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Exiles to Glory Pournelle 9780671721992 Books

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Exiles to Glory Pournelle 9780671721992 Books

These are books I read over and over. My hardcopy book is old so I upgraded it to ebook so I can enjoy it anytime, anywhere.


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Exiles to Glory Pournelle 9780671721992 Books Reviews

Lots of wingnut politics, some excruciatingly saccharine characters, and a bit of implausible action. Pournelle used to be very popular among hard-science fiction readers, but for the life of me I can't remember what anyone ever saw in him. PS, The title of this book is completely random, in case you were wondering.
Mr Pournelle's view's on our society show clearly here, its a world where everyone has rights but the victims....But at least in the sci fi future he postulates, you can always go spaceward and try again...The world written about is very close to ours...at the rate things are going with the law and all perhaps merely a decade ot two away. A good well written book about a very plasuable future.
Pournelle isn't a classic sci-fi author, though he has co-written some fine novels (with Larry Niven). So, naturally I was interested in reading a stand-alone novel by Pournelle. First I read Future History, which was a power-struggle based sci-fi novel. It bored me. Then I came upon Exiles to Glory and I thought Pournelle could justify himself.

Unfortunate for me and for Pournelle, I thought this book was also a bore. It's pace is written like a golden age sci-fi novel in its "fast-paced one-problem/one-solution" approach. It was unflavored and the plot was jerky most of the time. It was so jerky that the holes in the plot are pretty easy to piece together yourself. This will probably be my last stand-alone Pournelle novel.
Set on Earth, on a spaceship and in the asteroid belt, this is a straight up space adventure tale. The main protagonist, Kevin Senecal, is a college student forced to flee Earth. Working as a miner in the asteroid belt Senecal becomes mixed up in a plot involving vast riches, political intrigue and a beautiful girl.
Given the nature of the story and the protagonists, this book will appeal mostly to late teen and early twenties readers.
It is a well written and fast paced story. While not quite in the "read in one sitting" category it is a compelling read. The characters are all fairly well constructed given that the requirements for this type of story are not exactly strict.
If you like this book, of course, you should check out the author's other works but also have a look at the novels by Larry Niven. if you want something in the same style but with more substance try the collaborations between Niven and Pournelle.
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature.

Captain Rick Galloway and the soldiers he commands were surrounded by hostile enemies when the flying saucer arrived and offered them a way out of certain death. They had to take it. Now they’re on a planet called Tran where they’re expected to oversee the growth and harvest of a marijuana-like plant which their alien “saviors” collect and distribute on the black market when it ripens every 600 years. A human woman named Gwen has also been dumped on the planet after her boyfriend, who was working for the aliens, talked her into coming aboard the flying saucer.

Tran is not uninhabited. It is home to several ancient civilizations who were also delivered from Earth to Tran each time the harvest was nearing readiness. Galloway and Gwen, reluctant heroes, must somehow lead the locals to fulfill the aliens’ demands, or they risk being eradicated. This involves gaining power, allying with local governments, educating the people of Tran, and figuring out how to efficiently harvest the drug.

Janissaries , named after the elite soldier-slaves of the Ottoman empire, is just the first installment in this (unfinished) epic quest. After the arrival on Tran, most of the plot involves a mutiny and division of Galloway’s forces and the attempt to gain an alliance and educate the people. The most modern civilization on Tran is a Roman culture which arrived during the last harvest 600 years earlier. While I found the idea of modern people essentially being dumped into the ancient Rome Empire to be a great premise, I had a hard time believing that their society had not advanced at all in 600 years. There is an explanation for this — the aliens destroy advancing cultures to keep Tran subdued — but I found this explanation to be more fun than believable. Also unbelievable is that there isn’t an easier and less convoluted way for the aliens to get the drugs off Tran. I can think of several options that would work better than abducting humans and watching to make sure they don’t progress.

But, of course, Pournelle’s real purpose here is to mix modern and ancient humans together, a plot device that’s not new but is usually entertaining. We get to watch while Galloway and Gwen set up a school and teach the locals such things as germ theory, the importance and practice of mapmaking, how to make paper and writing instruments, farming, math, weapons and military tactics. Surprisingly, though the ancient Romans were excellent engineers, there doesn’t seem to be anyone on Tran who has the brains to figure out some of these things without help from modern Americans.

After the arrival on Tran we don’t see much of the aliens (they don’t live there) so, for the most part, Janissaries actually works as a fine historical fiction. The setting is essentially ancient Rome and there’s all of the political intrigue, barbarian invasions, and romance you might expect from historical fiction set in that period. I expect that at some point the humans will band together to confront the aliens. At least I hope so. This series has been in progress since 1987….

The original print version of Janissaries (1979) was illustrated, but I listened to Blackstone Audio’s version. It’s just over seven hours long and read by Keith Szarabajka whose performance I loved. His voices and pacing are excellent and he gives the story just the right amount of passion.
These are books I read over and over. My hardcopy book is old so I upgraded it to ebook so I can enjoy it anytime, anywhere.