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Foreign Legions edited by David Drake
01/10/2005 . Source: Paul Hanley 
pub: Baen Publishing, New York, 2002. 378 page paperback. Price: $ 7.99 (US). $10.99 (CAN). ISBN: 0-7434-3560-5. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.baen.com
This is a book of 6 short and not so short stories by writers such as Eric Flint and David Weber based on the story 'Ranks Of Bronze', originally published by David Drake back in 1975. Essentially, the story is based on the fate of the Roman legions Crassus, one of the triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Pompey, who governed the Roman Republic, marched into Persia - present day Iran. It was a disastrous campaign with the Roman foot-soldiers harried by a combination of horse archers and heavy cavalry who could attack them at will. The army was destroyed. The Roman poet Horace lamented that Crassus' wretched soldiers takes a barbarian wife from his captors and grows old waging war for them. David Weber's original story supposes these captive soldiers were bought by aliens and thereafter waged war amongst the stars.
The new masters, federation, if not the (Star Trek) Federation, are able to use force to conquer worlds for commercial profit but only if they use equivalent technology. Hence the value of Roman soldiers.
I found all the stories excellent. 'Sir George And The Dragon' by David Weber has an English knight and his following, women as well as fighting men, rescued from ships foundering in a storm in the Channel. They are off to France to fight in the Hundred Years War but find themselves instead conquering stranger enemies.
Sir George frets under the tyranny of his alien master, a member of a rival trading guild to the one who owns the Romans. Despite their lack of technical knowledge, the English with the help of another subject race they call the Dragons turn the tables on their enemies and are all set to capture a starship and fly it home.
Whilst the stories are by different writers they have been organised to form a progression. In Eric Flint's 'Carthago Delenda Est', the Federation starts to become aware that matters are going awry. Some, such as Guild Investigator Yuaw Khta, suspect rogue humans are to blame. By the time he is able to convince his superiors that the Romans are responsible for some of the disasters that Guild forces have suffered, some of the slaves aboard their ship revolt and fly it to Earth. They want to rouse the population there to what is occurring and the likelihood that the Federation, which seems to have its own prime directive which is not to supply less technological beings with technology, will enslave them.
However, they are intercepted by Earth warships. Literally sea-going warships such as pensioned-off battleships which with the new technology have been lifted into space. The Romans have come home to warn their fellow Earthlings of the Federation.
When approached by a Guild fleet demanding submission, the Earth forces destroy them. Thereafter, they declare themselves a Guild and start conquering other Guild-occupied worlds but with their own agenda whilst using the Federation's own rules and habits against them.
I came across this paperback by chance and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you like war-like SF or just a good set of well-written stories, I think you will enjoy it, too.
Paul Hanley
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