Conrad Stargard series
The
Conrad Stargard series, in which a twentieth-century engineer travels back in time to thirteenth-century Poland. It consists of the following books:
- The Cross Time Engineer: Twentieth-century Polish engineer Conrad Schwartz is accidentally and mysteriously dumped in thirteenth-century Poland. He becomes friendly with the saintly Father Ignacy, who convinces him he is indeed in an earlier era. He meets a number of minor characters who figure in later books, such as the boatman Tadaos, and winds up working for Count Lambert, a relative of the Duke who rules over much of Poland.
- The High-Tech Knight: Conrad, now using the name Stargard because his correct name sounds too German, works to bring Poland into some advanced technology in order to meet the imminent threat of the 1241 Mongol invasion.
- The Radiant Warrior: Training creates an army of 150,000 trained soldiers. Twentieth Century techniques disturb Thirteenth Century society.
- The Flying Warlord: Count Lambert forces Conrad to divert his efforts into creating an air force. The Mongols invade, with tens of thousands dead on all sides.
- Lord Conrad's Lady: Lady Francine, a French woman known as one of the two most beautiful women in Poland (the other lives with Conrad, but as an heretical Moslem can't or won't marry him) maneuvers Conrad into marrying her.
- Conrad's Quest for Rubber: Conrad sends an expedition to South America, with disastrous effects due to unique diseases.
- Conrad's Time Machine: Conrad does not appear in this. This book explains the invention of the time machine and the people who control its use, incidentally providing explanations for their occasional interference in Conrad's behalf.
- Lord Conrad's Crusade: Conrad goes on vacation and ends up seeing the slave trade from the wrong side of the bars. Of course he escapes...only to end up an unwilling crusader!
Rubber and
Time Machine feature the same setting and some of the same characters, but are not 'main sequence' books.
Two omnibus editions of this series have been published by Baen Books:
- Conrad Stargard: Radiant Warrior, containing The Cross-time Engineer, The High Tech Knight and The Radiant Warrior.
- Conrad's Lady, containing The Flying Warlord, Lord Conrad's Lady and Conrad's Quest for Rubber.
Other books
A second series, partially in collaboration with Dave Grossman includes the books:
- A Boy and his Tank
- The War With Earth (with Dave Grossman)
- Kren of the Mitchegai (with Dave Grossman)
Again in collaboration with Dave Grossman he has started a third series:
- The Two Space War (with Dave Grossman)
- The Guns of Two Space (Forthcoming) (with Dave Grossman)
Other, stand-alone books written by Frankowski include:
- Fata Morgana (1999) (ISBN 0-671-57876-6)
- Copernick's Rebellion
Frankowski's most recent work has again featured Conrad Stargard. He wrote
Lord Conrad's Crusade in collaboration with Rodger Olsen, and promised another Stargard book which would conclude the series. Unfortunately, he will not complete it. On 25 December 2008, Leo died..