Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Praise for King David's Spaceship, November 11, 1997
It is a real shame to see this book out of print. Janissaries by the same author seems to have been a popular book, and for those who liked that, they should definately give this a look. It combines similar themes of modern military knowledge with ancient military situations, but without the hardware available to Tran's mercenaries. It is set in the same universe as the Mote in God's Eye, at almost exactly the same time, which gives it an interesting context for those who follow this author. However, the plotline has almost nothing to do with Moties. Rather it is the case of a world at roughly industrial revolution level which is faced with the prospect of forceable reunification into the human empire. They discover that the only way to retain any kind of autonomy is to show that they can independently launch a spaceship. People from their world are forbidden to travel to any "higher" level planet, but are allowed to travel to planets classified as being in a primitive state. They send a team, led by one of their soldiers to another planet which is in a state of medieval technology, but where a galactic library survives. In the process of recovering vital information, they are forced to mobilise the local population to defeat the equivalent of a Mongol horde. An interesting military situation, mixed in with all sorts of historical and science fiction elements. It deserves wider attention, and certainly to be available in print. Thank God I already have a copy!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent novel of future conflict! , May 13, 2005
I liked this novel a lot. It is set in the same universe as "The Mote in God's Eye" and takes place contemporaneously with that novel's story. In this one, the Empire of Man has discovered a colony world of humans that had been bombed back into a technological level about equivalent to Earth in 1900 or so. The Empire's technology is obviously centuries ahead of the colony's, and the Empire has strict rules about how such backward colonies, which lack space travel, are to be assimilated into the Empire. The plan involves bringing in favored persons from the Empire and more or less supplanting the local aristocrats with a new nobility. The locals are expected to submit or else.
The ruling folk on the colony get wind of this plan, which the Empire is concealing from them, and hatch a scheme of their own to avoid being subjigated. More would be telling, but this is actually an engaging and imaginative tale that I have returned to and enjoyed several times.
As always, Pournelle does a great job describing ground warfare with ancient weapons (pikes and spears, mostly) and the characterizations in this novel are pretty good. I enjoyed this one more than "The Mote in God's Eye" and I highly recommended it to anyone who enjoys a good military-political science fiction novel.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Interstellar Espionage Mission, April 25, 2009
King David's Spaceship (1980) is an SF novel in the Alderson Drive series. It takes place about the same time as the events in The Mote in God's Eye.
Prince Samuel's World has recovered greatly from the Succession Wars. Now they have been rediscovered by the Second Empire. The Imperials have allied with the Kingdom of Haven to reunify the various polities into a world government.
In this novel, Nathan McKinnie is a former colonel in the army of Orleans. His regiment -- the Wolves -- received the dubious benefits of the Imperial Navy's alliance with Haven. The death toll amounted to two battalions and his beloved. But he received a pension from Haven to compensate for the loss of his commission and personnel.
Hal Stark is Nathan's batman, lead noncom and now his personal servant. They are living in a rundown boarding house near the waterfront. Yet they go uptown to drink.
Shipmaster MacLean of the Royal Merchant Service is qualified on both sail and motor vessels. At least that is his story. But he is most probably from the Royal Haven Navy.
Academician Longway is from Prince Samuel University. He studies social organization and primitive cultures as well as ancient history.
Scholar-Bachelor Kleinst is Longway's assistant. He is supposedly a historian, but is actually a physicist.
Mary Graham is a university graduate. Women students at the university are few and far between, so Mary has been allowed to study many different subjects for her degree.
Malcolm Dougal is the head of the Haven Royal Secret Police. He has been gathering information on the Second Empire since before their alliance with Haven. He has found that the Empire is probably going to colonize Prince Samuel's World.
In this story, McKinnie and Start are drinking in the Blue Bottle while three Imperial Navy lieutenants are buying drinks for the house. Of course, they are recruiting young men for their ship. But they are also getting rather noisy.
During the evening, Lieutenant Jefferson mentions an Old Empire library on Makassar, among other remarks. Nathan pays little attention, for his thoughts are on the events that led to his surrender to Haven. At the end of the evening, Dougal introduces himself and invites them out for a drink, but McKinnie refuses and heads back to the boarding house.
On the way, McKinnie and Start are abducted by the Secret Police and conveyed to the palace for a meeting with Dougal. Malcolm tells Nathan about the situation with the Second Empire. Then he asks Nathan to help them on a special mission to Makassar, the nearest inhabited world.
When McKinnie agrees, he is introduced to MacLean, Longway, Kleinst and Graham. They will constitute the core of an attempt to retrieve data from the library on Makassar. Dougal provides two guards for the mission and gives permission for McKinnie to recruit several more from his Wolves.
The cover for their task is a trade mission to the other planet. Two members of the Imperial Trade Association provide transportation to the planet and some related information. An Imperial Navy Midshipman will accompany them to Makassar.
The voyage is an amazement to the Prince Samuel party. Everything is new, exciting and sometimes frightening. On the way, they learn the language of Makassar.
This tale takes McKinnie and his group twelve light years to Makassar around the Eye of the Needle. When they arrive, however, there is nothing worth buying in Jikar, the landing port. Then they find that the ITA is leaving the planet in three days. They refuse to leave after so little time and, instead, make arrangements to be picked up in a year.
Naturally, McKinnie is pleased that the ITA merchants will be leaving them alone with enough time to complete their real mission. But there is another problem. The city is besieged by Maris -- the local nomads -- on land and blockaded by pirates at sea. McKinnie decides to take the sea route.
This work is an expanded version of a story first published in Astounding in 1972 and then released by DAW in 1973 as A Spaceship for the King. Thus it preceded The Mote in God's Eye. The earlier version was somewhat revised and additional words were appended in a new ending for this novel.
McKinnie and his party face combat over and over again on Makassar. First the pirates outside Jikar and then the Maris outside Batav. Read and enjoy!
Highly recommended for Pournelle fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of military combat, less advanced cultures, and a bit of romance.
-Arthur W. Jordin
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