Pre-numbered label used for registration.

I bought this years ago at a large book sale. A group of mercenaries is transported by aliens to a world populated with soldiers from various periods of human history. I remember this as being a good story, but may have to re-read it.

This is the first book in a series.

I had forgotten more of this story than I thought. Upon opening the book and discovering the illustrations, I was prepared for a cheesy space opera, especially since the story starts with space aliens abducting a group of mercenaries from the jungles of Africa. However, from this rather pedestrian opening, the author has developed an intriguing story.

Set against a backdrop of an old and large galactic civilization that uses humans as administrators and servants, this is a story of survival. One race of aliens is illegally kidnapping humans and transporting them to a secret planet to cultivate periodic crops of an intoxicating drug. The mercenaries are dropped, with their equipment, into the middle of a human culture trapped in the middle ages. Can they gain the control and cooperation of the exisiting human society and produce the drugs required by the aliens? Should they even try? Can they use their twentieth century knowledge to help the humans prepare for the impending climatic shifts?

This book includes interesting analyses of military tactics from various periods of human history, together with a unique setting and a plausible science-fiction story. It also provides interesting food for thought, especially regarding the proper uses of military power and the use of advanced knowledge to improve the human condition.

The story continues in Janissaries: Clan and Crown, and I'm looking forward to continuing this adventure.

To be released at the 2007 BookCrossing Convention in Charleston, SC, 20-22 April 2007.