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dragoness_eI recently got a copy of "Hammer's Slammers, Vol 1" from the Sci-Fi Book club. This is part of what will be a complete collection of David Drake's classic military sci-fi stories about Col. Alois Hammer and his mercenary unit. They are very good, very hard-core military sci-fi by someone fresh out of the Vietnam War at the time he started writing them. As Drake himself has said, before he went to war, he wrote vaguely Lovecraftian horror; when he came back, he had real horror to write about.
It's been an enjoyable re-read, catching things I didn't the first time, savoring the details and appreciating the stories from a much older, mature viewpoint than when I first read them. However, I've also been tainted by GAFF and bad fanfics. I sit here thinking that it's a very good thing that the Slammer fandom seems to be restricted to moderately mature sci-fi fans, and has never had movies or TV to attract demented fangirls to it.
Most of the characters would not be of interest to fangirls and their Mary Sues, but, on re-read, there is one who stands out like a sore thumb, and that is Col. Hammer's bodyguard, Major Joachim Steuben. Steuben is a bishonen in the classic sense: he's pretty, he dresses beautifully and impeccably, and he's flamingly gay. He's also a cold-blooded sociopathic killer with an ornately decorated custom pistol (like certain anime assassins), and will happily drop anyone who even looks funny at Hammer in a heartbeat--including 8 year-old children. Hammer has to put a leash on him now and then ("No, you may not kill my best tank commander because he wants to resign and go civilian. Leaving me is not treason, and I talked him out of it anyway." "No, you may not kill my new bride because you are jealous of her, and stop being a ass to her in public.") Steuben is rather possessive of Col. Hammer.
Tell me a character like that wouldn't attract Mary Sues by the boatload and bad slashfic?
It's been an enjoyable re-read, catching things I didn't the first time, savoring the details and appreciating the stories from a much older, mature viewpoint than when I first read them. However, I've also been tainted by GAFF and bad fanfics. I sit here thinking that it's a very good thing that the Slammer fandom seems to be restricted to moderately mature sci-fi fans, and has never had movies or TV to attract demented fangirls to it.
Most of the characters would not be of interest to fangirls and their Mary Sues, but, on re-read, there is one who stands out like a sore thumb, and that is Col. Hammer's bodyguard, Major Joachim Steuben. Steuben is a bishonen in the classic sense: he's pretty, he dresses beautifully and impeccably, and he's flamingly gay. He's also a cold-blooded sociopathic killer with an ornately decorated custom pistol (like certain anime assassins), and will happily drop anyone who even looks funny at Hammer in a heartbeat--including 8 year-old children. Hammer has to put a leash on him now and then ("No, you may not kill my best tank commander because he wants to resign and go civilian. Leaving me is not treason, and I talked him out of it anyway." "No, you may not kill my new bride because you are jealous of her, and stop being a ass to her in public.") Steuben is rather possessive of Col. Hammer.
Tell me a character like that wouldn't attract Mary Sues by the boatload and bad slashfic?
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Date: 2006-08-17 04:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-17 10:16 pm (UTC)by David Drake. Nightshade Books, 2006.
ISBN 978-1-892389-69-5
If you are a member of the SFBC, here (http://www.sfbc.com/doc/browse/detail/product_detail.jhtml?repositoryId=986070B510).
If you favor Amazon.com, here. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/189238969X/sr=1-1/qid=1155852894/ref=sr_1_1/104-5356840-7927939?ie=UTF8&s=books)
Volume 2 is due to be released in November 2006.