“ To her the most amusing part of the whole business was the fact that an hour before she’d have truthfully said that she wasn’t afraid to die. It appeared that she was, however, afraid to mash herself to a pulp as the climax to a hundred-foot fall. She supposed it was vanity.”
David Drake is considered the father of modern military SF. I read quite a bit in this sub-genre, so I jumped at the opportunity to sample some of his work. Retired from novel writing since 2021, Drake is something of a Renaissance man. His work blends his own military experience -- he served in the US Army in Vietnam -- with a highly literate, classical background and a law degree. The three works reviewed here vary from searingly intense to purely fun. All share excellent writing and give the sense their author was laboring not at a job, but at a chosen craft.
Starliner, 2012 (1992)
Starliner is (non-military) space opera on a grand scale, infused with an air of mystery, danger, daring and adventure. Drake explains much of the background to the book on his blog, although I read that only after finishing it. It sounds like the book was very much a passion project, and I think that shows through to great effect.
The officers and crew of The Empress of Earth are showing the flag, literally and figuratively, for Terra. The liner in question is one of humanity’s two largest ships, a showcase for both gracious living -- if you can afford it -- and the brutality of frontier life. As it loops through space, it takes on a political significance as well, hurtling between two polities headed for war while under the flag of a third. Seen mostly through the eyes of Ran Colville -- a fellow torn from a Kipling story -- the Empress’ crew need to be as adept at space-going diplomacy and anthropology as they are at customer service. You trifle with the ship, the crew and The Company they serve at your peril.
This was just an enormously fun read. There’s a steamship age vibe to this which is super-entertaining, and Drake lays out a slalom course of obstacles and threats for Colville and his colleagues to navigate. On the negative end, I found Wade and Belgeddes a bit tedious and their contribution to the plot over-done. Still, Drake’s a talented writer, and the 314 pages flew by. Goodreads’ 3.71 average star rating for this seems low to me.
Smirk factor: All clear: 2 pts. (No smirking, and very polished word use.)
Immersion factor: Chest-high: 1.5 pts
Writing quality: Average: 1 pt
Character/plot development: Above-average: 1.5 pts
Innovative/interesting: High: 2pts
Total: 8/10 (4 stars)
Redliners, 2013 (1996)
Redliners was challenging. On the one hand, it drips with grim and very dark violence across almost every page. On the other, it’s also a tale of rising above and transcending that same nihilistically-shaded violence and despair, hoping for redemption even when it costs too much.
Drake himself wrote in 2002 that he thought Redliners was “[P]ossibly the best thing I’ve written. It’s certainly the most important thing” -- a high bar given his prolific output over the years. The basic idea is simple: after a catastrophic combat operation, an elite company is “redlined” -- worn out. Humanity’s most senior administrator, looking ahead, hits on a novel way to reintroduce the troopers to civilians: send them to what W40K would call a death world, with the troops as guards. This, obviously, quickly goes bad. Very bad.
This is mil SF, but fundamentally it’s really meaning-making about war — and specifically what it does to people and how they may be redeemed to themselves and the eyes of others. There’s also an interesting leadership twist which goes beyond the unit’s officers: it turns out the administrator who thought all this up went in with them. This is an admirable if possibly lethal move. But it ensures that unlike many leaders, he at least had some skin in the game and creates an opportunity to pass along an important lesson to a junior.
This is a touching, moving meditation on redemption. Well worth reading.
Smirk factor: All clear: 2 pts (Zero smirks, 384 pages. A cathedral of words by SF standards.)
Immersion factor: Chest-high: 1.5 pts
Writing quality: High: 2 pts
Character/plot development: Above-average: 1.5 pts
Innovative/interesting: Above-average: 1.5 pts
Total: 8.5/10 (4.25 stars, functionally 5)
With The Lightnings (Lt. Leary/RCN #1), 2000 (1998)
I read this after finishing Redliners, and found it to be a fun contrast to that book’s very serious themes. If I were awarding the book a medal, the commendation would say it performed in the finest traditions of space opera and mil SF. The basic plot is relatively straightforward and would be loosely familiar to anyone who’s read Horatio Hornblower or the old Richard Bolitho series.
Daniel Leary is a broke, influence-bereft lieutenant in the Republic of Cinnabar Navy. He finds himself as a fifth wheel on a diplomatic trip to the independent world of Kostroma, which is balanced unsteadily between Cinnabar and its arch-nemesis, the Alliance. The Kostroman government and armed forces are a queasy blend of comic opera and banana republic; the Cinnabarians, it seems, are too complacent; and the Alliance are ruthless. Leary winds up partners with Adele Mundy, a librarian in exile. Hired to set up a state library for the soon-to-be-former-maximum-leader, Mundy finds herself — along with Leary — plunged into intrigue and danger. Adventure, skullduggery, and a bit of library science -- all on a grand scale -- ensue.
Well written and generally crisp, this moved quickly. The basic direction of the plot is conventional, but Drake keeps things moving pretty deftly and throws in enough wrinkles that things stay interesting. Mundy and Leary both turn out to be more than meets the eye. Entertaining and solid, this is the first volume in a series.
Smirk factor: All clear: 2 pts (4 smirks in 461 pages, sound word choices.)
Immersion factor: Chest-high: 1.5pts (Felt like a shorter book.)
Writing quality: Above-average: 1.5 pts
Character/plot development: Average: 1 pt
Innovative/interesting: Above-average: 1.5 pts
Total: 7.5/10 (3.75 stars, rounded to 4)
Also worth mentioning…
Now retired from novel writing, Drake appears to be a man of many talents (the law and high-performance motorcycle riding among his non-writing avocations) and this is reflected in the breadth of entries on his blog. Recommended destination for at least a casual cruise through: https://david-drake.com/
His work is still compelling and worth any SF fan’s time.
