(no subject)

[beatrice_otter]

You know, I've read both the "General" series by David Drake and S.M. Stirling, and the Belisarius series by David Drake and Eric Flint.  But I've never read both of them back to back, and so had never realized just how much the plots and characters of the two series are alike.  The Raj Whitehall books of the General series have: a low tech empire (devolved civilization on a colony world) ruled by a paranoid but able Governor who loves meddling in the state church who is married to a strong, capable woman who used to be a prostitute who dies of cancer.  The main character is a very able general getting advice from an advanced computer; he has a wife who is smart and sexy and competent.  The Belisarius series is an alternate history set in the Roman (Byzantine) Empire, under the reign of Justinian (a paranoid but capable Emperor who loves meddling in the state church) and Theodosia, a strong, capable woman who will die of cancer in the future.  The main character is a very able general getting advice from an advanced computer (sent back from the future); he has a wife who is smart and sexy and competent.

The Belisarius books are much better, for a variety of reasons.  However.  The Raj Whitehall books have their own unique charm; not least of which is the way ethnic and cultural descent are handled.  All the nations are clearly descendants of today's cultures.  But the "good guys," the Civil Government whom Raj is the main general of, who are the most technologically advanced, are short, dark-skinned people who speak "Spanglish" and have names like Jorg Menyez.  The semi-barbarians are the tall blond guys named stuff like Karl who speak "Namerique."  And the real barbarians, the savage nomads with less culture than bacteria, who drink swill that tastes like horse piss and consider anything but fighting, hunting, drinking, and sex effete and unmanly?  They're French.

Comments

[thothmes]

I giggle at the barbarians!

[beatrice_otter]

I doubt you'd giggle much if you read the books; although not particularly graphic, they are pretty realistic about what happens in war on a world with large conscript armies from primitive cultures without any hint of a Geneva Conventions. Conquering a city means rape, looting, and general destruction. And the barbarians are the worst. But it is funny whenever the barbarians break out into pidgin French.

(That's one reason I like the Belisarius books better; they're still fairly realistic about that sort of thing, but it's handled better--in the General books, there's violence, violence, violence, token reaction by Our Hero about how vile this is, reassurance that it's all necessary to get history back on track, and more violence. The other reason is that the General series--the Raj Whitehall books of it, at any rate--are fairly repetitive. He goes out to conquer one enemy. He defeats them. He gets politically stabbed in the back. He's about to be recalled in disgrace, but another enemy attacks and needs to be conquered. Lather, rinse, repeat.)

[squirelawrence]

I rather enjoyed the General series (the core 5 books, anyway - the later ones, as I think Drake himself admits, aren't as good), but having just started reading the Belisarius series, you're right, they're much better. Just reached the part in the first book where Belisarius commands Anastasius to "do something impressively unfriendly." Does a lovely turn of phrase, does Drake.

Thanks for the recommendation - I'd put off starting Belisarius because I could never find all of the books together. Finally ordered the omnibus reprints off of Amazon, and am having grand fun.

[beatrice_otter]

Actually, I'm pretty sure Eric Flint did the lion's share of the writing of the Belisarius series, with Drake doing more work on the plotting end. (Which is why they're so similar to the General series.) There was a five year wait for the last book (after a book a year average on the earlier books) because in the meantime Flint's career had taken off with stuff like the 163x series which were selling better and he was making more money off of--he wanted to build his reputation and readership for a while before taking the time to go back and write the final book of the Belisarius series, which he knew would sell less and which he would get a smaller share of, because of the co-writing thing.

You'll notice that Baen Books tends to have a lot of collaboration, of new authors with their established big names. Usually, the lions share of the actual writing is done by the newbie, with the more experienced one being a mentor and editor (and sometimes a plot developer) than an actual co-writer. It gives the newbie experience and exposure. The book will sell more with the big name up top, so both get more money than they otherwise would have (the newbie because people will recognize and buy the top name, and the old hand because it takes a lot less of their time than writing a book all by themselves). And people who buy the co-authored book because of the main author, the next time they see the newbie author in a solo book, they'll recognize the newbie's name and be much more likely to check it out than they otherwise would have. So Eric Flint started out co-authoring with David Drake, established big name, and now Eric Flint is himself the big name co-authoring with newbies/less popular writers. John Ringo started out as a newbie coauthoring with David Weber, and now John Ringo is a big name who occasionally co-authors with newbies. Not all Baen authors do those kinds of collaborations; not all Baen collaborations fall into that pattern. But a lot of them do.