Adventures of Conrad Stargard Books in Order
Part ofLeo Frankowski Books in OrderThis page has the Adventures of Conrad Stargard books in order by Leo Frankowski, with short summaries, series background, and where to start.
Last updated: June 9, 2026
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Publication Order
9 books
The Cross-Time Engineer
by Leo Frankowski
1986
A hungover Polish engineer wakes from a hike to find himself in 1231 Poland, just before the Mongols will devastate the region. Conrad has no easy way home, so he starts using modern knowledge to change history.
The Flying Warlord
by Leo Frankowski
1989
After years of inventions and preparation, Conrad finally faces the Mongol invasion he has been racing toward. As war breaks out, even the people watching history from outside time can no longer see where events will land.
The High-Tech Knight
by Leo Frankowski
1989
Now settled in 1231 Poland, Conrad is knighted, granted land, and pushed into building a town and army from scratch. He has to juggle suspicious churchmen, hostile neighbors, and the looming Mongol invasion.
The Radiant Warrior
by Leo Frankowski
1989
Conrad has only a few years left to prepare Poland for the Mongols, so economics are no longer enough. He turns to weapons, training, and military organization, trying to build an army that can actually survive the coming storm.
Lord Conrad's Lady
by Leo Frankowski
1990
With the Mongol crisis seemingly past, Conrad faces a different kind of danger at home, politics, marriage, and the demands of power. Lady Francine is determined to secure her place beside him, and court life proves as tricky as battle.
Conrad's Quest for Rubber
by Leo Frankowski
1998
With Poland secure for the moment, Conrad launches the Explorer's Corps to find rubber and map lands far beyond Europe. The book follows risky expeditions from the Arctic to the Amazon, where geography and disease are as dangerous as armies.
Conrad's Time Machine
by Leo Frankowski
2002
After leaving the Air Force, Tom Kolczyskrenski reunites with two old friends and stumbles into a wrecked house, a hemispherical hole, and plans for something impossible. Their attempt to master time travel becomes a chaotic prequel to Conrad's story.
Lord Conrad's Crusade
by Leo Frankowski
2005
Conrad sets off on what should be a holiday, only to end up shipwrecked in North Africa and in chains. His disappearance helps spark a crusade, and he has to survive captivity while larger armies move in around him.
Conrad's Last Campaign
by Leo Frankowski
2014
The overdue Mongol threat finally pulls Conrad east, where his altered Poland must carry the war beyond its borders. It is the series finale, mixing campaign planning, battlefield action, and one last test of the world he built.
Series background & context
The heart of the Adventures of Conrad Stargard books is simple and very readable. Conrad Schwartz, a twentieth-century Polish engineer, is thrown back to Poland in 1231 and realizes he has landed just a decade before the Mongol invasion. He knows what is coming. If he does nothing, Poland is headed for catastrophe. So the series quickly becomes a race against time, with Conrad trying to turn technical knowledge, historical memory, and plain stubbornness into a plan big enough to change a country.
This is time travel with mud on its boots.
What makes the series stand out is that Conrad does not arrive in a blank fantasy realm. He lands in a real medieval setting with local rulers, church politics, trade limits, old grudges, and enemies on several fronts. The Teutonic Knights matter. The Mongols matter even more. So do food supply, roads, workshops, boats, mills, and the question of who will trust this strange outsider long enough to let him help. Conrad becomes Lord Conrad Stargard, but his power is never just handed to him. He has to build it, bargain for it, and defend it.
That practical streak runs through the whole series. These books spend a lot of time on how things are made, how towns grow, how armies are trained, and how a single invention can create three new problems. Conrad is forever thinking a few steps ahead. If he improves metalworking, he needs fuel and labor. If he arms soldiers better, he needs officers, supply lines, and discipline. If he makes life safer and richer, he also changes the politics around him. The pleasure of the series is watching that chain reaction play out.
It is kingdom-building before the term became common.
The early run, from The Cross-Time Engineer through Lord Conrad's Lady, carries the main build-and-defend arc. Conrad tries to drag Poland forward fast enough to survive the future he remembers, while also navigating marriage, status, religion, and war. The Flying Warlord is where the long-feared Mongol clash arrives. Later books widen the map. Conrad's Quest for Rubber turns outward into exploration, Conrad's Time Machine goes back to the origins of the time machine itself, and Lord Conrad's Crusade and Conrad's Last Campaign push Conrad into even larger campaigns.
The tone is part alternate history, part military adventure, and part engineering thought experiment. If you like stories about building institutions under pressure, solving problems with tools and organization, and watching history bend because one person arrived early and refused to sit still, this series has a very clear idea of what it wants to do.
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