Customer Reviews

The Tyrant (The Raj Whitehall Series, Book 8)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In this eighth book in David Drake's universe of shattered human worlds struggling to regain civilization, something has gone off track. The series has been following the formula of repeating historical battles in the far future, on exotic worlds inhabited by the struggling remnants of humanity. All the previous books were full of battles and sheer grit, with strongly drawn characters smacking the heck out of each other. The details of weaponry and battles were told in an engaging, almost educational , style and the politics were almost always more vicious and dangerous than the scenes of open warfare.
Then, in "The Reformer", the Gellert brothers were introduced. Both characters were men of action but in totally different ways, both from each other and from the "Roman" types of the earlier books. The series promised to introduce the reader to the clash of Roman with Greek cultures, as the previous books had dealt with Roman vs Arab. This is pretty exotic stuff in an age long past the days of "classical" education. The reformer was ridiculously short but layed the groundwork for another worthy series.
So what happened? I can't help wondering if Mr. Flint based this book on Mr. Drake's outline, a blured memory of Mr. Stirling's penchant for Amazon warrior women, and gallons of cheap scotch. The politics are trivial, the literary illusions are so obscure as to distract, the exposition drags on and on, the few battles have none of the energy typical of the series, and the men are idiots.
Worst of all, Adrian Gellert is transformed from an intelligent man with an amazing gift into a henpecked bit player who marries into the Kennedys.
The afterword makes some of the changes understandable. I hope the new direction of the series appeals to some demographic, somewhere, because the series is no longer good "military science fiction".
Longtime fans of the series should wait and check this one out of the library. I'm donating my copy tomarrow.

I love the premis for this series, and I really like the authors, but this particular book just wasn't very good. The storyline shifted away from the main character so much that he couldn't even be considered the main character any longer. The "Raj/Center" characters, which are the basis for everything in this series hardly even make an appearance. The story was very predictable as were the little events that were used to fill pages.

Ok, I waited for the paperback on this one, but would not have been unhappy if I had bought it hardcover. David Drake had Eric Flint rather than S.M. Stirling as co-author, and it represents an interesting departure from the tone of the rest of the series. While it had it's fair share of blody battles, they were not the primary foccus. Rather the book followed the politics and fealings of the the main character and his family as they try to aviod the fall of Rome and skip the dark ages.
This plot basis is fully in line with the idea of Center trying to create an industrial base to rebuild the old federation that created it, so I was not thrown by it's placement in the series. It also had some nicely done historical events thrown in that fit neatly into the story.
I have to agree with other reviewers that there is never any doubt of the outcome of any of the events, so it is hard to be as engrossed in the battles as one usually would be, but I could not put the book down, so I have to recomend it. I don't think fans of 1633 will be disapointed in the charecter and plot development, and there is enough action to keep the 1632 crowd involved.
This is a great business travel book to pick up at the gift shop, start on the plane, and use to wind down in the evening. It may keep you up reading later than planned, but that's what a good read does.

David Drake is perhaps my favorite author. Having said this, it truly pains me to see anything this bad bear his name. The General series that is the basis for this book, is a masterpiece of military sci-fi. The Reformer, the first book in this pair, is pretty good as well.

This book on the other hand is crap. Unmitigated, inexcusable crap. Eric Flint managed suck any life the new characters had out of them while at the same time destroying the essences of the old favorites, Raj and Center.

While this may bear the caption (book 8) of the series it truly doesn't belong. Flint is most deffinatly not Stirling. Read this book if you need proof. As a better suggestion however, I'd say skip it all together and re-read 1-6 because simply put; I found nothing redeaming about this book.

Eric Flint and David Drake's "The Tyrant" is an interesting concept. The book takes a stab at portraying the fall of the Roman Empire. But instead of Rome, the scene is the distant planet of Hafardine, and instead of Caesar and Brutus, the cast include Verice Demansk, a lunky bloke with a flair for the officious, and his network of friends, family and foul-smelling enemies. I don't mean to belittle the plot. My main problem with this book is that it's sci-fi by committee. The characters are introduced and forgotten as quickly as last year's reality show. And the stilted language of our heroes - by the gods! - is enough to give anyone a punishing headache. Perhaps "The Tyrant" would have been less tyrannical had the book been about 200 pages shorter. But the authors, despite their heroic efforts, deliver just a little too much of a good thing.

