Clan and Crown

Janissaries, Book 2

By: Jerry Pournelle, Roland Green

Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka

Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

For the first few years, Rick Galloway and his band of mercenaries were doing well just to survive. They'd been swept off a hilltop in Africa by a flying saucer and deposited on an alien world where the other inhabitants were human - but from various and unfriendly periods of history, all collected by flying saucer raids.

Rick has faced facts: This place is going to be home, permanently. To create a safe society for themselves and the families they are gradually building, they need to do more than just survive; they must convince the others that a unified, peaceful society is better than a collection of warring tribes. Force would not be Rick's chosen method of persuasion, but on a planet where the other dominant culture is one brought straight from ancient Rome, force may be the only way.

©1982 Jerry Pournelle and Roland Green (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Puts meat on the bones after book one.

Adds a lot of depth to the story and characters after their introduction in book one. Keith Szarabajka was brilliant. Will be looking for more of his work.

Well fleshed out, but the detail is a bit tedious

This level of “fleshed out detail” was much more bearable in the fantastic “A Mote in God‘s Eye” (as well as the succeeding “Gripping Hand”), but here, it just feels like detail for the sake of detail.
If you are a fan of science fiction, you absolutely must read (/listen to) “A Mote in God‘s Eye”!

a story that stands the test time

this is such a great story it's so well written that you don't realize it was written before 1980. it's got so many converging elements that just about any genre would enjoy listening. I'm so glad I gave it a try. thank you audible for making this free it's now in my top 10.

Had trouble Following the characters

Hard to follow the plot when you can’t read member the characters names or the voices that word to change per character
I could follow the first book but not planning on getting the third book

great second book

the mercs from earth take on new issues and some old problems. the aliens return.

An Excellent series and an excellent narrator

I power listened to all three books in the series and while a book 4 is available on Kindle, it's not yet available on Audible. I've written asking when I can expect the Audible version. I was sad to discover that Jerry Pournelle died in 2017. I've read several of his books and enjoyed them all. I was very impressed with Book 1: Janissaries, quickly finished off book 2: Clan and Crown, and book 3: Storms of victory. The action was well paced, the characters were well developed, and the story was interesting. I hope Audible releases book 4: Mamelukes in the near future. I would recommend all three of these books.

great story

Due to the last sentence however I will not be buying the next book. I get the authors need for that story line I just find it a cheap annoying tactics like an unnecessary rape or murder I lost all interest.

Good Part 2

I wasn't sure about this at first. sometimes the politics are too complex and the story large to grasp but the story is too great to ignore. Really enjoyable over all. Keith the performer is awesome. I've liked him since Equalizer in the 80s. Does a great job with many many voices.

An excellent performance of an excellent book.

This is the second book in the series. The storyline is well thought out, with a good combination of drama, fighting, and even some humor.

Entertaining for the umpteenth time

Disclaimer: I've been an avid fan of Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven since the 1970s so my point of view may be slightly biased. Although this particular series was never completed it still is an incredibly entertaining story especially as an audiobook. Sometimes I wished it was made into a movie but the rich detail of Pournelle's work would be wasted in that media. Perhaps audiobook is the best format. I think is is. The narrator is excellent, handling the various accents perfectly. Definitely worth the money. Enjoy!