20. Ranks of Bronze: David Drake

A science fiction novel with a terrific premise: aliens abduct a Republican Roman legion (one of Crassus’s, actually—historically supposedly lost at Carrhae in 53 BC), and force them to fight for them on planets where high technology is banned. Drake is a well-known writer of military SF, and I’ve enjoyed a few of his other novels. But this one never reaches its potential; the plot develops pretty much exactly like you would expect. It also shows signs of being written in some haste: many sentences are partly garbled or unclear, and clichés abound. Not recommended, which is a shame.