Overview
A prime volume of stories by the best-selling author David Drake explores a future world where the police have cameras watching everybody, everywhere, then introduces the man who watches the watchmen. And another future where the Fleet preserves the peace in the galaxy-in theory, at least; and at a high price. And much more.
Synopsis
A prime volume of stories by the best-selling author David Drake explores a future world where the police have cameras watching everybody, everywhere, then introduces the man who watches the watchmen. And another future where the Fleet preserves the peace in the galaxy-in theory, at least; and at a high price. And much more.
Publishers Weekly
As the title suggests, most of the 14 stories (many of which first appeared in "shared universe" theme anthologies) in this collection from military SF master Drake are unrelenting in their depiction of the brutalities of war and its effect on warriors. Two tales stand out: "With the Sword He Must Be Slain," in which a former CIA paramilitary operative now fights for Hell in the Final War and wonders why the opposing forces are just as messed up as his own troops; and "The Tradesmen" (set in S.M. Stirling's "Draka" universe), in which the very ruthlessness of a Draka partisan-hunter leaves her family vulnerable to a terrible irony. In the three long unavailable Jed Lacey stories, set in a near-future where privacy is a crime, Drake examines the price we'd pay both as a society and as individuals if omnipresent cameras recorded our every moment. These stories serve as cautionary tales to those who would trade freedom for security but forget Benjamin Franklin's appraisal of the bargain (i.e., those who do so "end up with neither"). (Feb.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewGrimmer Than Hell is a collection of some of David Drake's best military science fiction. The stories, some of which date all the way back to the early 1970s, include classics from Drake's Fleet universe, where Captain Miklos Kowacs and his tough female bodyguard, Sienkiewicz from the 121st Marine Reaction Company (a.k.a. the Headhunters), were sent all over the universe to kick Khalian butt. Of the six Fleet stories included, the most moving was entitled "The End," in which, after years of battling the weasel-like Khalians, the war has finally ended and mankind has prevailed. With victory at hand, one would think that Kowacs would be joyous, but the sudden conclusion has left a scar on his soul. Drake, a Vietnam veteran, says it all so profoundly in the story's last lines.
Drake writes in the introduction, "Each story is self-standing but they have a cumulative effect and are, I believe, some of the best Military SF I've ever written." He was absolutely right. The 14 stories included in Grimmer Than Hell are military science fiction at its very best -- breakneck-paced, bitter, brutally realistic stories that offer more than a glimpse into the psyche of the soldier. Paul Goat Allen