Go Tell the Spartans: A Novel of Falkenberg's Legion

by Jerry Pournelle and S.M. Stirling

Called upon to train the people of the colony planet Sparta in the ways of war, mercenary John Christian Falkenberg and his Legion unwittingly transform their own deadly enemies into enemies of the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671720619
• ISBN13: 9780671720612
• Release Date: May 1991
• Publisher: Baen Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

Do NOT Buy This Book. Buy The Prince Instead.

When I say not to buy this book, it's not because there's anything inherently wrong with it. Go Tell the Spartans is actually a great book. It's just that its content has been collected in a more complete edition. The first two books in Pournelle's novels of John Christian Falkenberg were The Mercenary, followed by West of Honor. Those two books were eventually stitched together into Falkenberg's Legion, which is now considered the first book in the series. There were three later books, Prince of Mercenaries, Go Tell the Spartans, and Prince of Spartans. The last two books were co-written with S.M. Stirling; all four were eventually collected as The Prince. Thus my advice, if you want to read Pournelle/Stirling's tales of John Christian Falkenberg - and you should, they're some of the best military SF ever written - pass on the individual books and buy The Prince instead, to have the complete series in one volume.

Pournelle still delivers!

I've been reading Pournelle's books since I was 12 (I'm 39 now). His stuff is hard hitting and realistic, as a soldier I always appreciated his view of soldiers....He does not paint them romantically but realistically. He graphically illustrates the dirtiness of war especially LIC. With the addition of SM Stirling to the team it has only gotten better!

Good reading; highly recommend

Pournelle does a great job of projecting LIC (Low Intensity Conflict) into a future history. His portrayal of small unit tactics and the political manuvering in LIC is excellent. Any one with interest in OOTW (Operations Other Than War) should read this and the sequel Prince Of Sparta.

The best ending I've read in years!

This book, "Go Tell the Spartans", has the best ending I've read since Louis L'Amour's "Last of the Breed". The plot is extremely compelling and leads up to an ending that hits you like a ton of bricks.

KABOOM!!!........

If you want to see what Low Intensity Conflict (LIC) looks like, READ THIS BOOK! It, and its sequal, Prince of Sparta, present an outstanding saga of war at its grittiest, and politics at its dirtiest. These books should be required reading for anyone interested in modern warfare. There is not much 'sci-fi', per-se, just good, hard, storytelling.