Dave
Drake takes the "Hammer's Slammers" Series in
a new direction, giving us an acknowledged
reworking of the storyline of Dashiell
Hammett's "Red Harvest" (also the source for "Yojimbo",
"A
Fistful
of
Dollars" and the Bruce Willis/Walter Hill "Last Man
Standing").
The structure of the book is interesting, in
that he begins at the Personnel Center of the
Nieuw Friesland Army (Hammer and the Slammers
having seized power on their home world, the
Army and the Slammers have been integrated;
under President Hammer, Nieuw Freisland's main
export is still mercenaries).
Several soldiers whose careers have taken a
bad turn, for reasons ranging from serious
injury to psychological trauma to screwing up
by the numbers to simply being too scary for
the troops they served with, have been
assigned to a survey team, being sent in to
determine whether one of the two sides in a
planetary power struggle might be interested
in hiring the Slammers (pardon me, "troops
from Nieuw Friesland").
What follows, once they reach the planet of
interest, is pretty much the "Red Harvest"
story, but told in Drake's unique fashion from
his unique viewpoint.
The most interesting variant on the original
story is the sequence involving the local man
whose wife is being held by one of the drug
lords. Sort of. The pivotal Nieuw Frieslander
in this particular sequence is the scary
soldier i mentioned; i'm still not sure
whether Drake has given us a literal
reincarnation of the creepiest character he
has ever created {and that is saying
something...}.
After reading this, you might want to hunt up
Drake's collection "The Tank Lords", and
read the novel contained therein, "Rolling
Hot", for a look at the Slammers doing what
they do best. And, for another take on
the
"rehabilitating-burnt-out-cases"/redemption
theme, Drake's non-Slammers novel, "Redliners"
(which he considers his best work) cannot be
too highly recommended.
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