Into the Hinterlands with David Drake and John Lambshead Interview by Jeremy L. C. Jones Into the Hinterlands by David Drake and John Lambshead opens with three friends pedalling fragile, FTL bicycles called frames through the multi-colored, partly hallucinatory Continuum, a dimension in space that permits interstellar travel. One of the men is at home on the edge of civilization, one struggles to keep up, and the third, Allen Allenson, is clearly the leader. Indeed, Into the Hinterlands and future instalments in the Citizens series, center on Allenson, who is modelled after a young George Washington, and his growth as a leader. here is all the complex, inter-locking plot, multi-layered characters, historical under-pinnings, combat, and brutal realism for which Drake is known, plus the scientiic rigor, British wit, and good old-fashioned sense of wonder for which Lambshead is known since the publication of Lucy’s Blade. It is the blending of these two not-as-diferent-as-you’d-think voices that makes Into the Hinterlands such a pleasure to read. A research scientist in marine biodiversity who has written nearly a hundred scientiic papers, John Lambshead recently retired from a position at the Natural History Museum in London and holds a Visiting Chair in Oceanography at Southampton University. He 30
designs computer and tabletop games (including the Hammer’s Slammers Miniature Game), and writes books on military history. London’s Evening Standard called him one of “London’s top 100 ‘unknown thinkers’”. hough a lifelong reader of speculative iction, Lambshead didn’t try his hand at writing fantasy or science iction until David Drake introduced him to Jim Baen of Baen Books. As Lambshead explains in an interview with Toni Weisskopf for baen.com, Lambshead and Baen discussed human evolution and shared an enthusiasm for Bufy the Vampire Slayer. Baen repeatedly encouraged Lambshead to write iction. With some help from Drake on planning a novel, Lambshead eventually wrote Lucy’s Blade, a science-fantasy similar to Hinterlands in terms of characterization and intelligent humor. In Hinterlands, Lambshead stretches Drake in new directions and Drake seems utterly delighted by it. Lambshead also softens Drake in entirely positive ways without losing the edges most readers seek in Drake’s iction. Surely, Into the Hinterlands is not as grim as Redliners, Drake’s examination of what society does with combat veterans after they are no longer “of use” to society, neither is Hinterlands full of rainbows and roses. hough Drake is a veteran collaborator, Drake has not collaborated with a scientist before and the result is his irst novel with elements of Hard SF. Whether writing alone or with S. M. Stirling, Eric Flint, or John Lambshead, David Drake tells the truths many of us try to ignore. He writes as though his life depends on it, because it does. In many ways, reading Drake’s iction produces a similar efect as reading Flannery O’Connor. A deep mystery rests at the core of each story. While O’Connor ilters the world through Catholicism, Drake ilters the world through his experiences in combat (and a classical education). hose who have been there (in combat) feel a kindred spirit in Drake. hose who have not been there are ofered an opportunity to approach that dark mystery. Ultimately, both O’Connor and Drake write with a slant vision of the world that is truer than mere realism. Drafted while attending Duke University’s Law School, Drake served in the ield with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (he rode with the Blackhorse). Upon returning to the World, Drake inished law school, but it was neither jurisprudence nor the practise of law that saved his life in the dark decade following his service. It was iction writing. Drake had read speculative iction since his childhood in Iowa and he’d written a number of short stories before serving in the Army. Upon his return, he grappled with his experiences in Vietnam by reading history and writing speculative iction. “he greatest single inluence on my life was the Vietnam War,” writes Drake. “I wish that weren’t true, but it is.” Drake’s irst novel, Dragon Lord, captures all the wits and steel ethos of the best Sword & Sorcery in the mode of Robert E. Howard, but it is his irst collection of stories, Hammer’s Slammers, featuring the now iconic mercenary tank regiment of the same name that unleashed the voice for which Drake is known and admired. In the decades since his service in Vietnam, Drake has written space opera (such as his ongoing RCN Series), epic fantasy (such as his Lord of the Isles series and the recent he Books of the Elements series), and a staggering variety of science iction, fantasy, and horror alone. he only sub-genre missing from Drake’s extensive bibliography, it seems, is Hard SF. Until now.