Caught In The Crossfire [Mass Market Paperback]

David Drake (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1998

Mercenary leader Alois Hammer has created an armored regiment that wins battles--Hammer's Slammers. "Booklist" says "Drake's popular Hammer's Slammers series about futuristic mercenary tank troops . . . has produced some of the best in military science fiction". This book contains two novels, "Counting the Cost" and "The Warrior", two short stories, and a completely new novelette, arranged in the order the author finds most satisfactory.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Drake's collection of shorter stories about his best-known creation, the futuristic tank mercenary band Hammer's Slammers, may overlap here and there with the contents of other collections, but altogether it constitutes an excellent place to get acquainted with the Slammers. Two of the pieces in it are actually short novels: "The Warrior," featuring the perpetually victorious but perpetually insubordinate Slick Des Grieux, and "Counting the Cost," yet another take on the Nika Riots in sixth-century Constantinople, with a Slammer officer shamelessly cast in the role of the historic Count Belisarius. "The Interrogation Team" and "Caught in the Crossfire" in many ways better represent Drake at his best, though, and "The Immovable Object" finds him skillfully handling ethnic brawling and offering a surprise ending. The stories all boast high body counts, but they also let us see Drake developing them from pure hardware-and-gore exercises to more character-centered fiction over the course of some 10 years of writing about the Slammers--and the action scenes are good throughout. Roland Green

Review

"(Drake) has developed a following for his Slammers just short of cult proportions." -- Rave Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Baen; First Edition edition (July 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671878824
• ISBN-13: 978-0671878825
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,239,937 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The Army took David Drake from Duke Law School and sent him on a motorized tour of Viet Nam and Cambodia with the 11th Cav, the Blackhorse. He learned new skills, saw interesting sights, and met exotic people who hadn't run fast enough to get away.

Dave returned to become Chapel Hill's Assistant Town Attorney and to try to put his life back together through fiction making sense of his Army experiences.

Dave describes war from where he saw it: the loader's hatch of a tank in Cambodia. His military experience, combined with his formal education in history and Latin, has made him one of the foremost writers of realistic action SF and fantasy. His bestselling Hammer's Slammers series is credited with creating the genre of modern Military SF. He often wishes he had a less interesting background.

Dave lives with his family in rural North Carolina.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In war, the only rule is SURVIVAL!, January 16, 2003

By 

Michael Valdivielso (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Caught In The Crossfire (Mass Market Paperback)

The second book in the Hammer's Slammers' series includes the two novels The Warrior and Counting the Cost, as well as The Immovable Object, Caught in the Crossfire and, the new story, The Interrogation Team. Also has an introduction to the book and a afterward to Counting the Cost both by David Drake. Both The Warrior and Counting the Cost are full of swift action, brutal decisions and real characters.
Look for the next book: The Butcher's Bill.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A mixed bag, but a good starting point..., July 26, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Caught In The Crossfire (Mass Market Paperback)

I agree that this is a good place to start if you aren't familiar with Drake. However, some of Drake's stories strike a very familiar tone. For several years I considered all of his novels to be only moderately different takes on the same basic themes: amoral military personel (gunmen at times), the horrors of war, and the lasting effects of PTSD. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that per se, for various reasons those are precisely the kind of themes which can make for very interesting reading on a number of levels.

The problem lies with the middle period in which some of these stories were written. Some of Drake's laster work such as the end of the Igniting the Reaches saga, and the Voyage have been extremely well done. At the same time many of his early stories had a raw and stunning intensity. (One line from an early story is still etched in my memory, "Have you ever seen a Sheridan burn?") A few of these stories falter only slightly.

"! ;Counting the Cost" is one of the most problematic. The characters are believable, and the details ring true, up to a point. While I realize that it is based on a historical incident, some of the reactions do not always ring true with the brutality found in some of Drake's other work. Notably, the noblewoman still places herself in the arms of the AAA unit commander, lacking enough of the revulsion to make things ring true. But perhaps at that point Drake couldn't bear to be totally hard hearted.

My other quibbles are very minor. Drake knows his hardware fairly well. A careful reading of his books reveals a man who knows not only ancient history, but guns, Fortean phenomena (origin of Powerguns...), and something about human nature. Still, his experience of armored warfare stems from the Vietnam era of Sheridans, M48s, and ACAVs. Careful readers will note a slam on the original Bradley concept of portholes in one of the stories, but never the less, his combat car! s remain ACAVs. Thus they expose the crew to more fire, an! d the top is open... Airburst shells anyone? I'd like to see Hammer's men get some IFVs which would protect the crew, and could use turret mounted weapons with heaver missles.

In closing I'm reminded of an article in a recent issue of SOF. It was about the possible future privatization of war. I believe it was in either the July or August 1998 issue. One of the mercenaries quoted stated that private forces could go into situations with a flexibility the big boys lacked. He derided the U.N. as ineffective and stated that six BMPs at the right place and time could have stopped the killing in Rawanda. Perhaps Drake's view of the future wasn't so far off after all, even without IFVs. (Although, six BMPs from another side...)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars real war stories, May 13, 2008

By 

Gunner (Smyrna, Georgia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Caught In The Crossfire (Mass Market Paperback)

Caught In The Crossfire

"Caught In the Crossfire contains two novels, Counting the Costs and The Warrior, two short stories, and a completely new novelette, arranged in an order that the author finds most satisfactory." The contents are as follows:

Introduction
The Warrior
Caught in the Crossfire
The Immovable Object
Counting the Costs
The Interrogation Team

As a Viet Nam Vet you can tell the writings of one who has been at the "Sharp End"

Highly recommended for fans of David Drake and of real war stories, not some made up by journalist types.

Gunner May, 2008