"Poul Anderson's "The High Crusade"" Topic

What a fun book.
I noticed this in my Bin O'Paperbacks, and plucked it out to re-read it again. Again.
The plot is simple. The Wersgorix land thsir spaceship outside a village in Merrie Olde England whose Lord is about to set out to fight the French in the HYW. Said aliens zap a peasant or two, just to show 'em who's boss, and the enraged Englishmen charge the ship and kill everyone aboard, save a mechanic.
Brother Parvus is sent by his Lord, Sir Roger de Tournville, to educate and interrogate the mechanic.
After learning not quite enough, they decide to set out on Crusade, to liberate the Holy Land from the Paynim.
Adventures ensue.
Machiavellian Earthmen find the aliens to be diplomatic child's play.
Love, honor, death, swordfights in space, stout English longbows, trebucets, nukes… It has it all.

Published in 1960, I see a lot of tongue in cheek. Anderson was very active in the SCA, and a prolific and good writer "hard scifi".
It's narrated by Brother Parvus, and includes a lot of gems. "In his veins flowed the blood of King william the Conqueror, a bastard grandson of whon kidnapped the illegitimate daughter of Sir Humphrry Efgarson the pirate, thus founding the noble de Tournville family."

A gamer reading this cannot help but construct scenarios in his mind. Say, how well would my HYW English army do abainst Dark Eldar…

I don't know if it's OOP or not. Track it down. you can probably grab a used paperback from the usual used bok sites. As John W Campbell would say, "A cracking good yarn!"
OFM gives two thumbs up.

I think SPI did a game on The High Crusade. A very readable and re-readable yarn.

They did a movie adaptation of the book. Its a riot:

imdb.com/title/tt0110024

The humor is certainly low-brow but it was a fun flick.

"They made a movie?", he asked…
What a terrible writeup. I must possess it.

Very good book and the source of a fun scenario idea – that I haven't actually played yet. Involves medieval soldiers fighting their way aboard a spaceship.

I think SPI did a game on The High Crusade.

Yep. The game was an Ares magazine insert, startegic level with planetary conquest and spacefleets and all. Played fairly well IIRC.

A very readable and re-readable yarn

Indeed. Same issue of Ares had a short story in the same setting that I haven't seen anywhere since…grail quest sort of thing, typically tongue-in-cheek.

At the very end of the novel (centuries after the main story) don't the Crusaders finally run into an Israeli spaceship from Earth?

"They made a movie?"

One of the worst. Some funny scenes lots of bad acting and little else.
Having really enjoyed the book, the film was a tremendous disappointment.
x42

Crusaders finally run into an Israeli spaceship from Earth?

Their descendants do after they, the English, rule most of the galaxy.
X42

The movie was unwatchable…

Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, Godzilla)directs?

John Rhys-Davies 'stars'?

Loved the book! OFM, if you liked that, have you tried Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen? Its Renaissance campaigning in another dimensional Pennsylvania.

While the Kalvan books were reasonable reads, H. Beam
Piper is a lot 'darker,' IMHO, than Anderson.

Anderson has been a favorite of mine for many years, and
I drag out _The High Crusade_ about once every three
years and his other classic, _Three Hearts and Three
Lions_ about the same. But my absolute favorite
Anderson is his Shakespeare take-off. IIRC, the title
is _A Midsummer's Fantasy_, although that title may not
be 100 % accurate.

The Romans captured by aliens and used as soldiers on low
tech worlds is a David Drake theme (_Ranks of Bronze_)
but the idea of aliens using Earth soldiers for their
own purposes has shown up in several books (_Doomfarers
of Coramonde_; _Storms of Victory_, which is actually
the last of a trilogy; and others.)

Reading one of Poul Anderson's books right now called: "Virgin Planet." It's a good satire and a damn good tale (especially in this dark age of PC SF.)

M.

the idea of aliens using Earth soldiers for their
own purposes has shown up in several books (_Doomfarers
of Coramonde_; _Storms of Victory_, which is actually
the last of a trilogy; and others.)

Including Star Guard by Andre Norton, and The Damned trilogy by Alan Dean Foster. ADF has also visited the theme in a short story or two.

_A Midsummer's Fantasy_

That would be "A Midsummer Tempest".

Lord Kalvan stories are required reading for any Penn State scifi fans. Isn't Hostigos in Bellefonte? Pity there was not all that much camaigning in the Nittany Valley.

Anderson can be VERY dark, too. "Hrolf Kraki's Saga" and "The Broken Sword" come to mind.

The High Crusade is copyright 1960. I don't know if that gives him Dibs on the idea or not. I personally think it is a spoof on the sword fighting space opera yarns he grew up on.

Thanks, rmaker. I thought I'd botched the title a
bit.

If any of you haven't read _A Midsummer Tempest_ and
can find a copy, it's a really good light read !

the idea of aliens using Earth soldiers for their
own purposes has shown up in several books

And in the 1969 Doctor Who story, "The War Games". WW1, Romans and ACW are the main groups we see, though by the end there's a mixed guerilla band fighting the alien War Lords. An ideal scenraio for magpie figure buyers.

Janissaries: Clan & Crown and Storms of Victory

Written by Jerry Pournelle the last to Coauthored with Roland Green

And If I recall correctly the English were actually found by the Israelis at the end of the book.

As well you should, Right To Arm Bears is a fine read.

Fans of High Crusade will also probably enjoy the Excalibur Alternative by David Weber, which has some tremendously satisfying moments, especially near the end. The inspiration is more clearly from Ranks of Bronze than High Crusade, but it's still angry Englishmen versus aliens…

Excalibur Alternative by David Weber, which has some tremendously satisfying moments, especially near the end. </q?

So did Weber get enough coffee for this one? I tried reading Apocalypse Troll and found that it went pretty incoherent at the 75% mark…

Excalibur Alternative is not just inspired by Ranks of Bronze, but is an actual sequal. Events in Ranks of Bronze are refered to several times.