Title: The Warmasters
Author: David Weber, Eric Flint, David Drake
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Publisher: Baen
Copyright: 2002
ISBN: 0743435346
Pages: 307
Keywords: science fiction, alternate history
Reading period: 15 September, 2007

Three short novels, extracted from longer stories published elsewhere.

Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington by David Weber is a prequel to the Honor Harrington novels. Harrington is a midshipwoman in the Royal Navy of Manticore, on her first tour of duty out in a pirate-infested area. She survives the hazing of a particularly brutal and stupid superior. When half the bridge is blown away by a privateer's attack, she manages to save the day.

Islands by Eric Flint is extracted from one of the later novels in the Belisarius series, which I read only a few weeks ago. A young wife sets off to India after her husband, a junior officer in Belisarius's army. Along the way, she manages to establish a sort of Veteran's Administration for the maimed veterans who are being sent back to sixth-century Constantinople.

Choosing Sides by David Drake is taken from the Hammer's Slammers series, about a regiment of mercenaries. A young officer survives an ambush and is posted back to HQ, where he learns that the ambush was triggered by an influential traitor in the civilian population that hired the Slammers. He deals with it.

Moderately entertaining. I hadn't read any of the Honor Harrington or Hammer's Slammers books before, so it gave me a feel for both series. I might read more of them.