Conference noted::sf

906.0. "S. M. Stirling" by LUGGER::REDFORD () Tue Aug 28 1990 01:47

"The Stone Dogs" (A Draka novel)
Baen Books, 1990

An interesting but disturbing alternate history novel by one of the Pournelle
Disciples.  The Draka are an attractive people: vigorous and creative, but
with a strong sense of tradition and a genuine feeling for the land.  They
have replanted the Sahara, rebuilt the fine old estates of Europe, and are
now, in the late 20th century, colonizing the solar system.

There's just one problem with them; they're fascist slaveholders bent on
world domination.  They started in Drake's Land at the southern tip of
Africa.  They were Loyalist refugees from the American Revolution.  The
British evacuated them to Africa along with some Hessian mercenaries.
Without all that Northern religious nonsense they were free to come into
their own as slavelord aristocrats.  With vast agricultural and mineral
resources at their command, they quickly became a formidable nation.  When
the Industrial Revolution kicked in, they were ready to exploit it.  Just as
the Germans did in the late 19th century, they organized production into vast
industrial combines, and were quickly able to outstrip Britain herself.  They
funneled their wealth into armies and railroads instead of pointless
individual consumption.  By 1900 they had conquered all of Africa.  In the
Great War of 1914, they took all of the near East and southern Russia.
In the Eurasian War of 1940-1946, they conquered France, the Third Reich,
Russia, and swept all the way to the Pacific with their vast mechanized
armies armed with nuclear weapons.  At that point there were sixty serfs for
every Draka citizen.  They maintain order by continuous public executions.

Now only North and South America, Britain and Japan are not under the Draka
Domination.  Under intense military pressure, the technological pace becomes
dizzying.  In 1947 the first breeder reactors are built.  In 1959 the first
scramjet acheives orbit.  The first Lunar settlement comes in 1962.  The
first pulse-drive interplanetary ships (driven by a continuous stream of
small atomic bombs) are built in '63.  By 1970 the Draka have a colony on
Mars.   The free nations, the Alliance, are mining the asteroid belt.  The
Alliance manages to stay ahead in computers and advanced propulsion, but the
Draka are becoming expert genetic engineers.  By 1975 they can do human
cloning, and even improve on the genotype, making a New Race that is even
stronger, faster, and longer-lived.

The story follows Yolande Ingolfsson, daughter of an Italian Draka
plantation owner.  Like all Draka she is raised to rule.  We follow 
her from her cadet days, where she meets the love of her life, a 
fellow female cadet named Myfwany, through her early war experience 
and her rise to being a cunning and ruthless leader against the Alliance.

At first I thought "What a great set of villains!"  The Draka have the
technological prowess of the Nazis and the systematic imperialism of Romans.
Not only do they enslave everyone they conquer, but they're working on
breeding whole new races of soulless, docile servants.  They even use their
slaves for breeding; they implant fertilized ova into the wombs of their
female slaves so that they don't have to go through the fuss of pregnancy.

As you proceed through the novel, though, you find that it's ALL 
about the Draka.  Stirling is fascinated by them.  He's actually 
written two other novels, "Marching Through Georgia" and "Under the 
Yoke", set in the same timeline.

What's going on here?  Why is he/she spending so much time on these
monsters? (Aside: I'm actually not sure if Stirling is a man or a
woman.  The use of initials and the female protagonists would indicate
woman.  The savagery of the characters and the familiarity with the
military would indicate man.  None of these, of course, exclude the
other gender, but are hints.  Does anyone know anything about
him/her?) It's not just that he's trying to produce a rounded culture,
because some of its characteristics are obviously internally
inconsistent.  For instance, the Draka practice complete sexual
equality.  Women have equal roles in every field, from politics to
combat. This is absurd in a culture that is totally devoted to war and
is in constant need of increasing its numbers.  The Draka are superb
engineers and scientists, and yet the slightest sign of political
incorrectness earns one a bullet in the head.  Somehow they can think
freely about technical matters but not about anything else.  They are
sensitive and loving towards each other, but brutal with their
servants, even ones who have raised them from birth.  On top of all
their other talents, they find time to be extraordinarily
well-developed physically.  At one point in the story the  heroine is
feeling restless and so does fifty chinups to loosen up.

One starts to suspect that Stirling actually likes the Draka.
Maybe this is a perverse kind of Utopia.  Utopian fiction is way out of
fashion, so Stirling tacks on this slave-holding aspect to the Draka in order
to keep them from being too obviously superior.

This would all be easy to dismiss were it not for the breadth of 
technical knowledge displayed in the book.  Stirling lays out an 
intriguing alternative line of technological development, and does it 
with great believability.  There are appendices at the back that go 
through the Draka history of steam power, 
rail/dirigible/jet/pulse-drive transport, and weapons development.  
He is equally at home with descriptions of hunts or hand-to-hand combat.
The fascination and expertise with machinery and violence marks
Stirling himself as a Draka.  He's made a world in his own image, and 
perversely cast himself as the villain.   It makes for interesting 
reading, but you have to wonder about the psychology.

/jlr

   Thanks /jlr

   Too few of these `reviews' anymore. I put some in at one time, but
   am guilty of not keeping it up. (plus nobody seemed interested). I like
   the idea of `spreading the word'  re:  books enjoyed or hated.

   Thanks again
   Mike JN

    I have just recently completed "Marching Through Georgia".  I picked it
    up because I am a rabid reader of alternate time-line books.
    
    I was not impressed at all by the book.  It could have told the story
    it did in 1/3 the pages and still been a bit wordy.  Stirling is very
    thorough in his/her descriptions of EVERYTHING.
    
    It was like reading a history of the world the way the KKK would like
    to see it.  I was disgusted.
    
    Not a recommended read.

    You get pulled in two directions in this sort of story.  (I read
    "Marching Through [Soviet] Georgia")
    
    On one hand, the Drakkans are so honorable, strong, brave, beautiful,
    etc. you know that they are the authors heroes
    
    On the other hand, the Drakkans have been practicing genocide for
    centuries and are completely callous about the death of others.

    
    I loved the book but hated the Drakkans
    
    Nuke 'em from orbit.
    
    The Drakka are the nation that Friedrich Neitzche would have spawned if
    he could get it on. It is a very strange people who have positively
    none of the constraints that we get with the standard burgoise
    Judeo-Christian morality. You could admire the Drakkans provided you
    didn't live in the same solar system with them.
    
    Conan the Librarian
    

    _Marching through Georgia_ is less well written than _Under_the_Yoke_
    (set in immediate post-WW II Europe);  I agree with the wordiness.
    
    One disturbing thing about the premise is that it's hard to argue
    that it's impossible: the Draka are a combination of Sparta and
    modern totalitarian government which sounds perfectly possible.
    While it's true that slaves are less productive, the Drakas can
    live with that: they're willing to have a smaller GNP, as long as
    they can take a larger fraction of it.  On the other hand, I don't
    buy the pseudo-history as one that could lead to this organization.
    
    I don't think we can conclude that Stirling _likes_ the Draka--I
    think the dual challenge of constructing the nastiest social system
    possible and then making that system's elite attractive is something
    an author might take on for fun.  What else has Steve Sterling 
    written?
    		-John Bishop