Lord of Janissaries - Jerry Pournelle and Roland J. Green

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