Customer Reviews

The Complete Hammer's Slammers: Volume I

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

 

 

This is the first in a three volume compilation of all the Hammer's Slammers stories (short stories, novellas, and novels) written by David Drake. Hammer's Slammers is a fictional mercenary armored regiment that is hired out by various organizations, planetary governments, commercial interests, etc. to fight their battles. The Slammers typically provide the mobile muscle for any indigenous forces and have proven decisive in a large number of campaigns. The unit's name is derived from that of its commander/owner, Alois Hammer. The backdrop is based on the authors own experiences in the 11th ACR in Vietnam. This first volume is largely a collection of short stories, and the Slammer's universe is both complex and highly entertaining. The stories generally don't center on one (or a few) main character, but describe the exploits of various elements of the Slammers at different times and places. The unit is very similar to a modern ACR in the US Army. There are heavy tanks, lighter and faster recon vehicle, artillery, etc. The firepower of the Slammers is awesome, and that firepower is often, but not always, decisive. In the Slammerverse, there are a large number of mercenary units (that often fight one another), but the Slammers are widely regarded as the best. There is a certain moral ambiguity among the Slammers that I found particularly enjoyable. For the most part, they don't really care which side of a conflict they fight on, and they try not to get too emotionally attached. The Slammers generally don't want to harm civilians, but if the civilians take up arms against them, the gloves are totally off. Drake explores many interesting themes in these stories including civilian's general lack of knowledge about the awesome firepower of tanks and artillery, religious versus secular govt, the manipulation of poor govts by rich and powerful off-world interests, among others. Drake has also portrayed the lot of the individual soldiers well. I had never read any of the Slammer stories before, but had heard a great deal about them. If you like military sci-fi, I'd say that this is a must read. If, like me, you've never read any of the Slammer's stories, this is a good (and inexpensive) way to start. If you've already read a fair number of the Slammer stories, there may not be much new here for you. I would say that Drake's stories are certainly much better than John Scalzi's stuff (in spite of what one of the other reviewers states), definitely not as good as Heinlein though. The primary weakness of Drake's writings is that while the plots are interesting and diverse (and there is lots of interesting discussion of the tanks, equipment, etc., some stories contain lots of fighting and destruction, others don't), the characters themselves are fairly cliched and unimaginative. Highly readable!

David Drake is a veteran, and he writes like one. If you have read even one of his Hammer's Slammers stories, you will need no introduction to the universe about which he writes. All of the stories are collected in the three volumes, and they are all very good. His writing style is very straightforward, and not overly wordy. He tends to write in the way that I imagine one of his characters would speak.

One of the cool aspects of the Complete series is the insertion of small chapters that describe various aspects of the Drake universe that I do not believe are described elsewhere, such as the development of powerguns, the ascension of tanks on those battlefields, the emergence of the mercenary "trade system" and other things. Also included are illustrations that give you an idea of what some of these vehicles look like.

All in all, I highly recommend these books for anyone who enjoys military sci-fi.

Even if you have read this in other volumes, a collection like this is a great way to have the stories all in one place. I suggest the hardcover edition so it can stay on your shelves forever.

I actually bought the e-book directly from Baen, and was hoping that it would contain all of his stories. However, I was mildly disappointed to find that it was more of a "Best Of" than the "Complete" Hammer's Slammers, especially since many of the early books like The Warrior is out of print.

That said, I am really enjoying reading some stories that I haven't read in many many moons.

This is the sort of stuff an author rereleases or releases for the first time after he becomes famous and starts digging up old stuff that didn't do well the first time. Dull, boring and hard to follow.

I've always enjoyed the Hammers Slammers series but a lot of this stuff was not even about the Slammers....major disappointment. Couple of short stories in it that I missed but nothing to be worth the purchase of the whole book.

David Drake is a very competent writer whom I admire but he gets off on long winded and often dull, story lines that feel redundant now and again. He could have easily had a better story in half the pages with a lot of these. Read John Scalzi's "Old Man's War" and sequels if you've missed them instead of this or "One Day on Mars" Travis Taylor and sequels, maybe not gold stars but worth a quick and easy read.