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. Continue reading
There are a number of birthdays today (September 24). I’ve been slammed this week with the first exam of the semester, general job responsibilities, and more emails from students who didn’t bother to read their syllabus than you can shake a stick at. (I’d like to hit a few of them with a stick.)
Which is to say that I’ve not read anything to review for this post. Consider this just information and informal recognition. Continue reading
Today (September 24) there are several birthdays of note (waves at John Kessel), but I want to focus on two of them. The first is a little-known British writer, Charles Birkin (1907-1985). The other, and this is an exception to my unwritten rule of focusing on dead writers in these birthday posts, is David Drake (b. 1945). Continue reading
At the Friends of the Library Book Sale. Why? What did you think I meant?
Some of you people need to get your minds out of the gutter.
Here’s what I picked up (click to enlarge). Paperbacks were fifty cents (when did keyboards stop containing the cents symbol?) and hardcovers a dollar.
Some of these are duplicates, such has the REH titles, the Frazetta, The Saberhagen Dracula books, the SF Hall of Fame, some of the Bova and Drake. In some cases I wasn’t sure which ones I had and in others I was upgrading. The Hecate’s Cauldron was a steal for $0.50; the last time I checked, it was selling for around $20 on ABE.
My main objective was to fill in gaps in Bova’s Grand Tour series, and I managed to pick up a couple I didn’t already have. Most of them, though, are upgrades or reading copies of titles I have that are signed. Everything else was gravy.
Not bad for $23.50 total.
The 2017 World Fantasy Convention ended a week ago as I write this. It was in San Antonio, which is a 6 hour drive from where I live. I got back Sunday night and returned to San Antonio Tuesday morning for another event, which is why I’m a little late in writing this report. WFC started on Thursday and ran through Sunday, making it an excellent weekend.
I’ll give a brief overview of some of the panels I attended, then make some general statements. Continue reading
Onward, Drake!
Mark L. van Name, ed.
Baen Books
Hardcover, $25
ebook $9.99
There’s been a long tradition in the field of honoring outstanding authors with an anthology. Sometimes the anthology comes after they’ve passed on, but usually the anthology is published while the authors are still with us. Such is the case with David Drake. He’s a giant whose works have changed the genre, and for the better I might add. It’s good to see this tribute to him, especially as he’s still with us to appreciate it.
Onward, Drake! contains both original fiction as well as essays in honor of Drake. There’s a pretty wide range of stuff here. Although David Drake built his reputation with his military science fiction, particularly the Hammer’s Slammers series, he’s written in a wide variety of subgenres: epic fantasy, dark fantasy and horror, space opera, and humor. As if that weren’t enough, he’s also been an editor and historian of the field with a great appreciation of the pulp writers. I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything I’ve read by him
The highlights of the anthology are two new stories by Drake himself. Continue reading
I posted recently about one of the local used bookstores (currently there are 4: 2 good, 1 decent, 1 not worth bothering with) closing and some of the titles I picked up.
You know I went back. The store will be open for a little while yet. Here’s what I picked up this time.
I couldn’t resist the cover of the Howard pastiche by Offutt, even though I doubt I’ll read it. The People of the Mist is an upgrade of my existing copy. The Starfollowers of Coramonde is a later edition, but the Darrell K. Sweet cover matches the one on the first novel in the series.
I loved Sean Stewart’s Galveston some years back, but I haven’t read any of his other books. The Tanith Lee speaks for itself. The third row contains the first 3 of 4 in Lawrence Watt-Evans Lords of Dus series.
The last row is a reading copy of one of Evangeline Walton’s books that was part of the BAF series. The Zahn is part of a series that looks like a lot of fun. And the Paul Preuss because I wanted some solid science fiction in the old style.
But the gem of this little collection is the volume in the upper left of the picture. It’s Whispers, edited by Stuart David Schiff. It’s a collection of stories published in his groundbreaking small press magazine of the same title. I’ve got a copy of this already, but I couldn’t pass this one up. The contents include “Sticks” by Karl Edward Wagner, “The Barrow Troll” by David Drake, “The Dakwa” by Manly Wade Wellman, plus stories by Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, William F. Nolan, Hugh B. Cave, Dennis Etchison, Joseph Payne Brennan, Ramsey Campbell, Richard Christian Matheson, Brian Lumley, and many others.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go reread “Sticks”.