Hope Renewed

The General #5-6

by S.M. Stirling

Contains Books #5 and #6 The Sword and The Chosen, in the best selling General series.The Empire of Man has fallen and a new Dark Age is upon the stars. With planets cut off and reduced to subsistence and ignorance, humanity has nearly forgotten its past greatness. But one battle computer has survived the Collapse. He is Center. And Center is determined to find and aid leaders who can return a star-faring republic to the galaxy. The first of these leaders is Raj Whitehall, a man born to be a general, and molded to retake civilization itself from the jaws of barbarism.The SwordFor five years Raj Whitehall has led his men across the face of the planet Bellevue. With saber and bayonet he has conquered one barbarian nation after another. Now his greatest enemy is his own overlord, Barholm Clerett, who's so paranoid of Raj's victories that he is reduced to onlAbout the Raj Whitehall “[T]old with knowledge of military tactics and hardware, and vividly described action . . . devotees of military SF should enjoy themselves.”—Publishers Weekly“[A] thoroughly engrossing military sf series . . . superb battle scenes, ingenious weaponry and tactics, homages to Kipling, and many other goodies. High fun.”—BooklistAbout David “[P]rose as cold and hard s the metal alloy of a tank … rivals Crane and Remarque …” –Chicago Sun-Times“Drake couldn’t write a bad action scene at gunpoint.” –BooklistThe General SeriesThe ForgeS. M. StirlingDavid DrakeThe HammerS. M. StirlingDavid DrakeThe AnvilS. M. StirlingDavid DrakeThe SteelS. M. StirlingDavid DrakeThe SwordS. M. StirlingDavid DrakeThe ChosenS. M. StirlingDavid DrakeThe ReformerS. M. StirlingDavid DrakeThe TyrantEric FlintDavid DrakeThe HereticTony DanielDavid DrakeThe SaviorTony DanielDavid DrakeOmnibus EditionsWarlordDavid DrakeS. M. StirlingContains The Forge and The HammerConquerorDavid DrakeS. M. StirlingContains The Anvil and The SteelHope RebornDavid DrakeS. M. StirlingContains The Forge and The HammerHope RearmedDavid DrakeS. M. StirlingContains The Anvil and The SteelThe Army took David Drake from Duke Law School and sent him on a motorized tour of Viet Nam and Cambodia with the 11th Cav, the Blackhorse. He learned new skills, saw interesting sights, and met exotic people who hadn't run fast enough to get away.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Military Fiction, Ebooks

752 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 15, 2014

About the author

Stephen Michael Stirling is a French-born Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. Stirling is probably best known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and the more recent time travel/alternate history Nantucket series and Emberverse series.

MINI AUTO-BIOGRAPHY:
(personal website: source)

I’m a writer by trade, born in France but Canadian by origin and American by naturalization, living in New Mexico at present. My hobbies are mostly related to the craft. I love history, anthropology and archaeology, and am interested in the sciences. The martial arts are my main physical hobby.

Reviews

[Michael P. Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The saga continues

Definitely a great read. New players to love and the Center and Raj to bring it together full circle. Love it.

[Peter Bruyns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Go to Book!

Every now and again, I get an urge to read a really good book. The "General series" qualifies, in spades.!!

[John Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite series. Alternative history of conquest.

Note that this is a omnibus edition of 2 novels within the series.

[Leons1701 · Rating 3 out of 5]

As omnibus editions go, this one is a little bit odd, comprised of the fifth and final book of The General and the first book of whatever the heck the follow on series is called. So the big climax is kind of in the middle.
Raj Whitehall (an expy of Bellisarius) has beaten everyone he faced, except the Colony's most able commander, Tewfik. So guess who's back for a rematch? The Colony has arguably better military technology than the Civil Government (repeaters vs single shot breech loading rifles, quick firing artillery, etc) and a commander just as able as Whitehall, if not better. So when they invade in force, the Civil Government is in real danger, leaving Governor Barnholm no choice but to trust in Raj one more time. Raj must beat Tewfik to save the progress already made to unite the planet, but if he does, it is almost certain the paranoid Governor will have him executed.

The follow on series turns from the planet Bellvue to the wider galaxy. Center has launched probes to troubled worlds with a downloaded version of Raj's personality in them. In The Chosen, one of these probes lands on Visager, where the the Chosen are making a fair bid at reprising the roles of both Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in a setting with some strong parallels to WWII, although the tech base is closer to an early WWI. How bad are The Chosen? Let's just say it's pretty obvious Stirling was feeling a bit nostalgic for the Draka. This one feels a bit rushed and compressed, years of setup for the war, intrigue, a Spanish Civil War expy (complete with Hemmingway reference) and the main war in one volume. There's also a somewhat silly sense of humor, if I told you the Wong brothers were bicycle manufacturers, could you guess what they invent? And various historical quotes show up in a different context, which isn't quite as funny as the authors probably thought it was.

I'd probably give The Sword 4 stars on it's own, but as an omnibus, it's dragged down slightly by the rushed feel of The Chosen. Still not a bad choice for fans of military SF (and who the heck else is going to be reading a Drake/Stirling collaboration anyhow?)