Igniting the Reaches [Paperback]

David Drake (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1995

In a distant galaxy where immense danger threatens, desperate pirates travel to the outer limits of space, doing trade with the star colonies and encountering rivals, aliens, and strange human hybrids. Reprint. K. PW. LJ.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A thousand years after the Collapse, a galaxy-wide depression that killed billions, rival factions from Venus and Earth are poised to retake the stars--and the wealth to be gained from trafficking in the resources found there. Stephen Gregg is a triggerman with a conscience, capable of gunning down hundreds during battle and then, moments later, standing aghast at his capacity to kill. His partner, Piet Ricimer, is a young pilot who sees interstellar trade as the fulfillment of God's plan. Together they lead merchants from Venus who compete with traders from Earth for the booty of alien slaves and scarce microchips to be found among the distant planets. Intended to recall Earth's Age of Discovery, the story evokes both the uncertainty of exploration and its questionable morality. Primitive navigation leaves ships adrift among the stars, and commerce becomes little more than an excuse for bloody turf battles. Drake ( Hammer's Slammers ) uses military language fluently to create vivid combat scenes and adds such touches as crews that sing "Onward Christian Soldiers" while descending into battle. The novel is ultimately limited, however, by the main characters' lack of real engagement in the moral questions their actions provoke.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The principle of free trade powers the exploits of Venus-based spacefarers Stephen Gregg and Piet Ricimer as they attempt to break the Southern Cross and Federation strangleholds on interplanetary trade and exploration. Drake (Hammer's Slammers, Baen Bks., 1989) pays tribute to the career of Sir Francis Drake in his latest hard-hitting sf adventure, which features privateers of the far future. The author's skill at vividly invoking the heat of battle serves him well in a tale that will appeal to fans of military sf.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 262 pages
• Publisher: Ace; Ace Pbk. Ed edition (March 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441001793
• ISBN-13: 978-0441001798
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 3.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,029,676 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 Best book I've read thus far., October 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Igniting the Reaches (Paperback)

I read this book about eight years ago, but lost my copy. This is the second time I have purchased this novel. As I said, this is the best book, novel or not, that I have read yet. If you like sci-fi, this would be a most worthy investment. Keep it where the dust can't collect, and make sure you read it every couple of years. I'm going for the other two novels in the series, and I think that says a lot.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For God and Country, August 8, 2003

By 

Arthur W. Jordin (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Igniting the Reaches (Paperback)

Igniting the Reaches (1994) is the SF first novel in the Privateer series. In the far future, humans have spread throughout a great volume of space. But then came the Collapse and mankind lost contact with the farthest worlds. Now mankind is beginning a new age of expansion into the galaxy, re-discovering lost worlds, races and treasures. The Feds and Southerns are becoming rich from new colonies and trading posts among the stars and other nations have sent out trading ships to gain some of these riches.

In this novel, the Venusian settlers have funded a voyage of trade and exploration. The Sultan is a privately armed ship commanded by Captain Choransky. The flotilla also includes the Preakness and the Dove. Stephen Gregg is aboard the Sultan as supercargo, representing his uncle, Gregg of Weyston. Their first port-of-call is Salute ... at least, they think it is Salute.

Piet Recimer, an officer and former shipowner, takes down a crew in the cutter to investigate and finds two Southern Cross ships on the ground, so the flotilla is brought down near the spaceport. Trucks are offloaded from the ships, filled with armed men, and rushed down to the port. There they find that everybody has run away, except for one man who apparently slept through the evacuation.

Loading 98 Molts, an alien race that moved into human space after the collapse, on their ships, the Venusians take off for Virginia (or somewhere near it) to sell their cargo. There they run into a bit of shooting with the North American Federation colony.

This novel is based on the voyages of Francis Drake (and some of his contemporaries). It has the same emphasis on God and Country, the same makeshift technology of shipbuilding, navigation and weaponry, and the same ignorance and cruelty found in the originals. It also reflects the casual attitudes of the Elizabethan era toward slavery. Some of the parallels are rather strained, but the focus of the story is the men themselves, bringing to life the excitement and confusion that resulted from mankind expanding into a mostly unknown frontier.

Recommended for Drake fans and anyone else who enjoys tales of long voyages to strange lands.

-Arthur W. Jordin

4.0 out of 5 stars Unique Military SciFi, November 7, 2004

By 

Stewart Teaze (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Igniting the Reaches (Hardcover)

Very enjoyable. Quick, fun read... 4+ stars. Moderately violent, but nothing unreasonable, given that the basis for the story is Sir Francis Drake's Privateering. I'm looking forward to the next two stories in the trilogy.

One minor criticism I have is that the author sometimes comes up with some ambigous and/or extremely tangled paragraphs, which require the reader to make multiple parses to untangle. After awhile, I got used to it, and simply moved on when I came across a tangled paragraph. In general, I noticed that it usually seemed to happen around the 3rd or 4th paragraph in every 4th or 5th chapter (the chapters average about 7 pages, which is nice). Having said that, I'd like to point out that I don't remember finding any obvious typos or other minor screwups that can take away from the enjoyment of a story.

Another minor criticism is the usage of the Mirror worlds... too impossible a gimmick in my opinion for stories that are supposed to be based on real events from the past - I'm actually hoping these worlds don't show up in the next two stories.