David Drake
From Free net encyclopedia
David Drake (born September 24, 1945) is a successful author of science fiction and fantasy literature. Vietnam War veteran, former lawyer, former bus driver, and now science fiction author, David Drake has written many books with a military theme. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Iowa, majoring in history (with honors) and Latin. His studies at Duke University Law school were interrupted for two years by the U.S. Army, where he served as an enlisted interrogator with the 11th Armored Cavalry in Vietnam and Cambodia. Drake has a wife, a son, and various pets.
He is one of the premier authors of the military science fiction subgenre. In addition to his own works, he often provides a military perspective to many collaborative writing projects, such as his contributions to the Heroes in Hell series. His co-authors include Karl Edward Wagner, Janet Morris, S.M. Stirling, and Eric Flint. With Wagner and Jim Groce, he was one of the founders of Carcosa Press.
His best-known non-collaborative work is the Hammer's Slammers series of military science fiction. As a newer series, he is writing in the universe of the RCN, a space opera series inspired by the Aubrey–Maturin novels which focuses much more heavily on character driven plot and development and less on the military aspects. He also contributed outlines to the Belisarius series series (written by Eric Flint), and the General series (written by S.M. Stirling). Drake is listed as a co-author of these books, including the "Crisis of Empire" series, but he openly admits that he did the smaller part of the work.
In 1997 Drake began his largest fantasy series, Lord of the Isles, using elements of Sumerian religion and medieval era technology. As of 2005, the series has 6 books published, with a seventh expected in 2006.
Some of Drake's works are available in the Baen Free Library.