Janissaries

Superb book now with superb presentation.

If you could sum up Janissaries in three words, what would they be?

Thanks much to Jerry and his Janissaries series. It has been a favorite of mine for decades. I was stunned to see it available on Audible, as Jerry was normally a 'non ebook' hold out. Very few of his works went to ebook format and abook format. So I snapped it up immediately when I saw it available on Audible. Keith Szarabajka's could NOT be topped. He rules in his presentation and reading. Not just a reader, he emotes (I mean that in a good way!) the characters in the book with great skill. I hope Keith will be able to keep on this series, along with the mysterious 4th sequel Mamelukes (Janissaries IV: Mamelukes (work in progress for fifteen years as of 2012).

Who was your favorite character and why?

Reluctant Captain Rick Galloway reminds me of our founding father George Washington. Recognizing the truth in developing a society with a know world shattering threat building at the border.

What about Keith Szarabajka’s performance did you like?

Superb!

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

relatively straight forward, entertaining

Well, this was for me an easy-to-listen-to, entertaining story, with a reader who did a proper job without causing any irritations. The story is straightforward: mercenaries are sort of abducted/hired from earth to do a job for aliens. Main part of the story then plays on a planet (at the time of the story not too different from earth) with a society at the development stage of the early Roman empire. There is bit on the military side of things, there is romance+castles, horses+battles, there is some looming dark galactic background story.

What I really liked about all of this, was that it was what I was looking for: an easy going entertaining reasonably quick read/listen with a potential series continuation. There was no great depth to the story, there was no repetitious dwelling in people's motivations or thoughts, no endless descriptions of non relevant details, neither the romance nor military nor any other specific aspect was over-emphasized.

So if you like something light and fluffy for in-between & if you don't worry too much about plausibility just give it a try.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

This genre but especially its sub genre

Sci-Fi has become divided into a dozen categories and more. This is a variation of "lost" and washed up on a "deserted island". Whether one or more individuals, they set out to explore, learn, build and survive and then build a small but viable society. This is different in that they don't wash up on the planet, but are dropped off by a species?, to fend for themselves although there are Homo Sapiens already present. The story is simple and relatively believable. Could you survive, build up the essentials, and continue on as most likely is begun in book 2. It satisfies the desire of many of us to see if we "have it".
If you require an easy read that is not 100+ hours to complete, then this will fit your requirements. I especially enjoy non fiction, but not if it could have been written in <20% of the size with it meeting my criteria that many times less is more. I would recommend the first book and I will go on and queue up the 2nd book for an in between listen.
In either case, I would recommend the book as an enjoyable listen, not in the same category as the "Lucky Jack" series by Jack Campbell, but still well worth the credit and then some.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Pournelle is Pournelle ... OK

Jerry Pournelle struck me when I first encountered his SF writings in the 70s as an author with ideas who didn’t quite know how to flesh them out. Jannissaries is a good example of this. I had hoped the listening, rather than reading, would give the narrative some extra quality that the printed word couldn’t … but it didn’t.

As well as being a bit lite, the story doesn’t compare well with others in weathering the tides of time; “A Canticle for Leibowitz” (also read by Tom Weiner) for example. I realize there are many Pournelle acolytes, but I always thought more is read into his works than is there.

For me Pournelle’s writing has always seemed a bit padded and this story is no exception. It’s a shame as the premise has potential and could have been fleshed out to be a much more entertaining, and interesting SF outing. This book is actually the first of the Janissaries series … and I think it shows. Its good point is that it is complete in itself … the bad point, “who cares?”

Not withstanding all the above … if you wish a lite listen where nothing intellectually demanding is required, this will pass the time sufficiently well

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Not bad, just not me

I found the storyline in Janissaries to be a bit confusing. The janissary of the title is not the main character (a janissary is a child raised by a conqueror to be a soldier against his own people) and is not really a janissary anyway since he's not a soldier. I think Pournelle probably just thought it was a cool word. Anyway, while the plotline holds together it was just a little to convoluted unrealistic for my taste. It was roughly the same plot as H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (guy with knowledge of history of firearms and warfare dumped into medieval, pre-firearm culture). Piper did a better job. Maybe future books in series will be more engaging. I'll take a look.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Still just as good as ever

Where does Janissaries rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The story is a bit dated but still holds up well, good strong characters in a good story line are hard to beat

What other book might you compare Janissaries to and why?

This work stands alone

What about Keith Szarabajka’s performance did you like?

Well read with good inflection and voice change

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This book makes you think, is it possible? could this have happened?

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Great Author

Finally! A good sci-fi book with no sicko language. Written in 1979. this is a story with lots of different angles than one would expect. Great authors do that, so why am I surprised? I don't like spoilers, so let's just say this is really five star and leave it at that. Enjoy!

Almost a classic

I first read this novel when it came out, decades ago, and I found it fascinating and well written. Now to be able to listen to a great narration of it, well done!

As good as I remembered.

I read this book in 1986 and enjoyed it. It was good to see that it has held up. The unfortunate thing is that the series was never finished. Maybe with Baen reprinting this someone will finish the series.

Not a Tropical Paradise

Like “Gilligan’s Island”, this book follows the adventures of a group of people stranded on a planet billions of miles from Earth. Unlike “Gilligan’s Island”, there are no laughs, and they are not the only ones stranded on the planet. A group of aliens have been snatching humans from Earth every 600 years and leaving them on this uncharted planet. A place where civilization is similar to the Roman Empire circa 400 AD.

The best part of this book is the battle between the Barbarians and the Romans. War is the author’s passion and he has written military strategy and war gaming articles and books.

“Janissaries” was published in 1979 and I believe would most likely appeal to fans of the previous generation of Sci Fi books.

3 of 8 people found this review helpful