Lord of Janissaries
Jerry
Pournelle and Roland J. Green
Baen, Sep 1 2015, $15.00
ISBN: 9781476780795
“Janissaries”.
In Africa, Cuban mercenaries trap American “soldiers” with no hope of
rescue as their CIA leaders write them off as expendable. Suddenly a flying saucer lands near Captain
Rick Galloway. Accompanied by Corporal
Art Mason, Rick meets three aliens, who offer him and his unit escape from
certain death. He and his men enter the
ship that takes them to the moon. Inside
the vessel Rick meets Agzaral the human who explains that they have three
choices: remain on the moon; become experiments; or accept the positions of
alien delegated overseers of another planet’s sentient beings.
“Clan and Crown”.
In his castle on Tran, Lord Galloway celebrates as his wife Tylara gives
birth to their child Isobel when a caravan arrives. Drantos Eqeta Ganton and his Companion
Marrone greet the American expatriate travelers Ben Murphy and Lafferty
Reznick, and their entourage. Murphy
explains that the south is collapsing due to floods, plague and civil war
between Caesars Marselius and Flaminius.
“Storms of Victory”. Galloway and Mason overhear a commotion
outside among the guards at a time when the human Shalnuksis pilot Les delivers
supplies. As a conference begins to
discuss Galactic Confederation geo-politics at a time when a world war seems
imminent; Mason and Marrone lead a search of the complex after finding the
corpse of a murdered sentry.
This omnibus reprints the three sensational
Janissaries military-political science fiction thrillers as the overarching
theme of transplanted humans from different eras and planets taking control of
a backwater orb holds up superbly.
Although lacking an overall series climax, this trilogy remains a
delightful anti-prime directive saga.
Harriet Klausner
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