The Mammoth Book of Sword and Honor by Ike Ashley |
| The Napoleonic Wars in Europe, the Zulu
conflict in Africa, the Civil War in America-in the nineteenth century,on battlefields
around the world, cavalrymen and infantry marched into combat that was unparalleled in the
number of lives it claimed and the amount of blood it shed. For the common soldier on the
front lines at this time, swords and bayonets, not rifles and heavy artillery, defined the
day-to-day fighting experience. Out of that experience have been woven some of the most
memorable tales of courage in our literature. While some of the nearly thirty stories in
this anthology are culled from classics by such celebrated fiction writers as Arthur Conan
Doyle, Alexander Dumas, Prosper Merimee, Ambrose Bierce, and Stephen Crane, others have
been especially commissioned for this volume. John Jakes, for one, brings to life a
crucial moment of military doubt in his tale of the American Civil War, while John Aquino
illuminates anew the military character of a young Robert E. Lee. Just as Richard Howard revisits the Napoleonic era with a new Alain Luisard story, so does Garry Douglas return to the Crimean War with a new adventure of Sergeant John Crossman, and George Macdonald Fraser embroils his redoubtable Flashman in the Indian Mutiny. In all, there's adventure enough to thrill readers of any century. |
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