What do you think?
Rate this book
The Fleet #1
The Fleet
THE FLEET, BOOK ONE
Edited by David Drake and Bill Fawcett
The Fleet: In the far reaches of space they are mankind’s last line of defense against hostile alien forces.
Mankind has taken one step too far in exploring the galaxy - and has run smack up against the Khalia. Vicious, weasel-like carnivores whose culture is totally different from our own. they see other sentient beings as prey - as MEAT! They take no prisoners. Ever. Just the occasional slave who will never see his home world again. It is up to the brave men and women of the Fleet to keep the home planets safe.
Meet the men and women of the Fleet, who are pledged to protect us all:
Terry English, eyewitness to a brutal Khalian raid (by Janet Morris)
Hansing, a brain ship, and B’grah, a Hruban commando, whose duty it is to outwit the Khalians on an occupied world (by Anne McCaffrey)
Geno Deledda, whose body has been modified to fit an alien world (by Poul Anderson)
Captain John Roberts, who must go to the infamous Club of the Thirty-Nine Buttons to reclaim one of the Fleet’s most decorated war heroes (by Margaret Weis)
Captain Kowacs, whose rescue mission turns up a human traitor (by David Drake)
And the others, who fight beside them to protect mankind.
This is their story.
Edited by David Drake and Bill Fawcett
The Fleet: In the far reaches of space they are mankind’s last line of defense against hostile alien forces.
Mankind has taken one step too far in exploring the galaxy - and has run smack up against the Khalia. Vicious, weasel-like carnivores whose culture is totally different from our own. they see other sentient beings as prey - as MEAT! They take no prisoners. Ever. Just the occasional slave who will never see his home world again. It is up to the brave men and women of the Fleet to keep the home planets safe.
Meet the men and women of the Fleet, who are pledged to protect us all:
Terry English, eyewitness to a brutal Khalian raid (by Janet Morris)
Hansing, a brain ship, and B’grah, a Hruban commando, whose duty it is to outwit the Khalians on an occupied world (by Anne McCaffrey)
Geno Deledda, whose body has been modified to fit an alien world (by Poul Anderson)
Captain John Roberts, who must go to the infamous Club of the Thirty-Nine Buttons to reclaim one of the Fleet’s most decorated war heroes (by Margaret Weis)
Captain Kowacs, whose rescue mission turns up a human traitor (by David Drake)
And the others, who fight beside them to protect mankind.
This is their story.
299 pages, ebook
First published May 1, 1988
25 people are currently reading
413 people want to read
About the author
David Drake
315 books889 followersDavid Drake is an American author of science fiction and fantasy literature. A Vietnam War veteran who has worked as a lawyer, he is now one of the major authors of the military science fiction genre.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 13, 2013
Back when I first read the series, The Fleet books were introductions for me to many authors that I'd never read before. For that reason alone it's still a great introduction to SciFi, especially, but not exclusively, military SciFi. There's a lot more to it than Mil SciFi alone. Read it in conjunction with the Man/Kzin war series for a double dose of late 80's and early 90's fun from some of the best authors of the time.
September 16, 2020
A collection of stories about the Fleet and the evil enemy. Some good, some not. Wouldn't go out looking too hard for the book but you can pass some time if you happen across a copy. 2 Stars
April 7, 2023
A decent shared-universe, short story collection. I'm intrigued by this coming out at approximately the same time as the Man-Kzin Wars series from Baen books since they have a number of obvious similarities (and this book, despite being published by Ace, features a full complement of Baen authors). Not sure if there's a story behind that.
What we get here is essentially a lighter-tone version of the Warhammer 40k universe. While I dip my toes into military sci-fi, I'm not ideologically sold on the concept in general, and I wouldn't say there's much here to undercut the jingoistic tendencies of the genre. For the most part, it's action and hardware over concept, which isn't to my specific tastes, but different strokes: there's an audience for that.
My personal highlight would be Bill Fawcett's contribution, "Tradition." Nothing like a good scheme, and the concept is strong with this one.
What we get here is essentially a lighter-tone version of the Warhammer 40k universe. While I dip my toes into military sci-fi, I'm not ideologically sold on the concept in general, and I wouldn't say there's much here to undercut the jingoistic tendencies of the genre. For the most part, it's action and hardware over concept, which isn't to my specific tastes, but different strokes: there's an audience for that.
My personal highlight would be Bill Fawcett's contribution, "Tradition." Nothing like a good scheme, and the concept is strong with this one.
September 12, 2020
Like all anthologies there are some good stories and some not as good, although the overall quality was better than many anthologies. This could be due to it being a shared world anthology - all the stories wee written for this book and they all have a common setting - the war between the Alliance worlds and the Khalia.
The list of authors who contributed to this book is excellent although, other than David Drake and perhaps John Brunner, none of them are authors I would think to associate with military sci-fi. To be fair, while the war is a constant in all the stories, several of the stories are not traditional military sci-fi.
One thing I did find somewhat irritating was there was no real sense of progress throughout the book, nothing to indicate the overall progress of the war - which was quite likely deliberate.
