Jerry Pournelle is probably most famous for having co-written Lucifer's Hammer with Larry Niven. That novel describes the aftermath of a huge comet impacting Earth. (It wasn't good, but people coped to the best of their ability.)
The novel Janissaries was written in 1981. Military SF at its finest, and it started out: Captain Rick Galloway and his men had been talked into volunteering for a dangerous mission in war-torn Cubaâonly to be ruthlessly abandoned when faceless CIA higher-ups pulled the plug on the operation. They were cut off in hostile territory, with local troops and their Cuban "advisors" rapidly closing in. And then the alien spaceship landed...
A few years later the sequels to Janissaries came out: Clan and Crown and Storms of Victory co-written with Roland Green. They detailed the further adventures of Galloway's band of human mercenaries basically trying to stay alive while dealing with various alien hegemonies, other kidnapped human military groups on the planet Tran. Did I mention that Rick also has to handle betrayal from nearly all sides?
Sadly, Pournelle died before finishing the series. Then Pournelle's son, Phillip, and the well-known author David Weber got together to finish the man's planned next book. In 2020 they published Mamelukes. They've done a good job of keeping the same style, with the swashbuckling, hell-for-leather, do-whatever-it-takes Rick Galloway.
In Mamelukes, Rick and his people keep on fighting to stay alive and to keep others alive as well, knowing that even if they aren't killed... if they win THIS fight against horrible odds, their alien employers are almost certain to wipe them out when they do so. Damned if you do, and damned if you don't.
But Rick has fought his way to a high standing on Tran. He's done well coping with the Byzantine Romans, medieval knights and Mongol raidersâ those other human mercenary groups who were also kidnapped by aliens and dumped on Tran as employees of varied alien factions. He isn't going to give up now.
The novel Janissaries was written in 1981. Military SF at its finest, and it started out: Captain Rick Galloway and his men had been talked into volunteering for a dangerous mission in war-torn Cubaâonly to be ruthlessly abandoned when faceless CIA higher-ups pulled the plug on the operation. They were cut off in hostile territory, with local troops and their Cuban "advisors" rapidly closing in. And then the alien spaceship landed...
A few years later the sequels to Janissaries came out: Clan and Crown and Storms of Victory co-written with Roland Green. They detailed the further adventures of Galloway's band of human mercenaries basically trying to stay alive while dealing with various alien hegemonies, other kidnapped human military groups on the planet Tran. Did I mention that Rick also has to handle betrayal from nearly all sides?
Sadly, Pournelle died before finishing the series. Then Pournelle's son, Phillip, and the well-known author David Weber got together to finish the man's planned next book. In 2020 they published Mamelukes. They've done a good job of keeping the same style, with the swashbuckling, hell-for-leather, do-whatever-it-takes Rick Galloway.
In Mamelukes, Rick and his people keep on fighting to stay alive and to keep others alive as well, knowing that even if they aren't killed... if they win THIS fight against horrible odds, their alien employers are almost certain to wipe them out when they do so. Damned if you do, and damned if you don't.
But Rick has fought his way to a high standing on Tran. He's done well coping with the Byzantine Romans, medieval knights and Mongol raidersâ those other human mercenary groups who were also kidnapped by aliens and dumped on Tran as employees of varied alien factions. He isn't going to give up now.
