Mamelukes, 4

THE FINAL NOVEL BY LEGENDARY AUTHOR JERRY POURNELLE, WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR DAVID WEBER AND AUTHOR'S SON PHILLIP POURNELLENO REST FOR THE WEARY Rick Galloway's still not sure what inspired him to volunteer to fight Cubans in Angola, and he certainly never expected to end his African adventure shanghaied by a flying saucer when his CIA superiors cut him and his men adrift as the Cubans overran their final position. He didn't expect to end up on the planet Tran, God only knew how many light-years from Earth, raising drugs for an alien cartel under the auspices-more or less-of a galactic civilization administered and run by a slave class of humans for their alien masters, either. But he did. And since then, he's survived mutinies, civil wars, battles against Byzantine "Romans," medieval knights, and Mongol raiders on a world where catastrophic "climate change" races unchecked through a 600-year cycle. Along the way, he's found love, lost it, found it again, and become a great noble . . . all the while knowing his alien "employers" will probably nuke his people back into the Stone Age when they're done. He's managed his impossible balancing act for thirteen years. He's lost people he cared about, been forced to do things he's hated, and tried along the way to make life better for the people trapped on Tran with him, and he's tired. So tired. But now, everything has changed . . . again. New Starmen have arrived on Tran, with dangerous gifts and star weapons of their own. Everything Rick Galloway thought he knew about his mission on Tran is about to be turned on its head. And everyone expects him to fix it. About Mamelukes: "It's a thick, meaty book of alien cultures, historical forces, military and political strategy . . . and one man determined to protect the people and things he loves. A fine capstone to the Janissaries series, well worth the wait (if not the circumstances)."-Analog About Jerry Pournelle: "Possibly the greatest science fiction novel I have ever read."-Robert A. Heinlein on The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle "Jerry Pournelle is one of science fiction's greatest storytellers."-Poul Anderson "Jerry Pournelle's trademark is first-rate action against well-realized backgrounds of hard science and hardball politics."-David Drake "Rousing. . . . The best of the genre."-The New York Times "On the cover . . . is the claim 'No. 1 Adventure Novel of the Year.' And well it might be."-Milwaukee Journal on Janissaries