Mercenary History

During the rise of feudalism, the best weapon systems of the day had only been available to the select few, usually the lords and knights of the realm who had the income that could support them. As technology advanced, the crossbow, arbalest, and firearms were developed and a relatively untrained foot soldier could kill a knight with a single shot, canceling out a lifetime of mounted discipline.

Col. Mike Hoare tells how his force of mercenaries, 5 Commando, put down a Comunist-backed rebel uprising in the Congo. As they restored law and order, town by town, he and his men freed 1800 nuns and priests. His men also learned what it means to be real soldiers.

During the 1970s the continent of Africa was consumed by conflict. The many wars which were being fought attracted ex soldiers from far and wide who were prepared to fight for money. This is one man’s story. Blood Money is a sensational account of mercenary warfare at its most brutal, you are led on a heart-stopping journey through African civil war zones to the Rhodesian bush war. The author pulls no punches in his description of those times. It’s a terrific roller-coaster of a book which will leave the reader breathless as they are plunged headlong into the action. “The fear in the ...

An elite Navy SEAL Team 6 operator trained to kill the United States’ most dangerous enemies takes readers inside the unadulterated, morally complicated and riveting post-military adventures of a lethal American mercenary. In American Mercenary, Daniel Corbett takes readers on a wild ride...

""Stunning. Sean McFate is a new Sun Tzu."" -Admiral James Stavridis (retired), former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO An Economist Book of the Year 2019 An urgent, fascinating exploration of warfare—past, present and future—and what we must do if we want to win today from an 82nd...

From former Green Beret and USA Today best-selling author Jason Kasper comes a gripping set of thrillers.

The Middle Ages witnessed almost constant warfare in Europe, so mercenaries were a constant on the battlefield, but the 15th century also saw the rise of mercenary usage by the increasingly wealthy aristocracy. At the time, England and France existed in smaller versions than in the modern age, while the Spanish had unified into a few large kingdoms and were slowly pushing the Moors off the Iberian Peninsula. Norway and Hungary were larger than they are now, but otherwise, most of Europe was a patchwork quilt of small, constantly warring states.

From former Special Forces officer Jason Kasper comes a gripping set of thrillers for fans of Vince Flynn and Brad Thor. Now an international best seller.

Moscow, 1985. The Soviet Union and its communist regime are in the last stages of decline, but remain opaque to the rest of the world—and still very dangerous. In this ever-shifting landscape, a senior KGB officer—code name GAMBIT—has approached the CIA Moscow Station chief with top secret military weapons intelligence and asked to be exfiltrated. GAMBIT demands that his handler be a former CIA officer, Alex Garin, a former KGB officer who defected to the American side. The CIA had never successfully exfiltrated a KGB officer from Moscow, and the top brass do not trust Garin.

“I don’t know if it was the shouts, the gunfire, the dogs barking or a combination of all three which woke me, but the shock was such that I almost fell out of bed in my haste to rejoin the conscious. I was naked, save for the pair of shorts I always wore in bed, and had no time to dress. I didn’t bother with the light. As I awkwardly pushed my feet into the pair of flip-flops, I grabbed for the pistol belt. I heard my father shout something while I was fumbling to fasten the belt around my waist. My bedroom door suddenly opened. My god! The terrs are in the house?! I was reaching, ...

DAINTY ON THE OUTSIDE, FEROCIOUS ON THE INSIDEMylene has it all: She’s the daughter of nobility, she boasts incredible aptitude with magic and the blade, and she possesses striking vermilion-tinged locks that signify she’s been chosen by God. Yet this elegant warrior hides a shocking...

Reeve has come out on top of his enemies: the gods themselves. The Mage has finally created the first iteration of the System, and although it falls silent, he knows it's still there—planning, plotting, doing who knows what. He has found answers that have led him to far more questions than he had before. Who is pulling the strings behind the scenes? Why are the gods going along so compliantly with his conquest? Where in the nine hells is Jax? Is the Entity still around?

A stunning narrative account of the mysterious Jordanian who penetrated both the inner circle of al-Qaeda and the highest reaches of the CIA, with a devastating impact on the war on terror. In December 2009, a group of the CIA’s top terrorist hunters gathered at a secret base in Khost...

A parallel army lives on the margins of the Iraq war - nearly 100,000 armed men, invisible yet in plain sight, doing jobs the overstretched and understaffed military can't or won't do. The U.S. media call them "security contractors." They call themselves "mercs," and they operate under their own rules. Washington Post reporter Steve Fainaru traveled with several groups of security contractors to find out what motivates them to put their lives in danger every day.

Protector. Lover. Enemy. Sometimes in life, choices just aren't part of the plan. When fate interferes and bulldozes right over you. That's how I felt the first time I saw him. Standing in my kitchen, soaking wet, hotter than a man has the right to be, and holding a knife. Declan's cold, stone-cold. I can't help but want him. His presence stirs up some raw emotion within me. He seems so...alone. But is he here to kill me or save me? He's the one man I should never want...and the one I can never forget. Synopsis: An innocent young woman is rescued from a mafia-like organization by a stone-...

The Middle Ages witnessed almost constant warfare in Europe, so mercenaries were a constant on the battlefield, but the 15th century also saw the rise of mercenary usage by the increasingly wealthy aristocracy. One of the finest groups of mercenaries were the Landsknechts from central and northern Europe. The term means “servant of the country”, and they mostly served the Holy Roman Empire, first under Emperor Maximilian I (r. 1508-1519) and then under his successors.

The Byzantine Empire was the heir to two great cultures that cradled and nurtured European civilization: Greece and Rome. Byzantium was a strong, organized, highly effective, and adaptable civilization for most of its long history. It owed its success in no small part to its military, which, in contrast to the feudal armies of Western Europe and the tribally based forces of the Middle East, operated with a high level of discipline, strategic prowess, efficiency, and organization. The most famous of the foreign units was without question the Varangian Guard.

Raised in the slums and alleys of Helsin, Argo is tired of lurking. He is exhausted of living meal to meal and tries to elevate himself to a better life. The Rumi Guild he plans to depart, well, they decide the bury him instead of letting him escape their grip. Argo sees the trap coming, avoids the clutches of fate, and runs from everything he's ever known.

Journey to New York Times bestelling author Meljean Brook's gritty, alluring world of the Iron Seas, and gear up for passionate steampunk adventure... As the mercenary captain of the Lady Corsair, Yasmeen has learned to keep her heart as cold as steel, her only loyalty bound to her ship and her...

He was driven by violent injustice from his home moon of Callisto - and set forth to claim the epic destiny that would blaze across worlds and time. He saw his family destroyed, his sister carried off into sexual slavery, his beautiful lover killed - and he swore revenge against the murderous pirates who held the Jupiter planetoids in a stranglehold of terror. Fired by raw courage, steeled by young might, he rose in the navy of Jupiter to command a personal squadron loyal to the death.