The Grandfathers' War

The Grandfathers' War is Murray Leinster's biting satire of generational conflict, transported to the stars. Calhoun, medical officer aboard the Med ship Aesculapius, arrives at Canis III on a routine humanitarian mission, only to find the planet blockaded and himself hauled out of hyperspace by an unidentified force. The war he stumbles into defies logic: the planet's population has split into two factions fighting with the peculiar fury of parents versus offspring, a conflict the title makes deliciously explicit. Calhoun, accompanied by Murgatroyd his chameleon companion, must navigate this absurd intergenerational battle while trying to fulfill his actual mission: healing the wounded. Leinster uses the mechanics of interstellar travel and communication to poke fun at how wars can persist between peoples who should know better, while exploring what happens when a society tears itself apart along generational lines. The result is a propulsive adventure that works as both space opera and sharp social commentary on the follies of intergenerational conflict.