Dagger (Thieves' World) [Hardcover]

David Drake (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Berkley; Book Club (BCE/BOMC) edition (1988)
• ASIN: B000F3J0QM
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,377,792 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

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Hero, Not-So-Great Story, July 10, 2006

By 

Rodney Meek (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dagger (Thieves World) (Paperback)

"Dagger" could be considered a bit of a practice run for the author's later Lord Of The Isles series. A hyper-practical hardworking hero with no hesitation to kill when necessary? Check. Loving attention to the accurate and period-specific details of clothing, weapons, food, and buildings? Check. Heavy use of Middle Eastern folklore and culture? Check. It's an interesting little novel, but by Drake's own admission, not an altogether successful one.

It features Samlor hil Samt, a pragmatic and world-wise caravan master who made three appearances in the Thieves' World series of shared-universe books. (The first section of "Dagger" was also published in the tenth TW volume as the story "Inheritor", a decision which Drake now regrets because he admits that he doubled up this way strictly for the money.) He and his young "niece" (secretly his daughter) Star, an instinctive magical adept, have come to Sanctuary to pick up her inheritance from her late mother. There, they encounter Khamwas, a wizard from Napata whose own purposes happen to coincide with theirs. Adventure ensues.

The novel draws quite heavily on Egyptian folklore and settings, particularly the latter Khamwas-heavy sections. This makes it rather different than most fantasy novels, which is good. But a very lengthy flashback sequence involving a certain Prince Nanefer breaks up the momentum of the book, and in the ensuing pages, Samlor, our protagonist, becomes little more than a mere bystander to the deeds of his wizard companion. Structurally, "Dagger" has some real problems and more or less just limps to a merely satisfactory conclusion.

On the other hand, Drake does a great job showing Samlor's devotion to Star, who (perhaps unfortunately) is only featured in the first third of the book. And Khamwas's manikin-like familiar, Tjainufi, who constantly spouts gnomic wisdom, is amusing.

This is a good book if you're interested in checking out a fantasy setting that doesn't just cover the same ol' European ground, or if you want to complete your Thieves' World collection, but otherwise is not essential.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great addition to the series, December 6, 2001

By 

Richard C. Drew "Anaal Nathra/Uthe vas Bethod... (Oak Lawn, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dagger (Thieves World) (Paperback)

Thieves World was one of the most popular fantasy series in the 80's. I remember going to Boscone and Worldcon and seeing many of the characters, er, attendies, roll playing parts from the books. I also remember a couple of the girls getting arrested for indecent exposure for following the dress (un dress?) styles mentioned in the books a little too closely. Ah memories.

If you can find the series, you'll enjoy it. From the immortal who winds up as a live disection subject (hey, he keeps healing...) to the gods playing dice with the lives of the characters. Many of the best SF and fantasy authors bent their pens on this series. As for me, I'm going to find the photos from those con's....