Getting to follow big, bad Byzantine Belisarius around the alt-history battlefield--courtesy of Eric Flint and David Drake--comes in a close second to having your own personal unit of cataphracts. (Although, of course, those cataphracts would be nice to have in traffic.) Following on the heels of Destiny's Shield, the fourth installment in this popular series follows the superhuman general as he harries Malwa troops in the mountains leading into Mesopotamia. He's still got the across-time assistance of the crystal Aide to help him deal with the threat, augmenting his senses and keeping him briefed on the tactics of everyone from Wellington to Turenne. But Link, the Supreme Commander of the Universe, still calls the shots for the evil empire, and Belisarius has to double-time to keep up (especially facing such shrewd field commanders as Damodara).
Fortune's Stroke downshifts the series a notch in terms of sheer Belisarius-meted carnage, because Damodara's Ye-tai barbarians and Rajput cavalry aren't the only show in town. Flint and Drake spend a good deal of time with other characters in the series in other locales, like Kungas and Irene in south India and Antonina in Axum (for a start). But this investment will surely pay off as the series continues, as Belisarius and his cohort close in on the Malwa for good. (And if you're new to the battle, start with An Oblique Approach, the first title in the series.) --Paul Hughes
Fortune's Stroke by Eric Flint, David Drake
EVIL FROM BEYOND TIME
RULES THE GREATEST
EMPIRE ON EARTH!
Link, the supercomputer from a future that should not exist, has used terror and gunpowder weapons to forge the Malwa Empire: harnessing the vast manpower of the Indian subcontinent and using the barbarian races of the periphery to bind the whole together. No power on Earth in the 6th century could stand against Link's evil.
Aide, a human soul embodied in a jewel, has come back to halt evil's progress. Aide has no power but that of truth, but truth is the only power that could move the greatest general of the age, Belisarius.
With his sword, his paladins, and his genius, Belisarius has turned the armies of Byzantium into a weapon capable of blunting the first assault of the Malwa hordes. Now, supported by allies from all the world yet free, Belisarius, with his wife and co-commander Antonia, faces overwhelming Malwa numbers in a ring that tightens about them.
There is no room for maneuver and no safety in defeat. The armies of Good and Evil gathered on the fertile plains of Mesopotamia will decide the fate of the world.
And the fate of all the future!
At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
Description:
Getting to follow big, bad Byzantine Belisarius around the alt-history battlefield--courtesy of Eric Flint and David Drake--comes in a close second to having your own personal unit of cataphracts. (Although, of course, those cataphracts would be nice to have in traffic.) Following on the heels of Destiny's Shield, the fourth installment in this popular series follows the superhuman general as he harries Malwa troops in the mountains leading into Mesopotamia. He's still got the across-time assistance of the crystal Aide to help him deal with the threat, augmenting his senses and keeping him briefed on the tactics of everyone from Wellington to Turenne. But Link, the Supreme Commander of the Universe, still calls the shots for the evil empire, and Belisarius has to double-time to keep up (especially facing such shrewd field commanders as Damodara).
Fortune's Stroke downshifts the series a notch in terms of sheer Belisarius-meted carnage, because Damodara's Ye-tai barbarians and Rajput cavalry aren't the only show in town. Flint and Drake spend a good deal of time with other characters in the series in other locales, like Kungas and Irene in south India and Antonina in Axum (for a start). But this investment will surely pay off as the series continues, as Belisarius and his cohort close in on the Malwa for good. (And if you're new to the battle, start with An Oblique Approach, the first title in the series.) --Paul Hughes
Fortune's Stroke by Eric Flint, David Drake
EVIL FROM BEYOND TIME
RULES THE GREATEST
EMPIRE ON EARTH!
Link, the supercomputer from a future that should not exist, has used terror and gunpowder weapons to forge the Malwa Empire: harnessing the vast manpower of the Indian subcontinent and using the barbarian races of the periphery to bind the whole together. No power on Earth in the 6th century could stand against Link's evil.
Aide, a human soul embodied in a jewel, has come back to halt evil's progress. Aide has no power but that of truth, but truth is the only power that could move the greatest general of the age, Belisarius.
With his sword, his paladins, and his genius, Belisarius has turned the armies of Byzantium into a weapon capable of blunting the first assault of the Malwa hordes. Now, supported by allies from all the world yet free, Belisarius, with his wife and co-commander Antonia, faces overwhelming Malwa numbers in a ring that tightens about them.
There is no room for maneuver and no safety in defeat. The armies of Good and Evil gathered on the fertile plains of Mesopotamia will decide the fate of the world.
And the fate of all the future!
At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).