David Drake's Military SF covers the technological range from the
Roman Legions, Roman Legions assisted by technological advice from the
future, to Wellington, to WWI/WWII, to futuristic ray guns.
"Warriors are capering heros. Fit only to die before trained soldiers."
- From Ranks of Bronze by David Drake.
"The difference between a civilian and a soldier is training." - Unknown
"Being a civilian is easy.
Being a soldier is easy.
What is difficult is the change."
- Attributed to a member of the French Foreign Legion
The Voyage is an SF reworking of the tale of Jason and the Argonauts.
David Drake worked from the ancient texts and other sources.
From the Author's Note at the end of The Voyage copyright 1994:
"Apollonius ends his poem just as the 'Argo' comes back home to
harbor. There's a reason for his decision--the same reason that
Eisenstein halts the action of the 'The Battleship Potemkin' where
he does: what comes next is pretty horrifying. I went on and described
the return as well; partly because it is a major part of the myth, but
primarily because I find it morally necessary--for me--to show precisely
where certain courses of conduct and tricks of thought lead.
"The use of force is *always* an answer to problems. Whether or not
it'a a satisfactory answer depends on a number of things, not least the
personality of the person making the determination.
"Force isn't an attractive answer, though. I would not be true to
myself or to the people I served with in 1970 if I did not make that
realization clear.
Dave Drake"
SF authors who are accurate about weapons
The CD mentioned above is available here:
Baen Free SciFi CDs -
The 03 - Slammers CD has the stuff by David Drake.
(Yes, that site is also listed in my signature.) There's some overlap
between that CD and the Baen Free Library (also listed in my signature).
The CD file is huge so you may want to read some from the Baen Free
Library before using that much bandwidth.
Drake has multiple series of MilSF. The classic is the Slammerverse,
about Hammer's Slammers, futuristic mercenaries. The Tank Lords is in
that universe and is available online at the Baen Free Library, and on
the Drake CD. While Baen named the Drake CD "Slammers," sadly it
actually doesn't have that many of the Hammer's Slammers stories on it.
"The General" [aka Raj Whitehall series] is a series based the life
of the great Roman general Belisarius, but using gunpowder technology
on a regressed futuristic planet. (That's a poor description. Luckily
you can read a lot of it online and decide for yourself.) That's
available almost in full on the Baen 03 Slammers CD under the
titles Warlord, Conquerer, The Reformer, and
The Tyrant.
Only The Chosen isn't on there. One the one hand that's a shame, as
I think it's the best. It's about a WWII like war on a regressed
planet. On the other hand, buying it is a very small price to pay for
all the great free stuff from Baen. There is a sizeable (8 of 30
chapters) free sample available here:
Sample of The Chosen.
"The General" series is mostly co-written with S. M. Stirling. The
Chosen has a very Draka-like nation as a villain. Those of you who
love to hate the Draka will probably like this book.
The Lt. Leary series is "Patrick O'Brien in Space" (Or "Horatio
Hornblower in Space", if you prefer). Whole books of that series are
available online from the Baen Free Library and the Slammers CD. It
starts with With the Lightnings, Lt. Leary Commanding, and The Far
Side of the Stars.
Redliners is a standalone MilSF novel by Drake in the Baen Free
Library and on the CD.
That's not half of what's on the CD alone. (Note also that there are
currently 9 or 10 such Baen CDs available.)
David Drake's Official Home Page
All the best,
Joe Bednorz
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