"Warriors for the working-day."

I was saddened to discover that talented science fiction and fantasy author David Drake had passed away on December 10th of last year at the age of 78 - saddened and a bit surprised that, in spite of his prolific and noteworthy career, it had taken almost a month for me to hear about his passing. 

Drake was one of my favourite authors. His books were eminently readable - they may not have explored great philosophical issues, but their strong foundation in realism and historical research gave them a weight and believability that appealed to me.

I always felt that Drake was a guilty pleasure - so many of his books were set in a military framework, and by and large the science fiction community tends toward the pacifist. This viewpoint was reflected in his early struggles to sell short stories that were rooted in his personal experience of combat while serving in Vietnam. Eventually he was able to find a market for the gritty realism of his Hammer's Slammers series, which told the story of a far-future mercenary regiment from a wide range of perspectives. 

After he gained a foothold in the market with the Slammers stories and novels, he demonstrated his range as a writer by creating a multitude of fictional worlds: the Northworld Trilogy, the Reaches books, the Tom Kelly and Venus novels, and his fantasy series Lord of the Isles, and The Books of the Elements, along with a variety of one-off novels, such as The Forlorn Hope, Redliners, Old Nathan and The Dragon Lord. 

Drake also collaborated on the General series with S. M. Stirling, providing a plot outline for the original five books that Stirling then completed, an approach which he repeated with Eric Fint and the Belisarius novels.

In addition, Drake created what I would consider to be his own subgenre of science fiction: Romans encountering aliens. Although this has an unfortunate Cowboys Vs. Aliens feel to it, the three novels that used this concept - Ranks of Bronze, Birds of Prey and Killer, along with the short story collection Vettius and His Friends - convincingly created storylines in which the Romans come out on top when confronted with extraterrestrial opposition, proving that technology doesn't necessarily provide superiority. 

At the time of his retirement from writing due to health issues in November of 2021, Drake had completed 13 novels in his Republic of Cinnabar Navy (RCN) series, which featured the adventures of Daniel Leary, an officer in the RCN, and his companion Adele Mundy, who goes from being a librarian to a member of the espionage branch of the Republic.  Leary is Drake's Horatio Hornblower, a young officer who advances his naval career through a combination of cleverness, bravery, aggression and charm, in spite of his estrangement from his highly placed father, Speaker Leary of the Republic.  

The RCN books are well-written, well researched stories, rooted in actual historical events that Drake cleverly translates into the world of the Cinnabar Navy and its interstellar encounters with the Alliance of Free Stars.  I sincerely hope that no one decides to find another writer to finish the series - or add to any of Drake's other stories, for that matter.  They could try, but it would be impossible to find a match for the talent, experience and intellect that made David Drake such a great author - and a great loss. 

- Sid