Roman arenas, famous for pitting man against man, beast against beast and man against beast. Good performers were always in demand - even on other planets. One such survived a shuttlecraft being destroyed on an landing attempt, this creature escaped, and began a savage killing spree. The Galactic civilization knew that if the intelligent, killing machine creature (called a Phile) survived, it could cover our planet with its kind, which would necessitate the destruction of our Earth. So they sent an emissary to destroy the creature, unaware that he was the power behind capturing the killing machine Phile to start with, with an eye for creating more of them for the galaxy blood arenas. Meanwhile, a crazed Roman emperor wants the beast captured for his own arena, and the crooked emissary wants to do just that for Phile breeding purposes, Only a hero could stop either of them, the Phile or the crooked emissary, which Master Author David Drake masterly provides - not a magical hero - just a hard man who has only survived by being smarter and tougher than the things he has had to deal with. A great read. gmb 12/12/2019