Customer Reviews

Drakon

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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Reread, and it's as good as ever: A+, best of the Draka books, and makes my personal Top 20 Ever list. Still Stirling's best book, imo. Compulsively readable, and highly recommended.

Gwen Ingolffson, the titular Drakon, is dumped alone into (almost, [1]) OTL in a failed wormhole experiment. A good Drakon superwoman, she makes First Contact with a mass-murder, and moves smoothly on towards World Domination. Gwen is SF's best female antihero, truly a lovely monster.

The ending is perfunctory [2], with a nice leadin to the planned sequel, _Unto Us a Child_. Which, unfortunately, was never finished: (I'd give you the URL, but Amazon would likely censor it. So Google. Hint: drakasequels.html)

DRAKON is the only standalone Draka book,the sexiest, and the least gory[3], so if you haven't tried the Drakaverse, this is the place to start.

[Pause to read a bunch of old Usenet Drakon discussions. The standout is Jo Walton's thoughtful review; Google Groups.]

Anyway, I can see the point of the various nitpicks, especially the one that sees DRAKON as a Draka fanfic, written by the author -- but none of them mattered, while I was reading or rereading the book. Drakon pushed all my right buttons, and, since this isn't a formal review, I don't have to analyze the book, nyah nyah. It's *terrific*, and I look forward to rereading it again sometime in the 2010's.
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[1] The only argument I came across for this not being OTL, was a comment someone made that all the VN-era fighting was in Cambodia. Note, however, that both the NVA and Viet Cong are specifically mentioned. Did I miss another POD?

[2] --but includes a neat reference to Niven's "All the Myriad Ways".

[3] Even so, there are parts that are not for the squeamish.


Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman

4 Stars

I like the Draka series of books. Yes, they are ruthless slavers who subject all of mankind to the whip and then genetically modify the human race out of existence.

However, any group of people who control the killing in the Middle East and Afghanistan can't be all bad. :)

I got "The Stone Dogs" as a free book at an army base years past. After this very alien book I decided to read the whole series of Draka stories.

Drakon is a nice follow up to Stone Dogs and the rest. Gwendolyn Ingolfsson, a first generation new human from the Drakon timeline, is accidentally transported to earth in a machine that sounds a lot like the machine used in "Terminator". A normal human, Kenneth Lafarge, is a secret agent who has a mission to stop Gwendolyn. Ken is part of a group of humans who fled the Sol solar system after the Draka won the final war. His job is to stop Gwendolyn from infecting our Earth's time line.

This book is fast paced and fun. It's a quick read. Kenneth Lafarge is aided in his quest by several New York police. For some reason this book felt like a cross between "Stone Dogs" and "Law and Order". That's not a bad thing. This reviewer likes both and it sort of works.

Gwendolyn Ingolfsson comes to Earth with nothing and quickly builds an empire. The point here is our present prison systems are smart for keeping convicts from the internet.

This novel isn't nothing like the Stone Dogs, Marching through Georgia, or the very depressing Under the Yoke. It's a fairly fast paced novel that's perfect for reading while on the beach improving your sun tan.

I gave this book four stars. It's not original. However, it's a fun forgettable read. It's "Law and Order" meets the Draka. It works well.

If you like the Draka you'll enjoy it.

Did Mr. Stirling's publisher told him that happy endings sell better than dark, brooding ones? Then the guy (or lady) should be fired. As far as complaints go, this was the only one I had when it came to Drakon. Gwendolyn is just too awesome to lose, too beyond the unaltered humanity's ability to handle.

Even though the plot is fairly predictable - the book reads like a combination of Predator II, Terminator, and Omen - the author implements enough elements from the original trilogy to keep the old fans interested and newbies intrigued. However, I still would have been disappointed with the ending if Stirling did not leave enough room in the end for the possibility of a sequel, and I have a feeling that it is going to be better than the original.

Stirling left me depressed but captivated with his first three Draka novels. Rarely has anyone in the alternative history field created so thoroughly consistent and awful a society as that of the Domination. In Drakon, he explores some of their vulnerabilities while continuing to elaborate on their incredible powers and evolutionary track, manifested in the traditional parallel universe/wormhole framework. His Gwen Ingolfsson is a fascinating monster, combination of Ilse Koch, Nicole Kidman (who could play her in a film version quite well, not that any studio would ever touch this series), Ripley from the Alien movies, and the momma Alien herself, with a little of the Wolfman and Frankenstein's monster and a dram of Dr. Strangelove and Michael Milken thrown in for good measure. A very highly developed and repulsively fascinating character, and I thought Stirling did a good job with the human and cyber-human characters as well. He does not let you wonder where he stands, but does make you think about what it means to be human, what freedom is, the price of order, comfort, intellect, gardening, and the like. And he tweaks a few relatively recent human celebrities for fun along the way as toadies of the Draka (I will not identify them; if you can't figure it out, you've been deaf and blind for the last twenty years.) I have become a real fan of Stirling's, for this series and his Island in the Sea of Time trilogy as well. Which means I am deeply disturbed, of course.

