Jerry Pournelle (1933-2017) was best known for his hard science fiction collaborations with Larry Niven. These days, he takes heat for his paleoconservative politics and racial and gender stereotyping. He served in the Korean War and was a student of military history. Janissaries was published in 1979, five years after Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War and the same year as David Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers. Vietnam made endless war a natural theme. The Forever War is extended by time dilation. Hammer’s Slammers follows a squad of armored mercenaries from one interplanetary battle to another. Pournelle uses alien abduction toward the same end. CIA mercs are surrounded by Cuban soldiers in a near-future battle when they are rescued/kidnapped by an alien flying saucer and transported first to the Moon and then to a war zone on a planet populated by humans kidnapped from ancient Earth cultures. The modern soldiers must learn to make and use preindustrial weapons and tactics. The Forever War broke more ground, but Pournelle continues to be readable if you can forgive him his politics—four stars. ( )

I wanted to like this book — mercenaries fighting Cubans in Africa and abandoned by CIA, rescued by aliens and then serving as Space Mercenaries to alien cultures. However, just couldn’t get into it at all — I like military sci-fi, alt-history, anti communism, and mercenaries, but it 1) didn’t come together 2) ended as a cliffhanger for no reason. No interest in the rest of the series. ( )

Excellent story introduces CIA contractor Captain Rick Galloway, whose unit is about to be overrun in Angola, rescued by a flying saucer and offered a deal he can't refuse. They wind up on an alien planet people's by humans from different eras, Romans to medieval, and must seize control and cultivate a much-needed crop. As complicated as that seems, there's an undisclosed threat hanging over everyone. Military science fiction along with an interesting view of clashing goals and values and intrigue. Love Pournelle's work and saddened there will be no more. ( )

A quick, but interesting group of ideas. Plenty of action with a neat balance between high & low technology. There were a lot of neat themes that played out quickly. My edition is a paperback with a lot of good drawings in it. I think I would have liked the book better if the ideas had been more fully developed, but that might have taken volumes. ( )

Somewhat along the lines of King David's Spaceship, this is a story of Earth people who are out of place and out of time. In this case it is professional soldiers who go on to become mercenaries just to survive. As usual with Pournelle, I enjoyed the characters and the action. ( )