Customer Reviews

All the Way to the Gallows

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

From the author, cover, and title I expected this to be more great military fiction from the master. While not quite the Drake I am used to reading (Hammer's Slammers, Cross the Stars, etc.), it was still thoroughly entertaining and delightful. I would recommend it to anyone who likes to laugh

David Drake has an unusually realistic sense of humor, in that bad yet interesting events keep plaguing the main characters in each of these short stories. This isn't a space marine or fantasy collection per se; it's more of Murphy's Law happening to good soldiers simply following orders across many dimensions and settings.

This is also the first appearance (off screen) of the Demon Dragon Malfegor, recently introduced as a card in Magic: the Gathering's Conflux expansion. We follow the adventures of a goblin balloon brigade led by the pyromage Roxanne as they attack elves and knights in what might as well be the convergence of Jund and Naya. Story around p113, with 'Airborne' in the title.

I enjoyed the collection more than I expected, and I'll be keeping this one. Four stars.

Despite the appearance on the cover, this is not stricly Science Fiction, nor is it a Space Marines collection. You will find instead a colorful collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy short stories with little introductions from Drake explaining how he came to write them. Some are really quite well done and more than make up for the few lackluster ones. If you are the sort of person who can enjoy humor in even morbid situations, then you will definitely love it. My favorite was the fantasy story "A Very Offensive Weapon." It featured the unlikely heroine Jancy Gaine and lots of play-on-words humor reminiscent of Robert Asprin's style in the Myth series. After reading this, I think Drake missed his true calling!

Let me first admit that I am one of the - I presume - large numbeer of people who rush to buy all of Drake's books. (BTW, I wish he would write a book set in Vietnam, either fiction or non-fiction to get his 11th Cav days off his chest. War is hell when you're smart and have an imagination...) This one was something of a novelty. Anumber of the stories are ones Drake did for other anthologies. Thus I missed them the first time around. Some are extremely well done, some aren't so great but still a pleasant diversion. Don't get me wrong, if you like Drake read this book. If you haven't read Drake yet, start with one of the Slammer's compilations.