SM Stirling's series on the Draka are a guilty read. He takes a familiar scenerio and pops in his supermen(women)to change everything. Slavery and master racism is the central plot behind them all (plus the what ifs of tech development) Character development is always strong and the technological aspects good. However, this is the only one of the series that gives you fallable Draka. They never really lose, why in hell would anyone soldier against them knowing they will die? In Marching Through Georgia for God's sakes, they are using 70s technologay against German-European forces with late 40s gear. As in all of his other books, the Draka are unbeatable but somehow the societies facing them don't get discouraged?

This book is much better though and one can in some ways sympathise with the 'anti heroine.' The behind the scenes attmpt at conquest will allow the conspiracy types to indulge in many I told you so's while reading a fast paced book.

Warning, Stirling maintains his sex included at all costs for this book too. If that is something that bothers you, skip the series as it is ALL thru the books!

To really enjoy and understand this blockbuster of an alternate history/military sci-fi novel, one MUST have read, or be familiar with Stirling's three previous "Draka" novels...one of the most innovative series in the genre!!! The story is set in a different time line than the trilogy, but drops out of hyperspace (sic) with a sonic boom. It concerns a warrior female of the Draka, who is accidentally shifted from her time to present day North America. She looks upon modern men as little more than servants, created to do her bidding. When confronted by modern man's stubborness, all Hell breaks loose. You MUST read this book. To reveal more would be a disservice to all who
intend to do so. Get it!! Devour it!!

"Person from the present is sent back into the past and proceeds to use his knowledge of technology" is one of speculative fiction's older themes - the best-known early example being Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" and going on through classics such as L. Sprague de Camp's "Lest Darkness Fall" to a profusion of similar books of varying quality (ranging from excellent down through adequate, poor, drivel and Leo Frankowski) since then.

Drakon uses the same concept, but the "past" is *our* present - i.e. the late 1990s. It's refreshing to see a new take on an old theme, and it's great to see it executed as competently as Stirling does here. In fact, Stirling seems to have steered past his usual flaws in this one; the man's writing at his best, and his best is *very* good.

The bad guys: Stirling has always done bad guys well, to the point where they completely overshadow his generally-uninteresting protagonists. Drakon's antagonist, a four hundred year-old genetically-modified human from another timeline plus about four centuries, isn't incredibly interesting as far as personality goes, but she's drawn well and realistically. Her supporting cast include a couple of thinly-veiled redshirts of modern liberals (damn, I wonder what Stirling's politics are?), and various thugs with enough personality to work.

Very unusually for Stirling, the good guys are just as interesting. A NYPD detective and Vietnam veteran, and an agent sent back through time and space to counter the Drakon, they have personality and character, as do their supporting cast. For once in a Stirling book, I wasn't speedreading through their scenes to see what the bad guys do next; in fact, the ensemble of good guys are probably *more* interesting than the people they're facing.

The future technology is well-researched and interesting; Stirling displays a solid understanding of engineering, R&D and marketing. And the plot moves fast. Stirling's not afraid to shake his world with major events, and the final sequence, in a blacked-out New York City, is among his best writing.

Stirling seems to have an obsession with lesbian sex, and yes, there's some of that in Drakon... but less than I expected from a book whose title character is a bisexual woman. Plot-extraneous "I suffered for my research and you should suffer for it too", another bad trademark of Stirling's, is also lacking- in fact, there's none.

Easily the best not just of Stirling's Draka series, but of all his work to date. Too bad there won't be a sequel.

I found "Drakon" to be the best of Stirling's four Draka novels. It spoilt me for the first three books, "Marching Through Georgia", "Under the Yoke" and "The Stone Dogs". The premise of these books is that a society based on slavery can remain stable without emancipating the children of slaves and without allowing slaves some form of political voice. Through brutality more reminiscent of Golden Horde, the Draka maintain their terrifying grip on their subserviant population. I find it a spurious assumption that a minority could use violent repression to ever permanently bring about the destruction of a people's spirit. The fourth book is a refreshing change from this dismal scenario. Gwendolyn, a lone Homo Drakensis, is the beast supreme. In an "alien" world, she takes ordinary humans in under her wing and ruthlessly secures her territory. Her life is a journey into the darker recesses of the human psyche. But the Draka are more animals of instinct than humans. They live forever, they lack intuition (that's their servants' realm) and are empassioned with intense materialistic desires. Through genetic engineering, they have recreated themselves as creatures without soul. Elemental. Pure. Evil? Ah... but what is evil? That's the true point of Stirling's series. I'd be frightened to meet someone who could read these books and not question their own inner nature. Lastly, don't read Drakon first. Its no fun knowing with absolute certainty that the bad guys are going to win.

As this series of books have progressed I have become more and more interested in the characters especially the ingolfssons and their bodyguards/warrior breed apemen. I am always left wanting more. Can't wait for the next one. Come on SM it's been awhile now.

This is a sort of Predator meets Terminator meets Barbarella meets The Man Who Fell to Earth meets..... well, you get the idea. Gwen, one of the Draka (The Master Race of their own universe) accidently gets flung to an alternate universe, ours, and decides to call it home. She uses her advanced scientific knowledge to build a financial empire in order to bankroll the research she needs done to build the components of a machine that will someday allow the rest of the Draka to join her on this world of easy prey. An agent of the alternate universe's version of the U.S. is sent to stop her. A N.Y. Police detective gets caught in the middle, mayhem insues. A good romp. Worth readin