A peasant is sent to the arena, fodder for the carnage--but before the horrified gaze of noble ladies, the warrior named Dog slaughters headsmen, hunters, and beasts to win freedom as a full-fledged gladiator. Then deep-space rebels attack an Empire ship where Dog performs combat killings for the amusement of the passengers, and the gladiator becomes a rebel. Now a beautiful officer of the court finds her life depends on the mercy of Dog, the man she ordered put to death

From the savage death pits of the Ortung Vandals, to the murderous intrigues of the imbecile Emperor's court, to the perfumed cages of the luscious willing slaves, the giant Otto is carving a legend across the stars. When this gladiator and chieftain of the Wolfung worlds seeks to form a frontier legion of space barbarians, the nobles dare not refuse him; they have only the courage to try to murder him. But can even an empire's might stop such a man?

To recruit his legion of space barbarians, the giant gladiator Otto must win their fierce loyalty, world by world, in lethal combat against monsters, men, aliens, and the beautiful, murderous slaves--while Imperial conspirators plot Otto's assassination and an evil warlord's brutal army prepares to unleash genocidal horror across the stars.

The fourth volume in John Norman's epic Telnarian Histories describes the continuing rise to power of an unsung warrior thrown into the maelstrom of ambition, treachery, and violence that is the galactic empire

When Filene, a former noblewoman masquerading as a slave, attempts to assassinate the ascendant tribal king, Ottonius, she fails and becomes fully enslaved. The story of her education in proper submission is told in counterpoint to the tale of the powerful but primitive warrior who finds himself drawn into intrigues affecting the destiny of a threatened and crumbling...