RIP David Drake (September 24, 1945 - December 10, 2023)
The last of the Manly Wade Wellman Circle has passed into the beyond.
Science Fiction and Fantasy fans received some bad news last night when David Drake’s family shared the news that he had passed away. According to his son Jonathan, his death was peaceful and he died in his sleep. David Drake was a HUGE author in the military science fiction genre. His work in that genre includes a ton of Hammer’s Slammers stories, the RCN Series, and many more. I’ve read and enjoyed much of Drake’s military science fiction and I think that his book Redliners is the best military science fiction book ever written. I’m not alone in this opinion; it was Drake’s own personal favorite as well.
Drake was known for the accuracy of his military science fiction and a large part of this was because he was a Vietnam veteran who served with the Blackhorse. His thoughts on the Vietnam war are what one would expect from a veteran of that conflict. He is critical of the war itself and America’s involvement in it, but he deeply loved the people he served with. It is a statement one reads from soldiers throughout history. Sometimes the soldiers also supported the war itself, as you can see in the interviews for Band of Brothers as an example, but whether or not the war was just they talk of the comradery and respect they have for their fellow soldiers. People often say that you don’t have to be a veteran to write good military science fiction, but that veterans can always tell when the writer is a veteran. I think a reason for that is the ability to write beyond the action of the conflict and portray the souls of the people involved. From Xenophon’s Anabasis to David Drake’s own writing, one can see a different focus in the writings of a veteran than one typically gets from a non-veteran, and in the case of both Xenophon and Drake there is philosophy in the margins.
As famous as Drake was for his military fiction, that’s not the primary way I came to know and appreciate him as an author. The first David Drake book I ever saw, and bought immediately, was Cthulhu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors of Robert E. Howard that he edited for Baen Books. I was a huge fan of Robert E. Howard’s Conan tales, and of the de Camp and Carter pastiches, but I had no idea at the time that Howard wrote horror stories. Drake’s volume expanded my knowledge and appreciate of Howard and of the whole genre of weird fiction.
After reading this volume of Howard tales, I sought out more writing by David Drake that fit within my literary interests at the time and that led me to his Lord of the Isles epic fantasy series. To this day, these books are among my favorite fantasy tales. Drake reached beyond traditional Western European medieval society for inspiration and looked to the Sumerians and he smashed that mythology together with a dash of time travel and Moorcock-esque multiversal action. The books do have a pattern to them. As you read them, you recognize the pattern each book follows. This is not a weakness or a criticism of the books. Drake uses this pattern the same way that Homer uses “rosy fingered dawn” and other references to build a larger story. The pattern is a part of the point of the stories and I find them exquisite and highly underappreciated. The Amazon reviews show that readers rate the books highly, but too few have read the books in my opinion. Drake’s use of Sumerian mythology as a foundation makes them stand out, but it also fits with Drake’s character as a person. While he was a Vietnam veteran, he was also a trained attorney who translated Ovid in his spare time.
Drake had an inquisitive mind that sought to understand the underpinnings of mythology. Whether that mythology was Sumerian, Roman, or Arthurian, Drake took it seriously and examined new ways of examining those myths. While I think that inquisitive mind was something he was born with, I cannot help but think that his approach was influenced by the circle of writers he was a part of as a young author. It was a circle that included the old pulp guard and the edgy new wave. He, Manly Wade Wellman, and Karl Edward Wagner formed an intriguing weird fiction writer’s circle. Wellman’s tales of John the Balladeer, John Thunstone, and many others are refreshing and authentic Weird Tales that mix horror, faith, and hope in ways that few pulp authors combined. Karl Edward Wagner’s tales are almost the polar opposite of Wellman’s. Where Wellman’s tales contain hope and humor, Wagner’s are nihilistic and raw. Wagner’s stories of Kane are well written tales of sword and sorcery, but they are dark and unforgiving. Drake’s tales fall somewhere between Wellman’s and Wagner’s. Drake can be dark, but even as he approaches nihilism there is a small glimmer of hope and Redliners is one of the best examples of this combination.
I discovered the connection between Drake and Wellman long after my friend J introduced me to the stories of John the Balladeer, but not that long after discovering David Drake’s writings. Drake’s own online newsletter frequently discussed the role as a mentor that Wellman played in his life. He presented a person who was open and communicative with a younger author and who was willing to share his experiences with others in a compassionate and inspirational way.
A while back, probably a decade, I subscribed to David Drake’s Newsletter to see what projects he was working on. They weren’t what I was expecting. I expected writings focused mostly on marketing his next project. That’s what I signed up for and I would have been happy if that’s all I got. Instead, I got small glimpses into the life of an author whose work I enjoyed. They were intimate. Because of that intimacy, when my Oma died a few years ago, I began responding to Drake’s newsletter. I didn’t respond to all of them, just the ones that touched me in a particular way. I shared my thoughts on various subjects. As far as I expected, I was writing into the void, but that’s not what happened. Drake usually responded and expanded on the conversation. He made connection. I won’t say I became his friend, but his correspondence was personal and I felt more than a fan attachment to him.
I know he was a complex man, and I’m sure far from perfect, but I am equally certain that his family will miss him dearly and my heart aches for them.