial planet. The long arm of the law really wants the family, although they sent Barney Fife to nab 'em. Oh, and faster than light travel has been around for 30,000 years or so. Go figure.

Anyway, the teenage duo meet a teenage Norman knight, stage a rescue from another Norman lord, and try and evade the Imperial Security corvette (apparently full of Keystone Kops) sent after them. I recall reading another book a while back that had knights conquer the star-faring aliens in their spaceship, so this is somewhat derivative.

All in all, Fanglith isn't great, but it's not too bad, either.

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