Flint jumped into the series after the last book also set in the world of the Tyrant. Same characters. I suspect Drake outlined the book a little and 'peaced out' leaving Flint to write whatever he felt like.

Totally out of left field all the characters get revamped, with the hero turning into a henpecked loverboy of 'that rich girl', and the characters having Weber style talkfests.

Flint, I think, didn't bother to read the prior series book. Drake sure as heck didn't proof Flint's draft. No editor bothered to read both books. They were not just different in tone and characters and plot, they changed key facts.

Just off the top of my head:

The Rome city standin in prior book (PB) is so huge that the characters are riding through densely packed suburbs for at least 1/2 hour approaching the center city. In this book? Traditional walled city that can be seiged by 4 brigades and with clear walls in the open that guns can be used on. Perfect chance to show a new style of battle, stuffed down the memory hole for easy writings sake.

The executions in PB are by a varient of the cross, this book by impaling.

The hero uses computer aided echolocation in PB quite a bit in the middle of the book, then forgets about it until the end of this book when it is a total shock to him.

The PB no computer trance hazes, here they happen every five minutes.

In addition, the key battle scene with the circled wagons and muzzle loaded guns against 6 brigades of Roman Legion standins made no sense, where Flint let the Legion get within 10 meters and some troops get under the wagons. Kill the muzzle loading troops for that sections, tip the wagon out of line, battle over. Instead Flint played it for cheap sex laughs with the hero's girl.

I read this sucker in 1.5 days, and for me, that's fast...

A real page turner, with some nice surprises, and really nice changes in the same series...
I have all of their books (mostly), and I actually enjoyed this one much more than the REFORMER, the 1st book in the series.
The characters are human , in the sense we see them in many ways, not jusy military.
the story is very good, in the sense of surprises, and a really big mix of different events and inluences.
It's not as good as the Belisarius series (what is?), but better than the latter books of that series.
Also the Center/Raj conversations are in another character, not the main one, a nice change.
I enjoyed the new "companions/council" players that the General creates, a la Raj, on this world; a bit different , for sure.
I heartily recommend this Book, it's a really good read in the military sci-fi, ancients tradition. Honestly, a 3rd book would be possible, as now that the continent is "pacified", they could encounter the other continents in more developped or more "evil" states that the one they are on.
The CHOSEN was good, but pretty Final; not this one.I hope Eric Flint writes it, I love his work

That's all
Jean

Flint and Drake tell a tale that has some interesting technical and historical elements. What it lacks, however, is character and texture. The Rome-like empire of this book is kick-started into feudalism and industrialism by the machinations of one of its highest ranking members. The people doing so, however, are mere props to the tale; interchangeable cogs with little to distinguish them from each other. The lead character's daughter appears to be nothing more than her father in drag, apart from a few remembrances which appear to be flashbacks to earlier books in the series. The villains of the book are rarely seen at all, often appearing as no more than severed heads that appear from "off stage" after they have been vanquished, or making short speeches before they are summarily dispatched a few pages later. The authors are reasonably clever in their work (I particularly like the homages to Shakespeare) and very good at describing the new technology introduced to this Rome-like setting. They simply have not provided interesting characters to carry out the action of the novel.

Finishing the story of the Gellert brothers begun in "The Reformer", the book develops the character of Verice Demansk, the father of Adrian Gellert's lover and commander of the opposing Vanbert army. Gellert is guided by "Center", a computer, and the disembodied Raj Whitehall, a general from another time and planet. The introduction of technology by Adrian brings victories, but the end results depend on man's strengths and weaknesses. Eric Flint and David Drake succeed in closing a story begun by Drake and S. M. Stirling, and the transition is very well done. Another fine novel of military SF by this pair.

The Raj series is, for the most part, an undiscovered pleasure. David Drake, a master of military SF, has created a fabulous scenario where an (initially) young Raj Whitehall receives the benefits of a computer intelligence from a previous age to assist him (and it!) in restoring humanity's lost glory. The first 5 or 6 books in the series are wonderful examples of using SF as a framework for examining real-life military history in an enjoyable and exciting (if not captivating) manner.

The last 3, not so much. The last one, not very much at all. I had the feeling that Drake was mailing it in. Not much new, and evidently tired.

Those of us Type A's who read the first 7 volumes will probably read #8. While it's not aweful, it fails to measure up to its predecessors.