"David Weber - The Excalibur Alternative" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weber David)

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The Excalibur Alternative
Ranks of Bronze Book 3


by David Weber
 HE WHO LIVES BY THE SWORD тАж
The races which ruled the Galactic Federation knew they were vastly superior to the
inferior species restricted to the narrow confines of their own star systems by the crudity
of their technology тАж and they had every intention of keeping things that way.
It was a neat little scam, a rigged game in which only the House could win, which the
Federation had played for over a hundred thousand years, and no one had ever managed
to challenge it.

Yet all good things come to an end, and the Galactics made one mistake. It didnтАЩt
seem all that terrible at first, only a single merchant guild which bought itself a Roman
legion to use as enslaved sepoys on the primitive worlds where they werenтАЩt permitted to
use their own weapons to force trading concessions. But the Romans were too good at
what they did, and a desperate competing guild decided that the only way it could
continue to compete was if it had Romans of its own.

Unfortunately, Roman legions were no longer available, so the competing guild had
to settle for something else: English longbowmen on their way to the Battle of Crecy.

Roman legions make dangerous pets тАж but English longbowmen are even worse.

It may take a century or so, but the Galactics are about to discover what happens
when the sword finally comes out of the stone.

PublisherтАЩs Note: This novel is based on a much shorter version published in David
DrakeтАЩs Foreign Legions.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The science fiction phenomenon of the decade, David Weber is often compared to
C.S. Forester (the celebrated creator of Captain Horatio Hornblower, on whom WeberтАЩs
own Honor Harrington is largely based) and is the recipient of the sort of critical praise
once reserved for a Heinlein or an Asimov. His hordes of voracious fans clamor for more