Military science fiction author David Drake dies at the age of 78

David Drake, author or co-author of more than 80 science fiction and fantasy books, died on December 10, 2023, in Silk Hope, North Carolina. A Vietnam veteran and attorney, Drake turned to writing full-time in 1981, a few years after publishing his first book.

Drake was born on September 24, 1945. He attended Duke University Law School and was drafted into the Army in 1970, where he was assigned to the 11th Cavalry Regiment (also known as the Black Horse), where he spent the war in Vietnam by tank. And Cambodia. He finished law school after returning and became Chapel Hill, North Carolina’s assistant district attorney. He turned to writing to help him deal with his military experiences, and his first book was a collection of short stories Hammer strikes It came out in 1979.

“Stories [in Hammer’s Slammers] It was more important to me as self-therapy than it was as the beginning of my career he wrote on his website About his first published book. “They gave me a chance to write about what I saw and heard; about the men I served with and the person I would become at that time. Being able to put that down on paper helped keep me between the trenches and (from what they told me) helped other veterans by showing them they were not alone.” .

Hammer strikes He was A series of ten books that became his most famous work, which includes dozens of other novels including the fantasy series The Master of the Isles and the Lieutenant Leary series. He also provided outlines for several books, including the Belisarius series and the General series.

Drake stopped writing in November 2021 due to health issues. “I have a long memory. It is certainly no virtue when someone else remembers another way and I refuse to change my beliefs,” he wrote in his book. Latest newsletter on November 17, 2023. “Sometimes it’s nice to be able to remember events in the military. Not because they gave me a career, not because of specific incidents as much as they made me feel like I was in a war zone. “This is really different from normal life.”