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eBook Category: Science Fiction
eBook Description: On a sunny hillside in 18th Century Europe a detachment from Frederick the Great's army faces the classic opponent of the fantasy hero. How would the disciplined platoons of a horse and musket army battle a monster who has traditionally been vanquished by a lone warrior endowed with exceptional skill and courage?

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Asimov's, 1994
Fictionwise Release Date: November 2003

17 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [115 KB], eReader (PDB) [44 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [32 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [28 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [75 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [100 KB], hiebook (KML) [97 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [58 KB], iSilo (PDB) [26 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [33 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [61 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [46 KB]
Words: 9526
Reading time: 27-38 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

Ecrasez l'infame, the king had said with a smile. Crush the infamous thing.

Fritz had been echoing Voltaire's famous outcry against the Roman church, of course. But he had obviously chosen the phrase because he thought its associations were appropriate. A dragon was the embodiment of superstition--a creature from the world of dreams, snorting and rampaging in a time when the disputes of philosophers were argued with wit and mathematics, and the disputes of kings were settled by disciplined masses equipped with muskets and artillery.

It had been, in almost every respect, a typical visit to the court of the most enlightened monarch of the age. The king's blue uniform had been untidy, as always. His hands and the lace on the cuffs of his shirt sleeves had been grimy and inkstained. The grenadiers in the halls had hopped to attention with all their customary smartness. General von Wogenfer had even attended the afternoon concert and listened with some pleasure as Fritz and the court musicians worked their way through one of Quantz's flute concertos. (He was impressed, once again, with Quantz's ability to write a showy, emotional flute part without taxing Frederick's abilities. When all else failed, an ingenious bit of orchestral accompaniment could make the flute solo sound more exciting than it really was.) The king had exchanged bows and French epigrams with a pair of visiting literati. For every minute of the entire morning and afternoon, General von Wogenfer had been surrounded by all the realities that proved he was still immersed in the day to day life of the modern world.