Flandry On Merseia

Life is one big adventure - if you are the hero of a particular kind of novel. Poul Anderson's Ensign Flandry recalls Robert Heinlein not only because it is part of a bigger and better future history series but also because it resembles Heinlein's Scribner Juveniles. On Starkad, young Flandry:

is shot down by Merseians;
travels on a merchant ship of the Sisterhood of Kursoviki;
fights Seatrolls;
comes to the attention of the Intelligence chief, Abrams;
is invited to recount his adventure to the Imperial envoy and his mistress;
visits a city of the seafolk;
becomes Abrams' aide and accompanies him to Merseia!

Maybe having an affair with the envoy's mistress en route does not quite fit with the role of a juvenile fiction hero? Flandry is nineteen and Persis is not his first. He has known what he was doing all along. It would have been interesting to read an account of Flandry's first sexual experience.

We have already considered some of Flandry's experiences on Merseia (see here) but rereading might reveal a few more details.