From rec.arts.sf-reviews Wed Oct 16 09:51:11 1991 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!seunet!mcsun!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!pacbell.com!pacbell!pbhyc!djdaneh From: throopw@sheol%dg-rtp.dg.com (Wayne Throop) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-reviews Subject: OLD NATHAN by David Drake Message-ID: <6865@pbhyc.PacBell.COM> Date: 15 Oct 91 23:07:56 GMT Sender: djdaneh@PacBell.COM Lines: 39 Approved: djdaneh@pbhyc.pacbell.com I quite enjoy the "Silver John" stories by Manly Wade Wellman. Top notch, first rate, highly recommended. In reading the cover blurb of _Old_Nathan_ and leafing through the front material, I noticed that the dedication of this book was "To my late friend Manly Wade Hampton Wellman". I snatched it up. Well. Old Nathan is no Silver John. No way, no how. The book consists of five stories about "Old Nathan", a cross between Doctor Dolittle and John Christian Falkenberg, but with a bit less self-control than either of them. Nathan, you see, can talk to the animals, and work various sorts of magic, and lays claim to being "the Devil's master". He's a harsh, bitter man who holds most who come to him for help of various sorts in caustic contempt. But like a bitter-tasting medicine, Nathan is an effective, sometimes necessary, and always sufficient cure for whatever ails a person. The five stories are interesting, the "gimick" of each one is well thought out, and the plots pull your attention right along. "Hammer's Slammers in faeryland" is a bit too strong, but it conveys a perhaps-useful summarizing image. Hmmmm. Perhaps you'd do better thinking of "Lacey and his Friends in faeryland". So, if you like the hard edged characterizations that David Drake is known for, and the macho bluster, and the (it seems to me) vaguely Heinlein-esque philosophical background, then these may be just your cup of tea. For me, expecting something much more Silver-John-like, it really didn't hit the spot. %A David Drake %C Riverdale, NY %D October 1991 %G 0-671-72084-8 %I Baen Books %T Old Nathan -- Wayne Throop ...!mcnc!dg-rtp!sheol!throopw From archive (archive) From: runyan@hpirs.HP.COM (Mark Runyan) Organization: HP UKL/USD/NSG Cupertino, CA, USA Subject: The Fleet ed by Drake & Fawcett Date: 23 Aug 88 04:32:33 GMT The Fleet Edited by David Drake and Bill Fawcett Apparently the success of the Theives World fantasy series has lead several authors to examine the concept of a shared universe. Perhaps such a series existed before Theives World so feel free to correct me... Anyway, The Fleet appears to be a shared universe based on Mankind's struggle with the Khalia. Authors for this series include Janet Morris, E. Gary Gygax, Poul Anderson, Anne McCaffrey, and David Drake, as well as others. While this book can be a fun read, there appears to be some inconsistancy in the technologies of the seperate stories. For instance, in the story "Tradition", we have ships entering and leaving FTL drive under the cover of a moon (well within a planatary system), but in a later story, "Duty Calls", the author has the ships performing a breaking maneuver through whole planatary systems in order to shed their speed. I was willing to accept the different levels of technology on seperate planets, but I had a little trouble with there being various types of drives at various levels of technology. Yes, I know that can be explained by the difference in the planets' tech levels, but I would think that the most advance type of engine drives would be purposely distributed through the the Fleet. The editors did try to add consistancy to the stories, but there was always that feeling that the stories were not all taking place in the same Universe. You also don't get the character interaction in The Fleet as you did in Theives World or Wild Cards. Mark Runyan From /tmp/sf.18320 Wed May 12 14:27:56 1993 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Path: lysator.liu.se!kth.se!sunic!pipex!uunet!gatech!concert!news-feed-1.peachnet.edu!umn.edu!csus.edu!netcom.com!dani From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) Subject: Stirling and Drake: The Anvil Message-ID: Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Wed, 12 May 1993 02:28:52 GMT Lines: 41 "The Anvil" is book three of Stirling's and Drake's military-sf series, "The General". The story takes place over a millenium after the collapse of an interstellar federation, on a world which is technologically at pre-WWI levels, and socially/politically resembles sixth-century Europe. The latter is no coincidence, as the series is based on the life of Belisarius -- Justinian's general. Not too closely: Belisarius's troops didn't have guns, and Belisarius probably didn't have the behind-the-scenes aid of a forgotten computer. Still, the parallels are very close. The first book details the general's battles with the "Colonists" -- descendents of Islamic colonists and now a major competing power. Islam didn't exist yet in the sixth century, but if you're tracking parallels, the Colonists correspond to the Persians. Like most military/sf books, there's a fair amount of carnography, but there's also a good story being told. This book "The Forge", is very good. So is the second book, "The Hammer", though not *as* good. The conquest of the "Squadrons", with the aid of ridiculously few troops, may seem too good to be true, but it corresponds well enough to Belisarius's conquest of Africa. (The parallels are personal and political, as well as military -- the religious schisms, the ruler's paranoia, his wife's infidelities... The authors did their homework.) The third (of five), just published, is "The Anvil". The invasion of the western territories (closely modelled on Belisarius's invasion of Italy), is launched, and this book covers the opening phase of that invasion. I did not enjoy this book. It consisted of virtually nothing *but* carnography -- battle after battle after battle, with little more than bridging in between. For those who find reading about spilled entrails stirring. ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com 'T is with our judgements as our watches, none Go alike, yet each believes his own --Alexander Pope From /tmp/sf.17355 Fri Jun 4 00:08:05 1993 Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!uunet!wupost!udel!news.intercon.com!psinntp!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: ccc_rex@waikato.ac.nz (Rex Croft) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: "Battlestation: Vanguard" edited by David Drake and Bill Fawcett Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand Message-ID: <1993May24.092859.16582@waikato.ac.nz> Date: 24 May 93 21:51:15 GMT Lines: 51 "Battlestation: Vanguard" edited by David Drake and Bill Fawcett - reviewed by Rex Croft ccc_rex@waikato.ac.nz This is the successor to the book "Battlestation". Both are braided anthologies about the battlestation _Stephen Hawking_ which was created to fight the predatory Ichtons, a large insect like alien. The Ichtons breed and breed, overrunning any planet they come across. The Earth decides to take the fight to the Ichtons before Alliance space is threatened. But the governments don't want to fund a battlestation all by themselves, so involve commercial interests on the understanding that they will get preferential trade agreements with the friendly aliens when the Ichtons are defeated. So the battlestation has a lot of non-military personnel on it, which adds to the scope for interesting stories. I don't normally buy books of short stories, preferring full length novels, but made an exception with "Battlestation" because of its topic. Since I enjoyed it, I purchased the second volume, which I also enjoyed. There are a variety of subjects covered by the 11 short stories, some of them deep and moving. The stories slowly advance the general plot until near the end of the book we find the battlestation nearly reaching the end of its military usefulness. I feel that at this point the editors decided not to write another volume and looked arround for a trick which would enable the humans to win over the Ichtons, which they hadn't managed to do militarily. In 23 pages, David Drake ties up the series, by the use of this trick, which, admittedly, is plausible. Some of the authors contributing to this book are: Christopher Stasheff S. N. Lewitt Mercedes Lackey Esther M. Friesner Diane Duane Jody Lynn Nye Katherine Kurtz David Drake %T Battlestation: Vanguard %E David Drake %E Bill Fawcett %I ACE %C New York %D March 1993 %O paperback, US$4.99 %P 264 pp. %G 0-441-86032-X %S Battlestation %V 2 From /tmp/sf.4146 Tue Aug 9 02:11:30 1994 Xref: liuida rec.arts.sf.reviews:622 rec.arts.sf.written:69579 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.written Path: liuida!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!usc!nic-nac.CSU.net!charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu!csusac!csus.edu!netcom.com!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: dani@telerama.lm.com (Dani Zweig) Subject: Drake: The Voyage Message-ID: <302fhn$boc@terrazzo.lm.com> Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: mcb@postmodern.com (Michael C. Berch) Organization: Telerama Public Access Internet, Pittsburgh, PA USA Date: Thu, 14 Jul 1994 04:39:19 GMT Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Lines: 43 David Drake's "Voyage" is set in the universe of Hammer's Slammers, which means that it involves hard-bitten professional soldiers doing a lot of damage. Just as "Cross the Stars" was based on the Odyssey, "Voyage" is based on the story of Jason and the Argonauts: Lissea Doorman has been promised her rightful heritage (a seat on the Board of Directors) if she can retrieve a long-lost treasure (an invention which teleported to a now- isolated planet), so she recruits a shipful of heroes (big-name mercenaries) who stop at a number of planets on the way, having an adventure of sorts at each one. The parallels are very heavy-handed. For example, instead of harpies snatching food from a table, we have teleporters snatching food as it comes out of the automatic food dispenser. The monsters guarding the treasure are tanks, which can be lulled into 'sleep' with a device which they receive from the son of the local ruler. (Lissea may be luckier than Jason in her Medea.) And so forth. The plot structure doesn't lend itself that well to a novel: Each stop (and most of the stops are unconvincingly motivated) becomes the setting for a separate, isolated (and often pointless) incident. Most of the incidents involve far more blood-letting than the law of averages would require, but I suppose that's why carnophiles read carnography. The book is probably not bad mind-candy, for those readers whose favorite mind-candy comes in the form of bloody gobbets. I wouldn't recommend it else. %A Drake, David %T The Voyage %I Tor %C New York %D January, 1994 %G ISBN 0-312-85158-8 %P 415 pp %O US$23.95 ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com dani@telerama.lm.com Should 'anal retentive' have a hyphen? -- unidentified passing t-shirt