戴维·德雷克

戴维·德雷克（David Drake，1945年9月24日—2023年12月10日），美国科幻和幻想小说作家。 曾参加越战，做过律师，军事科幻小说的重要作家之一。

德雷克以荣誉生毕业于爱荷华大学历史和拉丁文专业。后征召入伍，在杜克大学法学院的学习了两年，在越南和柬埔寨担任审讯员。现居住在北卡罗来纳州皮茨伯勒。

他最著名的独立创作是军事科幻小说《Hammer's Slammers》系列。他的RCN (newer Republic of Cinnabar Navy)系列小说是受奥布里马图林小说启发创作的太空歌剧。

1997年，德雷克开始创作他最规模最大的系列幻想小说，群岛之主，小说包含苏美尔信仰和中世纪技术元素。 2007年，德雷克完成其系列的最终卷第九卷。

除了独立创作之外，他常常给很多合作者提供情节大纲和军事视角，他的合作者包括卡尔爱德华瓦格纳，珍妮特莫里斯，斯特林，埃里克弗林特。

德雷克的小说创作得益于自己广泛的历史，文学和神话的知识，常常围绕着不同政体间的冲突来展开情节。

David A. Drake (September 24, 1945 – December 10, 2023) was an American author of science fiction and fantasy literature. A Vietnam War veteran, he worked as a lawyer before becoming a writer mostly in the military science fiction and fantasy genres.

Biography

Drake graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Iowa, majoring in history (with honors) and Latin. His studies at Duke University School of Law were interrupted for two years when he was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served as an enlisted tank crewman with the 11th Armored Cavalry (the Black Horse Regiment) in Vietnam and Cambodia. After the war, from 1972 to 1980 he worked as the assistant town attorney in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In 1981 he transitioned to full-time writing of science fiction literature. With Karl Edward Wagner and Jim Groce, he was one of the initiators of Carcosa, a small press company. He lived in Pittsboro, North Carolina.

In 2019, he announced that he might be suffering from Parkinson's disease. On November 17, 2021, he announced he was retiring from writing novels, due to unspecified cognitive health problems. Drake died on December 10, 2023, at the age of 78.

Works

His best-known solo work is the Hammer's Slammers series of military science fiction. His newer RCN Series is a space opera inspired by the Aubrey–Maturin novels. In 1997, Drake began his largest fantasy series, Lord of the Isles, using elements of Sumerian religion and medieval technology. In 2007, Drake finished the series with its ninth volume. Between 2010 and 2015 he published another fantasy series of four novels, The Books of the Elements, based on the Roman Empire in approximately the time of Tiberias.

Drake co-authored novels with authors such as Karl Edward Wagner, S. M. Stirling, and Eric Flint. Typically Drake provided plot outlines (5,000–15,000 words) and the co-author did "the real work of developing the outline into a novel". He did not "consider [his] involvement to be that of a real co-author." Drake also contributed to the Heroes in Hell series.

A common element in most of his works was the focus on military themes, in particular the lives of regular soldiers.

Some of Drake's works are available for free download in the Baen Free Library.

Adaptations

Mayfair Games produced the licensed Hammer's Slammers board game (1984) based on David Drake's novel Hammer's Slammers.

Mongoose Publishing adapted Drake's novel as the licensed setting Hammer's Slammers (2009) for the Traveller role-playing game.

John Treadaway has adapted Hammer's Slammers into a wargame, of which several editions have been published. The game uses various miniatures from companies such as Brigade Models, Old Crow Models, and Ground Zero Games.