The Sharp End (BAEN) - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

David Drake was attending Duke University Law School when he was drafted. He served the next two years in the Army, spending 1970 as an enlisted interrogator with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Viet Nam and Cambodia. Upon return he completed his law degree at Duke and was for eight years Assistant Town Attorney for Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He has been a full-time freelance writer since 1981. Besides the previous novels in the Lt. Leary series (with the Lightnings, Lt. Leary, Commanding and The Far Side of the Stars), his books for Baen include the best-selling Hammer's Slammers series (the most recent entry being Paying the Piper) and such stand-alone books as Ranks of Bronze, Starliner, All the Way to the Gallows, Redliners, and many more. For Tor, he has written the best-selling "Lord of the Isles" fantasy series, the most recent installment being Goddess of the Ice Realm.

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The gangs ruled Cantilucca. Guns were the only law, and there was no lack of guns. It was hard to imagine matters getting worse.

THEN THE SURVEY TEAM ARRIVED

Major Matthew Coke knew his job was to sell the services of Frisian Defense Force mercenaries to the highest bidder. He wasn't a squeamish man, but he was human -- and the state of affairs on Cantilucca turned his stomach.

Captain Sten Moden had made a mistake on his previous posting. His huge body was scarred, but that wasn't the worst damage he'd received.

Lieutenant Robert Barbour gathered information. He'd been proud of his skill, until the morning he watched while howitzers and a line troop converted his data into action.

Lieutenant Mary Margulies had survived because a friend saved her life at the risk of his own. If she'd been lucky, she never would have met him again.

Specialist Niko Daun was young, cheerful, and as skilled a technician as anybody in the Frisian Defense Forces. He'd sooner have died than serve again with native troops on a backwater planet.

Sergeant Johann Vierziger said he had a purpose in life. To those around him, that purpose seemed to be to kill as often and efficiently as humanly possible...assuming that Vierziger was human.

They were professionals of violence, and with an instinct for good craftsmanship. In the end, they'd learned that they could defeat anything but their own consciences....