The list of authors who contributed to this book is excellent although, other than David Drake and perhaps John Brunner, none of them are authors I would think to associate with military sci-fi. To be fair, while the war is a constant in all the stories, several of the stories are not traditional military sci-fi.
One thing I did find somewhat irritating was there was no real sense of progress throughout the book, nothing to indicate the overall progress of the war - which was quite likely deliberate.
February 5, 2016
Interesting shared world storyline. Nice SiFi background universe. Good selection of stories and writers. Recommended
January 25, 2021
Good sci-fire series
Read it a few times over the years and have enjoyed revisiting it again. I enjoyed the books and recommend them.
Read it a few times over the years and have enjoyed revisiting it again. I enjoyed the books and recommend them.
May 29, 2025
Some good stories, but they were outweighed by the poor and the sheer duds. Some stories were riddled with inept language. For example, in a spaceship, in space, characters repeatedly call dust 'space dust'. You're in space, so what else would the dust be? Such awkward language ruins the credibility of a story and makes it sound like a 1930's amateur creation.
Then there's the prejudice against higher headquarters ineptitude and venality. Having been career military, I agree that such can exist at higher headquarters, but not to the exaggerated extent the book portrays.
Happily, I now know not to continue the series.
Then there's the prejudice against higher headquarters ineptitude and venality. Having been career military, I agree that such can exist at higher headquarters, but not to the exaggerated extent the book portrays.
Happily, I now know not to continue the series.
February 9, 2024
A very lackluster, disjointed collection of short stories set in a shared universe. A good one or two among the whole book but most bit off way more than they could chew and a few were nearing parody in their writing (particularly the first and Gygax's story). The decent ones just barely strung me along enough to keep reading. Disappointing!
March 6, 2014
Premise: Anthology series in which authors (many well-known) write stories in a shared universe. The human-allied worlds are at war with the Khalia. We can’t understand each other, we don’t know for sure how it started, but The Fleet is the last line of defense against invasion and subjugation.
Ever since I randomly read the second one in this series in 2007, I’ve kept an eye out for the rest of the series. They’re anthologies, the quality is mixed, but there’s enough little gems here to keep me checking the dollar rack.
This first volume includes eleven stories very loosely strung together by a frame story about a news (propaganda) producer looking for a good story to boost morale.
The stories range widely, including a semi-hypothetical account of how the war started, a comedic piece about a quartermaster put in charge of a third-tier base who has to figure out how to convince a newly encountered species to ally with humans, and a piece about a young empath who joins the Fleet to discover an unusual use for her powers.
One of my least favorite pieces was by Gary Gygax, a wild-west-ish piece about a planet that had no use for the Alliance and the Fleet. It was just a little too simple and had a bit too much ‘yeah-American-exceptionalism-individualism’ about it.
Some I quite liked include a melancholic piece by Margaret Weis about walking away from war; Anne McCaffery’s contribution about a information mission run by a ship and an operative; David Drake’s final piece about the horrors of ground combat and the things you hope you never see; and Poul Anderson had a piece with great use of flashback about a group of people who had been physically altered for work on an alien world.
It’s not a brilliant work, but sometimes I just want some space fighting, with some decent little stories. The nice thing about the shortness of these stories is that the best ones are tiny human moments. There’s a larger story going on in the background with the grand sweep of interstellar armies, but we only see one person on one world at a time. I find the series overall to be a fun experiment in shared world-building.
Ever since I randomly read the second one in this series in 2007, I’ve kept an eye out for the rest of the series. They’re anthologies, the quality is mixed, but there’s enough little gems here to keep me checking the dollar rack.
This first volume includes eleven stories very loosely strung together by a frame story about a news (propaganda) producer looking for a good story to boost morale.
The stories range widely, including a semi-hypothetical account of how the war started, a comedic piece about a quartermaster put in charge of a third-tier base who has to figure out how to convince a newly encountered species to ally with humans, and a piece about a young empath who joins the Fleet to discover an unusual use for her powers.
One of my least favorite pieces was by Gary Gygax, a wild-west-ish piece about a planet that had no use for the Alliance and the Fleet. It was just a little too simple and had a bit too much ‘yeah-American-exceptionalism-individualism’ about it.
Some I quite liked include a melancholic piece by Margaret Weis about walking away from war; Anne McCaffery’s contribution about a information mission run by a ship and an operative; David Drake’s final piece about the horrors of ground combat and the things you hope you never see; and Poul Anderson had a piece with great use of flashback about a group of people who had been physically altered for work on an alien world.
It’s not a brilliant work, but sometimes I just want some space fighting, with some decent little stories. The nice thing about the shortness of these stories is that the best ones are tiny human moments. There’s a larger story going on in the background with the grand sweep of interstellar armies, but we only see one person on one world at a time. I find the series overall to be a fun experiment in shared world-building.
August 17, 2010
I gave up on this one for now. The story is just not engaging me the way I had hoped. I'll let it sit on the shelf and try again in a few months.
Want to read
May 13, 2017Duty Calls • [The Fleet] • (1988) • novelette
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews