Patriots [Mass Market Paperback]

David Drake (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 25, 2009

The corrupt Earth government is sending an army to Greenwood to remove the pioneers who discovered and settled the planet: the potential profits are too great to leave the world to scraggly ne’er-do-wells!

            Though the rugged individualists of Greenwood may be fractious and disinclined to agree on most things, the greedy politicians of Earth will learn a harsh lesson if they think the settlers won’t join together to save their livelihoods and homes! Under Yerby Bannock, who never walked away from a drink or a fight, the Greenwood patriots will face thugs in the night, lawyers in a distant court, traitors in their own ranks--

            And, if they have to, a fortress built to shrug off the assault of a battlefleet!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A modern master of extraterrestrial military mayhem (Northworld, etc.) weighs in with a grand, roistering space opera based loosely on the exploits of American Revolutionary Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys. In the 23rd century, two sets of bureaucrats, one from Earth's rebellious colony of Zenith and the other from the colony Hestia, are parceling out identical tracts of land on the frontier planet of Greenwood. Moreover, they're doing this without the consent of Greenwood's spare, cranky population, rugged individualists spoiling for a good fight. The leader of the inhabitants of Greenwood is the larger-than-life Yerby Bannock, a quintessential frontiersman whose quick wits and homespun morality pack as mighty a punch as his enormous fists in the cause of Greenwood's freedom. Drake's young city-dude hero, Mark Maxwell, who's touring Greenwood from the buttoned-up world of Quelhagen, makes a perfect foil for Bannock. Together, they rally Greenwood's good ole boys and some formidable pioneer women, throw off the colonial oppressors and join the Quelhagen-led Assembled Planets, a noble experiment in interstellar democracy. Drake's minor characters form a rogue's gallery of familiar cowboy-movie stereotypes, and the science in this fiction is minimal, but the good grungy fun rushes to a satisfying, if predictable, conclusion.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Drake (Fireships, Ace: Berkeley, 1996) modeled the action in this military science fiction novel after the situation in Vermont at the start of the American Revolution. In the 23rd century, Mark Maxwell travels to the planetary frontier for some adventure before settling down. He arrives at planet Greenwood?where the colonists are fighting to maintain their way of life while homeworld Earth wants to exploit them and their resources?and lands smack in the middle of the rebellion. Recommended for sf collections.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Baen; Reprint edition (August 25, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439132925
• ISBN-13: 978-1439132920
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #337,112 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( D ) > Drake, David

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

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First Rate Retelling of Ethan Allen and Ticonderoga, June 9, 2006

By 

Clyde W. Howard (Nacogdoches, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Patriots (Hardcover)

My review title probably tells it all - but PATRIOTS is a very good book, probably better than many readers will realize. We see larger-than-life characters, intrigue, generational clashes, and a boy turning into a man. All based on one of the seminal events of the American Revolution retold. It has all of Dave Drake's uncompromising recognition of the fact that actions have consequences - and sometimes violence is going to happen. And is sometimes better than inaction. But still not without consequences.

In any case - a really good read that offers a look at the sort of people who settled North Amercia and revolted in 1775. And why some of them made the decsions they did. Not always why the average person thinks so, either. And a safe book for young readers without being written down. No killing (somewhat a surprise for one of Drake's books, but there wasn't any killing by the Green Mountain Boys in what became Vermont, so the book is true to history that way), no explicit sex, and no preaching. As I said - a good read. I wish the reviewer who predicted a series had been right, but that was never the plan.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A better book from a fine writer., October 15, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Patriots (Paperback)

David Drake has made the "smash them flat" style of futureistic military fiction his own. However, in his newest book, "Patriots", he has drawn the plot development and characters with a much finer pen. The closest, and in my mind, most complimentary comparison I can make is that this book reads like a Bob Heinlein book.

The book contains all of the successful elements of Heinlein's, a younger lead, an older mentor and a romantic interest. This mixture is lead into a revolution, almost a cliche, but well handled, in a humerous way.

The book is not the Great American Novel, but it is an entertaining way of spending an evening or two. Try it! You might like it and then you might want to go back and re-read some of the Alois Hammer books and see where David Drake has come from.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Green Mountain Boys, indeed, January 11, 2010

By 

Bryan S. Sampsel (Colorado Springs, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Patriots (Mass Market Paperback)

This novel captures the flavor and spirit of the American Revolution.

The opening is humorous, with a giant of a man telling a little skinny fellow that he should now know better than to hit a man in the head with his fist.

In summary, there's a conflicting bureaucracy controlling various planets. One planet is settled with land grants from one bureaucrat in contradiction to grants given by another bureaucrat. Unfortunately, the first group has already settled their land.

Now, the second group, where the bureaucrat has more solid legal authority, is dividing up already settled land to flood the planet with their overflow population.

This sets the book up for the most unlikely rebellion in some time...