Science Fiction author David Drake has died at age 78. He served in the Vietnam War with the 11th Cav, Black Horse Regiment. After getting back from service he went to law school. After a few years in the law mines he decided he preferred to drive a bus while writing and he became a very successful writer. My favorite series of his were the tales of Hammer’s Slammers, a mercenary force of the future. Each of the stores had a moral, sometimes obvious and sometimes not. He began the series partly to exorcise memories of his service in Vietnam.
Serendipitously I began to reread the Slammers series last week. Yesterday I was suggesting to a computer game company president I know that a series of games on the Hammer’s Slammers books might be a profitable undertaking, all without a clue that Mr. Drake was about to die.
May he now be knowing the peace that eluded him in a crucial, and formative, portion of his life.
I’d never heard of David Drake’s work, but after reading this post I went to eBay and picked up a lot of 8 of his Hammer’s Slammers books.
May he rest in peace.
RIP. Always enjoyed his books, both the Slammers series and his fantasy works. Had no idea he wrote from experience about armored combat, but in retrospect, it should have been obvious. If you haven’t read his work, you are in for a treat.