You're about to be introduced to a band of reluctant heroes: a motley group of brawlers, rovers, and pretenders -- British and American fighter pilots -- champions, one and all, for a group of people on a small planet somewhere on the other side of the Milky Way.

Do you remember The Magnificent Seven? Did you like the first Star Wars? Are you a fan of Jack Higgins or Robert Heinlen?

If the answer is yes, you're in for a galloping, interplanetary ride with Hawks as a handful of men are drawn light years across the universe and faced with the nearly impossible task of saving a peaceful metaphysical society (the Azrans) from their highly aggressive, technologically advanced neighbors, the Kretes.

There are some small details that have to be worked out -- like zipping back and forth across the universe to steal German munitions while a particularly nasty Nazi colonel chases them halfway across the country.

Then there's Nygol, the Krete warlord who has sworn to kill (slowly if possible) "...all these offworld, motherless creatures".

And there's the homicidal traitor in the Azran court at Kamalon... If it wasn't for the reward -- and the women stole their hearts -- they probably wouldn't have stayed....