Foreign Legions (Hardcover)

~ (Author), David Weber (Author), Eric Flint (Author) "In 1975 I was finally able to write a story that had been knocking about in my mind for tell years..." (more)
Key Phrases: Sir George, Clodius Afer, Centurion Froggie (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his introduction to this solid shared-world anthology, laid in the universe of his novel Ranks of Bronze (in turn developed from a short story reprinted here as the first item), military SF author Drake explains the book's venerable premise: human soldiers (in this case, Romans from the lost legions of Crassus) have been enslaved by star-traveling aliens who need low-tech mercenaries. Of the stories, David Weber's "Sir George and the Dragon," Drake's "Lambs to the Slaughter" and S.M. Stirling's "The Three Walls 32nd Campaign" are all conventional if substantially above-average military SF. (It's hard to resist a centurion nicknamed Raninunculus, i.e., "Froggy.") Mark L. Van Name's "A Clear Signal" distinguishes itself by its focus on the ethical issues created for humans by access to the aliens' high technology and for aliens by access to a supply of desperate human beings. Finally, Eric Flint's "Carthago Delenda Est" combines passion and zaniness in about equal measure, a mixture that has worked for its author in novel length and now seems to prosper in his shorter pieces. Neither the basic proposition nor most of the development in individual stories will win high marks for originality, but military-historical scholarship and narrative techniques are another matter, as one might expect from the roster of authors. In addition, one learns a good deal about the background of the Roman guilds and federation and how a "benign" federation might look from the point of view of its illegal immigrants doing its dirty work.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Drake's previously published story of an interstellar interpretation of a portion of Roman history ("Ranks of Bronze") becomes the touchstone for this collection, which focuses on the starfaring descendants of displaced Roman legions. From David Weber's revision of the legend of St. George ("Sir George and the Dragon") to Eric Flint's tale of a far future Roman empire ("Carthago Delenda Est"), the six stories create a satisfying fusion of ancient history and far future military sf suitable for most libraries' sf collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Baen; 1St Edition edition (May 22, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671319906
• ISBN-13: 978-0671319908
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,448,238 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Drops you into battle and plays you out with music, May 22, 2001

By	Geoffrey Kidd (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

One of David Drake's earliest stories (and one of his best known), is "Ranks of Bronze", which leads off this volume of tales. "Ranks" dealt with a short, ugly campaign by a group of bought-and-paid-for Roman Legionnaires, the survivors of Crassus' utterly disastrous Parthian campaign. To the aliens, the primitive humans are useful puppets who can be used to conquer other primitive worlds. But THESE puppets have swords, which can cut strings... and their masters' throats.

The stories in this volume range from non-stories like S. M. Stirling's "Three Walls", which is a fairly dull run-of-the-action description of a battle, turned into a story only by a throwaway moment at the end which warns of what is to come in the final story.

There's also "A Clear Signal", which doesn't really feel as if it fully belongs in this book, since the political circumstances described don't match anything else, nor do the Romans even get mention. It's not a bad story, but it really belongs elsewhere.

Drake himself contributes "Lambs to the Slaughter", which I'd call the sprightliest tale in the book, being how one underofficer, known to all and sundry as "Froggie", manages to outwit both his masters and his enemies. I laughed like hell at the ending of this one, and Drake doesn't usually do that for me.

David Weber contributes "Sir George and the Dragon," which serves both as solid entertainment and as a reminder that humans are dangerous, whether they be Romans or English, and a tribute to what has probably been the finest weapon of battle ever created, the English Longbow.

Finally, Eric Flint's "Carthago Delenda Est" is the treasure of this volume, and it was worth getting this volume for this story alone, even without Weber and Drake's work. I don't want to spoil it, but read the other stories first, then read "Carthago." The beauty of this one is that you have to read the story to understand both why and how it ends, and in my case, it took me a few seconds to puzzle it out, but the reward for doing so was to know true joy.

Well worth the time invested.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable set of stories by several authors, September 21, 2006

By	Woofdog (Miami) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Foreign Legions (Mass Market Paperback)

overall this was an enjoyable read. comments on individual stories/authors follow

ranks of bronze (short story version) - you can see why this was so intriguing drake was pushed for a novelization.

sir george and the dragon - it seemed a bit dull, probably because in great part it is a re-run of the original novel with another set of humans.

lambs to the slaughter - dry drake story, he didn't show any occupation-force/pacification activity in original story, wonder if this is an afterthought.

a clear signal - interesting concept, though half the story being flashback to establish relationship between protagonist and antagonist was dull as dirt. this could easily have been a generic SF story ported to the ranks of bronze universe by simply changing the nature of the aliens, there is really nothing else involving drake's concept here.

the three walls/32nd campaign - roman legion in another battle, with familiar characters. written pretty much in character, straight military story

cartago delenda est - the most interesting of the stories - what happens after the legion returns to earth, and the guild figures out where they have gone with the missing ship. overall flint does a good job with this, though i am baffled as to why he needs to have a 'funny' character in his stories. In this case clodius afer becomes the 'funny' character, with his wailing and moaning during one battle sequence. I do think the conclusion could have used some more expansion (despite getting the historical reference to the ending of the third punic war, something the title gives away anyway with cato's famous mantra), but what do i know...

1.0 out of 5 stars Foreign Legions, December 22, 2008

By	Melvin E. Clark "Martial Artist" (Lynchburg, VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Foreign Legions (Mass Market Paperback)

One of rare works of science fiction that just could not hold my interest. I never finished it.