History Literature / TheHighCrusade

** Sir Roger is very good at bluffing while not actually, [[JediTruth precisely]] lying.

* CurbstompBattle: Aliens vs. a Medieval army, it's a complete slaughter... for the aliens. Especially with the humans having superior numbers, and having no EMP-susceptible equipment and the aliens have '''no concept''' of hand-to-hand combat.
** Ironically inflicted on the invading Wersgorix. As it turns out, expecting to win just by virtue of having advanced weapons is a fool's errand when you're incapable of ''defending yourself.''

* AlternateHistoryWank: Played straight and in time taken to [[UpToEleven Biblical proportions]], despite the fact that this [[spoiler:isn't actually an alternate history]].

* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: The Wersgorix. The humans on the other hand are very pious. While there is some tongue-in-cheek humor about Medieval practices and obsessions, their faith is definitely not portrayed as a ''bad'' thing, and the most humane character in the book by far is the narrator -- who is a pious monk.

* UnskilledButStrong: The Wesgorix may have better technology, but it has left them weak at the hands of the 14th century Englishmen. In the political sense too, the Wesgorix have become incapable of political maneuvering, while Sir Roger, an English baron, has had to develop a sharp mind to succeed in feudal politics.

* UnskilledButStrong: The Wesgorix may have better technology, but it has left them weak at the hands of the 14th century Englishmen.

* RealityEnsues: Ironically inflicted on the invading Wersgorix. As it turns out, expecting to win just by virtue of having advanced weapons is a fool's errand when you're incapable of ''defending yourself.''

England 1345, and Sir Roger de Tourneville has volunteered to help King Edward III in his war against the French. The English army, fully prepped on the eve of leaving, crushes a small alien invasion force, by dint of cunning, superior numbers, and having no EMP-susceptible equipment or depletable bullets/explosives/laser charges -- [[RockBeatsLaser but plenty of reusable arrows, swords, sheer brute strength and a sense of righteous Christian indignation.]]

* TheReptilians: The Wersgorix are reptilian aliens who have blue skin.

* FantasticReligiousWeirdness: Since the protagonists are transplanted Medieval English Catholics, they must adopt their religion somewhat after colonizing far-off planets and ruling other species that are new to them. For instance, there's debate over whether having sex with a female of another species is bestiality per the Biblical law. They also convert members of other species, with some even becoming bishops, and have their own "Popelet", while making clear this is merely a stand-in for the real Pope, whom they still owe allegiance to.

* FalseReassurance

* {{Reptilians}}: The Wersgorix are reptilian aliens who have blue skin.

* BadassIsraeli: The first humans meet them on their recontact with Earth hundreds of years later is a starfaring Israeli Empire.

* DemocracyIsBad: Subverted in that while the Wersgor notion of "democracy" is shown as a sham, the Jair republic proves itself to be a far better example of one.

* EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion: Despite he Wersgor having millennia of technological progress on the humans ''and'' the element of surprise, they get defeated by the natives with downright embarrassing ease -- the humans even manage to steal their ship and conquer them right back!
* EpicFail: The Wersgor invasion of Earth: their technologically advanced spaceship armed with laser weapons taking on a medieval village ''completely by surprise'' manages to not just get overrun, but captured and commandeered by said medieval villagers. Their mistake is assuming that the humans will panic and flee, when they happen to have landed in the middle of a small but well-prepared medieval army whose response is "fight" rather than "flight".
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Wersgor see nothing wrong with imperialism and genocide, but are appalled at the medievals' use of JackBauerInterrogationTechnique.

* FeudalFuture: Played straight and justified: the human newcomers offered a viable and stable socio-political system as well as centuries of experience at it whereas the Wersgor mirrored the Western Roman Empire at its downfall and had long since forgotten how to actually ''conduct'' politics. Curiously though, [[spoiler:even centuries later in the future, when Earth-bound humanity finally had spaceships of their own]] the interstellar empire forged by the crusaders and their descendants is very noticeably English.

* GoodRepublicEvilEmpire Inverted -- the theoretical freedom of the Wersgor "democracy" is unfavorably contrasted with the securities of the feudal system. Also played with, in that the Wersgor republic is also unfavorably contrasted with the ''Jair'' Republic (one of the lesser starfaring powers Sir Roger convinces to join his crusade against the Wersgor), with the Jair republic being described as a true republic, "not a sham one such as the Wersgor had", and the descriptions of the Wersgor explicitly describing their state as all-powerful and the citizens as reflexively subservient to it and to their superiors. The Wersgor are criticized for being too dependent on their VastBureaucracy and habitually subservient, [[AuthorAppeal similar criticisms]] to those levied against modern Western states by many conservatives.
* HumanityIsSuperior: Well, has a useful advantage or two.

* MedievalMorons: Subverted -- and how! The morons end up conquering a spacefaring empire.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The humans plan to use the spacecraft to carry them ''en masse'' the Holy Land, but Branithar engages the autopilot to take them to the nearest Wersgor colony where he assumes they'll be easy meat. They end up conquering the entire Wersgor empire.
* NicknamingTheEnemy: "Bluefaces".

* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: The Wersgor. The humans on the other hand are very pious. While there is some tongue-in-cheek humor about Medieval practices and obsessions, their faith is definitely not portrayed as a ''bad'' thing, and the most humane character in the book by far is the narrator -- who is a pious monk.
* RammingAlwaysWorks: The English crash land their first captured warship, the Crusade, ''on'' an energy shielded Wersgor battle fortress, crushing it. Then pissed off cavalry trample down the survivors.
* RealityEnsues: Ironically inflicted on the invading Wersgor. As it turns out, expecting to win just by virtue of having advanced weapons is a fool's errand when you're incapable of ''defending yourself.''

* RockBeatsLaser: Not to mention rock helps laser. A trebuchet firing nuclear shells? Undetectable by space age sensors? Yes please. At least once the people using the trebuchet ''are'' caught in the blast and killed. It worked on the base because the aliens were looking for an incoming missile with Radar, and didn't see the lobbed trebuchet shot coming out of a patch of forest until it was already within exploding radius. They were ready for an incoming missile, and ready for humans trying to smuggle a bomb in on foot. They were completely unprepared for humans to carry the bomb on foot, then lob it the last thousand yards.

* TortureTechnician: One-eyed Hubert. Who is quite pleased when Sir Roger threatens to apply the JackBauerInterrogationTechnique on the captive Wersgor. One-eyed Hubert also laments that Sir Roger isn't as quick with the irons as his grandfather, old Rip-Talon, and is quite dismayed to learn that he won't be getting to torture the Wersgor officer after all... [[PetTheDog right before he goes back to helping his little granddaughter gather daisies.]]

* VestigialEmpire: The Wersgor empire.
* VichyEarth: The Wersgor plan for Earth is this. It backfires spectacularly.

* IMadeCopies: One that backfires.