Customer Reviews

The Chosen (The Raj Whitehall Series, Book 6)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A continuation of the General series is a pleasant surprise. The Chosen continues David Drakes' penchant for molding a military fiction around actual history. S.M. Stirling contributes a strategical view of the situational plot which is usually lacking in Drakes' novels (not to the detriment of his stories, though). The S.M. Stirling/David Drake tandem achieves a notable work in this novel. Granted, I enjoy both authors, but rarely am I compelled to start and finish a book in one day. This one was an exception. The military action holds your interest while the promise of the resolution of the strategical situation keeps you turning pages. This novel is a worthy continuation of the General series, although the character of the CENTER computer is much more muted and almost non-existent. In past novels the computer was an integral part of the story; in The Chosen it is much farther in the background. In summary, the story could easily stretch over five novels as the previous series did. The story felt a bit rushed, with far less detail than I had hoped for.

This entertaining book was very different from the GENERAL series with Center and Raj Whitehall. Raj only has a bit part in this story, although his reminiscing about his life after the general series ended was satisfying (but short).

This is a World War I technology level war story, with very interesting battle scenes, but poor character involvement. The story skips in and out of the hero's life over a period of decades. As a reader, I never really connected that much with the people. I was interested in the final outcome of the war, but the nations were just as interesting as the people in this story, and just as identifiable.

This is a good solid read. If you are a big Raj Whitehall fan, it's fun to think that Center has given him a sort of immortality. If you want to see two of the greatest military authors have fun with World War I, this book is definitely for you. Maybe, as some reviewers have mentioned, if this were expanded into a whole series I would have felt more involved with the characters.

This is perhaps the single most brilliant book of the entire "The General" series.

The other reviewers complain that there isn't much character development and that we don't get to see much of the character's lives when they aren't being shot at. This is a valid complaint and is the result of cramming about 2-3 books into a single volume but misses the point of the book completely.

This book is a wonderful illustration (or more accurately, set of illustrations) of the old military maxim that a war is usually won before it starts.

The authors start the book at the late Victorian/WWI technological level and rapid ramped it up to Spanish Civil War level; showing the stresses that drove the technology forward and its effect on both the strategic level and from the point of view of the soldiers who do the shooting and dying.

Yes, there's tons of interesting military action but that's not the point of the book. Watch the weapons and strategies evolve. Watch the economies and policies of the various nations change over time. Marvel at how Center, the Farr family, and the redoubtable Raj Whitehall set a trap for the Chosen over a 20 year period. And then realize at the end of the book that the worst is probably yet to come as the peace will probably be more difficult to win than the war.

The scope and breadth of this book is astonishing. It was written by two men who have a deep understanding of history, not just military history, and have learned some of its hardest lessons. I would almost argue that it should be required reading for anybody who wants to be a high government official.

Read Stirling's Draka novels first for an added appreciation of this book. The Chosen resemble the Draka, and the Santandans are kin to the Alliance for Democracy. In both plots, the Chosen/Draka have more slaves and resources and strive toward world conquest. Here, the technology level is World War I. But the real contrast is in the different strategy used by Santander, and in the resultant outcome. It is as though in the Draka universe, the Alliance had elected to fight in the time frame of "Under the Yoke", instead of staying at peace, paving the way to its disasterous fate in "Stone Dogs".

'The Chosen' is an interesting twist on the Raj Whitehall series. Although well-written, this book suffers from a major flaw: people who are familiar with World War II history won't be in for many surprises. Drake has always had a habit of basing his fiction on historical events, and usually the results are both interesting and entertaining. Unfortunately in 'The Chosen' he follows World War II a bit too closely. You generally know how major events in the book are going to work out well in advance, so there isn't really much suspense.

Although this book doesn't quite come up to Raj Whitehall series, (a rather lofty peak) it is still a page turner, much, much better tham most of the other stuff out there.

David Drake seems to bring a degree of historical realism to the team that is lacking in SMS solo work and the story and writing are first rate. Unlike the Draka, who are cartoonish, the Chosen are much more believable as a totalitarian warrior caste complete with the inherent weakness of such regimes. The Santander Republic is also believeable and shows the good and bad of a free society going to war.

The bad news: There are still the excessivly cute references (PT109 being rammed & "Gridley", for instance) that jar from the story by reminding of the authors presence. And a lot of the technological details get glossed over. How BIG are those airships anyway???

Using a highly believeable plot twist, Raj is back in business (Sort of) Continuing with his very enjoyable practice of using earth history as the basis for his plot, this novel mixes the Spanish Civil War and WWI, along with some poor man's Draka to come up with a real page turner. Highly recomended

I'm a fan of Stirling's for the chief reason he, like a handful of other military sci fi writers(Pournelle and Turtledove chiefly) write convincingly. I was disappointed by the Draka series not because of the eventual outcome but by the one sidedness of the conflict. The Draka were so much more advanced ALWAYS that it became a joke. The Chosen however set a stage between two opponents that were far more realistic with strengths AND weaknesses which the Draka series didn't have. At least the serfs showed up as real people not just household artifacs. Also it is not so technology driven to abstraction as the lopsided Draka series was. The Navy actually had an important part in the book too. I have always enjoyed reading of the 20s/30s time frame anyway and the Chosen played that up well. It had it's cutsey parts which detracted from the book but that was minor. I too would have liked to see more character development but it was a fine read and throughly enjoyable overall....

Not up to standards of the Raj series. Lots of vignettes, loosely tied together. I suspect they wanted to do another multi-volume series, but the publisher was only willing to do a single book--so they crammed everything into that volume. I also suspect this started out as a separate series, which the publisher told them to connect to Raj for sales purposes. It is only loosely tied to the Raj series and only by an implausible plot device. Neither Raj nor Center are central to the working out of the plot. Readers looking for a contination of the Raj stories will be disappointed. Readers looking for decent military SF will be modestly satisfied.