The Complete Hammer's Slammers Volume 1 (Complete Hammer's Slammers)

With a veteran’s eye for the harsh and gritty details of war, David Drake depicts a futuristic analog of tank combat in his Hammer’s Slammers fiction. The Slammers are neither cartoon heroes nor propaganda villains; rather they are competent professionals engaged in a deadly business. The inevitable conflicts between policy, necessity, and human nature make Drake’s Slammers fiction instantly identifiable and utterly compelling. This is the first of a three volume set presenting for the first time the entire genre-defining Slammers series in a uniform trade paperback set, with new introductions by major SF figures and new afterwords by David Drake. Each volume will also include a Slammers story not collected in previous Slammer’s books. “Fans of Drake's edgy stories of a mercenary tank regiment in a future not all that different from our present will rejoice [at the publication of] the entire series in three volumes. Drake, a Vietnam vet who served in the Blackhorse Regiment, uses prose as cold and hard as the metal alloy of a tank to portray the men and women of Hammer's Regiment. . . . In his depiction of combat, Drake rivals Crane and Remarque.” — Publishers Weekly , reviewing the Night Shade hardcover edition v. 1. Under the hammer; Supertanks; The butcher's bill; The church of the lord's universe; But loyal to his own; Powerguns; Caught in the crossfire; Backdrop to chaos; Cultural conflict; The bonding authority; Hangman; Table of organization and equipment, Hammer's regiment; Standing down; Code-name Feirefitz; The interrogation team; The tank lords; Liberty port; Night march; The immovable object; The irresistible force; A death in peacetime