It's Hammer Time!

David Drake: The Complete Hammer's Slammers, Volume One (Night Shade Books; 2006; ISBN 978-1-892389-69-5; cover by John Berkey).

David Drake: The Complete Hammer's Slammers, Volume Two (Night Shade Books; 2006; ISBN 978-1-892389-73-2; cover by John Berkey).

David Drake: The Complete Hammer's Slammers, Volume Three (Night Shade Books; 2007; ISBN 978-1-892389-80-0; cover by David Martin).

As I read more and more of David Drake's books, I find that I did him something of a disservice in my earlier review of this series. It is only after going through the series, hearing a couple of interviews with him, and reading a chunk of additional tales (of varying lengths) that I see how lightly I dismissed his work.

And for that, I apologize.

On the surface, these are "mere" action adventure stories. Maybe if that was all there was, only the surface, then Bruce Sterling would have been justified in his accusation that Drake (along with Jerry Pournelle and Vernor Vinge) were part of some sort of military/militarist right wing or doing military porn (to paraphrase David Hartman's introduction to the second volume).

But there is more than the surface.

His fingers uncurled from Rob's chin and slammed in a fist against the car's armor. "This ain't heroes, it ain't no coppy game you play when you want to! You do what you go to do, 'cause if you don't, some poor bastard gets killed later when he tries to." (Under the Hammer)

When you send a man out with a gun, you create a policymaker. When his ass is on the line, he will do whatever he needs to do...And if the implications of that bothers you, the time to do something about it is before you decide to send him out. (Caught in the Crossfire)

"War isn't a business where there's a lot of obvious good guys, but sometimes the bad guys are pretty easy to spot." (The Irresistible Force)

There's action. There's adventure. But there are scenes and characters that will burn you and haunt you. I've often come back to stories such as Under the Hammer, The Darkness, The Interrogation Team, Paying the Piper, Rolling Hot and others. Drake takes historical events (ranging from the Tet Offensive to to the time after the empire of Alexander the Great), along with his own experiences, and forges some darn fine tales.

Several characters appear in multiple tales. Colonel Alois Hammer remains an enigma, for the most part. He usually only "appears" as a voice on the radio. Danny Pritchard rises from NCO to Hammer's right-hand man. The most popular character of the series, I have been told, is the strangest: Joachim Steuben, Hammer's "left-hand man", a twisted psychopath. Confusingly, due to the way the stories are arranged, some characters die (or appear to die) only to show up in a later tale (see Sergeant Horthy in Standing Down...which is sequenced later than Cultural Conflict).

The tales might answer a question for you. Why do you fight? It has been said, and my own experience (not as extensive as Drake's, by far!) that you don't fight for ideals. You don't fight for your country. You fight for the guy next to you, and the guy next to him. You have a job to do, as dirty as it is, and you do it so you don't let them down.

Football? Hah! Corporate "spirit-building" exercises? Hah! You want teamwork? Join the military. I far value any training I received there (direct or indirect) over any instruction I've received in the "civilian world".

I'm successful now because I learned professionalism in the Blackhorse and carried that lesson over to the work I do in civilian life—which happens to be writing SF. The lessons people learned in Nam probably cost more than they were worth—even to the folks like me who got back with nothing worse than a couple boil scars from the time I was in the field. They were valuable lessons nonetheless.

If any of the folks reading this were with Blackhorse, thank you for what you taught me. I'm proud to have been one of you. (Foreword, Volume One)

But you know, I'm still proud of my unit and the men I served with. They weren't exactly my brothers, but they were the folks who were alone with me. Given the remarkably high percentage of those eligible who've joined the association of war-service Blackhorse veterans, my feelings are normal for the 11th Cav.

Nobody who missed the Viet Name War should regret the fact. It was a waste of blood and time and treasure. It did not good of which I am aware, and did a great deal of evil of which I'm far too aware. But having said that...

I rode with the Blackhorse. (Foreword, Volume Three)

Which leads me to a question that I haven't found the answer to. Given the quality of these stories, the depth of these stories, why does the bulk of science fiction (fandom, reviewers, editors, "intellectuals") dismiss the works of Drake and others?

Alas, some questions probably don't have answers.

Additional materials of interest: The Tank Lords (online, free). Paying the Piper (online, free). David Drake's own guide to the series. Comments about the first book here. Comments about Rolling Hot here. Comments about Caught in the Crossfire here. Comments about The Sharp End here.

Made up of: Volume One: Introduction (Gene Wolfe); Foreword: On Becoming a Professional Writer by Way of Southeast Asia; Under the Hammer; The Butcher's Bill; But Loyal to His Own; Caught in the Crossfire; Cultural Conflict; Hangman; Standing Down; Code-Name Feirefitz; The Interrogation Team; The Tank Lords; Liberty Port; Night March; The Immovable Object; The Irresistible Force; A Death in Peacetime; Afterword: Accidentally and by the Back Door. With the following "non-fiction" essays: Backdrop to Chaos; The Bonding Authority; The Church of the Lord's Universe; Powerguns; Supertanks; Table of Organization and Equipment, Hammer's Regiment. Volume Two: Introduction (David G. Hartwell); Foreword: We Happy Few (David Drake); At Any Price; Counting the Cost; Rolling Hot; The Warrior; The Day of Glory; Afterword: What's for Sale (David Drake). Volume Three: Introduction (Barry N. Malzberg); The Sharp End; Paying the Piper; The Darkness; Jim.

Part of the 2008 Year in Shorts.

(On a personal note...all three of these are super-deluxe-fanboy limited editions with real leather covers...take that, PETA!...and signed by the author, the artist and the author of the introduction for each volume. Nyah, nyah, nyah!)

Posted by Fred Kiesche at June 13, 2008 08:03 PM