The Adventures of Conrad Stargrad Series by Leo Frankowski Book Series Review

This is a very good science fiction world-building adventure series.  Unlike some stories in this sub-genre this story stays upbeat even when things are grim.  The main character has some flaws, but none big enough to bring the tone of the story down.  Sometimes its nice to have a series that is just fun, but still has enough plot and action to keep you guessing as to what will happen next and engaged with the characters.  For me this series filled that role.

There are only a few parts of the story that I don't really like.  The first is the fact that everything seems to go just right for the main character.  Part way through the series it becomes very clear why though and makes it believable again.  It must be nice when your great uncle owns a time machine.  The other part is that this book could be considered a bit of guys fantasy as it seems like all the attractive women in the book love the main character, and hes not shy about partaking.  To be honest the second one doesn't bother me all that much but it does limit the audience somewhat.  Despite these issues, and somewhat because of them, I really like this series and have read it many times.  It is particularly good for when I am feeling down because the books never are .

The series explores what happens when you accidentally send a modern industrial engineer to medieval Poland ten years before a mongol invasion, and don't figure that out for ten years.  That's exactly what happens to American educated Polish engineer Conrad Schwartz( hes from StarGrad) in this story.  He was on vacation hiking through Poland when he got drunk at a certain inn and stumbled into a time machine searching for the bathroom.  Once he figures out where and more importantly when he is he does what any good engineer would do: He jump starts an industrial revolution in medieval Poland to turn back the mongol hordes.  This is quite a surprise to his uncle Tom, who is one of the inventors of the time machine used to send him back, when he showed up to observe the mongol invasion.  Since he was observed at the battle that becomes a fixed point in time, and Conrad must stay in the past.  The question is will he be able to turn back the mongol hordes, and more importantly if he does what just happened to history?

This book will appeal to science fiction and adventure fans.  It is a very good world building story, and a lot of fun.  Some people may not like it due to the main characters harem forming tendencies, but if you don't mind that I definitely recommend this series.

These books are currently a little difficult to find as I just discovered.  I have some very loved but worn copies from years ago.  The original series if you can find it is composed of the following titles in order:

1.  The Cross Time Engineer
2.  The High Tech Night
3.  The Radiant Warrior
4.  The Flying Warlord
5.  Lord Conrad's Lady
6.  Conrad's Quest for Rubber

 I did a little digging and it appears the books can be purchased at www.amazon.com or www.baen.com in print or as an ebook as two compilations titled Conrad StarGrad :The Radiant Warrior, and Conrad's Lady.  The original six book series appears to be out of print otherwise.