Tag: david drake

Book of the Week: Redliners.

Not an Amazon special, this time: Baen Books has made David Drake’s Redliners a free e-library book. So if you’ve never read it (I haven’t, either), check it out. And pour one out for David Drake, while you’re at it. What he didn’t know about writing military science fiction probably didn’t matter much, anyway.

Moe Lane

PS: Personally, I was a big fan of his collaborations with Eric Flint and S.M. Stirling. As for his own work: the RCN series is what I bought, as soon as new ones came out. I am an absolute sucker for Napoleonic War-era naval fiction… In Space! Balefires is likewise a favorite; the man had a dab hand at horror.

#commissionearned

RIP, David Drake.

David Drake was one of the best military science fiction writers of our time; he could also write a literal Hell of a horror story, when he put his mind to it. My condolences and prayers for his family and loved ones.

Book of the Week: The Square Deal (Car Warriors #1).

A buddy on Twitter reminded me of David Drake’s The Square Deal (Car Warriors #1), which is indeed set in the Car Wars universe — and I don’t know why I’m on a Car Wars kick this week, either. I just… am?Β  It happens, sometimes. Anyway, I’ve never actually read it but the reviews are pretty solid and, well, David Drake, right? Given that it’s six bucks, just how much worse off am I for grabbing it?

And so, adieu to whatever I picked while I was on vacation.Β  I gotta get a proper laptop for traveling. Or even an updated Chromebook.

Book of the Week: “With The Lightnings.”

Truth be told, With The Lightnings — David Drake’s first entry in the Leary-Mundy space opera series — is available for free.Β  But it’s still a fun series, not least because Drake has no intention of producing a happy-shiny spacefaring culture that has learned to get beyond those things that divide us and all the other anodyne proclamations. Nope! Leary and Mundy work for a star nation that can be rather obnoxious at times, amazingly culturally chauvinistic, and often cheerfully indifferent to corruption and the two don’t try to do anything about that. And why should they care about the way this might come across to their distant ancestors (i.e., us)? We’re practically barbarians ourselves!Β  I don’t know if I’d want to read nothing else besides this series, but it usually serves as a decent bracer.

And so, adieu to Silverlock.

In The E-Mail: David Drake’s ‘Though Hell Should Bar The Way.’

Though Hell Should Bar The Way is David Drake’s latest entry in the Leary/Mundy series; it’s also an EARC, because as usual Baen is wise to assume that I’m willing to pay hardcover prices to read certain books a few months early. For those unfamiliar with the setting: space navy combat in a far-future where the heroes are much nicer than the star nation that they work for, which is likewise much nicer than theΒ other star nations out there, and David Drake is unsentimental generally when it comes to politics and statecraft.Β  It’s all very pre-Reform Act England mixed with the Roman Republic, and quite entertaining. Hence my buying it in EARC form.

Oh, bless you Baen Ebooks…

…for your ARC drops today. Ring of Fire IV, a book short stories in John Ringo’s Black Tide Rising series, and a new Leary-Mundy book from David Drake. Β It’s like the publisher knew that February was pure Hell on Earth for me. Or that I’m still going to be white-knuckling March.

Balefires is coming back out in paperback.

At the end of June; Balefires is a collection of David Drake‘s fantasy short stories, and is noteworthy for having “Than Curse the Darkness,” which is probably in the top ten of most people’s short lists of Greatest Cthulhu Mythos Stories*. The collection is also available in hardback, so if you’re into instant gratification, knock yourself out.

Meanwhile, Lovecraft is Missing continues its surveys of… stuff.Β  Interesting stuff, but… stuff.

Moe Lane

*Including a couple written by HP Lovecraft himself, if you’ll pardon the rank heresy.