This year, I’ve read a lot of sci-fi, especially classic space opera, because of a reading list I found on the Traveller RPG wiki. One of the series listed as a “Primary Inspiration” for Traveller was the Saga of Dominic Flandry by Poul Anderson, which begins with Ensign Flandry.

Ensign Flandry tells the tale of Dominic Flandry, a recent graduate of the Terran Empire’s naval academy serving an assignment on what’s considered an unimportant backwater world, where the Merseian Supremacy has nonetheless set up supporting one side of a conflict. He gets dragged into a conflict larger than he expected when he is dragged off-world as part of a diplomatic mission.

The conflict involving a young military man getting drawn into a huge interstellar conflict is a common one in space opera, and Anderson does a great job with that part of the book. Where the book suffers for me is where it begins to show its age, having first been published in 1966.

There are multiple moments through the book where sexism or racism poke through. The stereotypes characters make toward the alien species all parrot real life racism. Then there’s the sexism that shows through as Flandry talks about the Tigeries. They’re cat people. But the women nurse their young with blood. So the blood flow makes the tiger boobs extra perky, and also that extra blood supply is what lets these women be the smart ones of their species.

If you want to take a look at classic sci fi and see how some of the “fresh eyes solve problems” tropes started, the plot is a fun one to read through. Just be prepared for the attitudes of the era to show their age.