We lost David Drake a few weeks ago. He was born on September 24, 1945 and passed away on December 10, 2023.
Drake was a legend in the field and he wrote across a variety of sbgenres in both fantasy and science fiction. He was best known as a military science fiction writer, specifically his Hammer’s Slammers series about a team of mercenaries.
In addition to being a fantastic writer, Drake was an enthusiastic porponenet of sword and sorcery. Much of his early work was S&S or horror. He was also a fan of Robert E. Howard and had a deep knowledge of the history of science fiction and fantasy. Along with Karl Edward Wagner and Jim Groce, he cofounded the small press Carcosa in the 1970s. For you young whippersnappers, that was the small press that was responsible for reprinting two volumes of Manly Wade Wellman’s stories.
I met Drake a number of times over the years. Once at ConDFW, once at Conestoga, at least one World Fantasy (maybe three), and (I think) the most recent Worldcon that was held in Texas. I could check my signed copies for dates, but they are all in boxes at the moment.
Drake was always courteous and happy to sign a book or visit with a fan. My memory is of a true gentleman who was softspoken and easily approachable. Everytime I heard hinm talk, either publicly or with a group of fans, he always had interesting things to say. He will be missed. His Hammer’s Slammers series will be one of the high water marks in mil-sf for years to come.
I in no way mean to disparage Hammer’s Slammers or any of Drake’s other mil-sf, but it is a bit of a shame that those writings have overshadowed his sword and sorcery. I have to wonder what sort of stories he would have blessed us with if he had chosen to write more along those lines.
If you want to read some of his sword and sorcery and dark fantasy, I suggest you check out the collection from Baen books, Night and Demons. It’s an expanded version of the collection Balefires.
Drake will be missed, both as a writer and as a human being who was well-loved in the field.
I’ve only touched on a small portion of Drake’s work in this post. I’ve not read his Lord of the Isles series or Lt. Leary. I’ve got the first few books in Lord of the Isles (and heard Drake read from it at Conestoga), and I think I have almost all of the Lt. Leary. They are in the queue, and I’ll get to them at some point.
Drake will be missed. I have a whole bunch of his books on my shelves, many of them re-read a bunch of times.
I’ll put in a plug for the Lt. Leary books. They’re a fun space opera spin on the Aubrey-Maturin series (cf Master and Commander movie).
Same—own a bunch of his books, have reread them often, and love the Leary/RCN series. I have no idea what the workload split was with his co-writers, but—as a lover of military history and an ex-soldier—I loved the Belisarius series the most and enjoyed The General series, as well. I personally think those and the RCN series(which were all based on various episodes in Roman history that he launched into space) were unique to him, and no one else could have done as well.
And I agree he was a very kind man, who was happy—or at least unbegrudgingly—to answer a fan’s emails.
I’ve been aware of Drake’s practice of taking incidents from ancient history and using them in his fiction. Authors that do that sort of thing, IMO, create some of the most unputadownable fiction.
Thanks, Karl. I’ve been wanting to work the Leary series in for a long time.
One series I forgot to mention were the Old Nathan short stories. Very Wellman-like.
Agreed on the wish for more sword & sorcery. And I think OLD NATHAN is a wonderful book outside his usual writings.
I might get to Leary RCN soon. I’ve been in the mood for space opera (and post-apocalypse) science fiction. Been a long time. Maybe it’s a throwback to childhood. Sci Fi was the thing during my middle school and early high school reading.