Cross the Stars

_Cross the Stars_ by Davide Drake is an offshoot of his popular Hammer's Slammers series of stories. In _Cross the Stars_, we follow the adventures of an ex-Slammer as he attempts to return home to a remote planet. Along the way, our hero meets with a fair number of obstacles, and this part of the book seemed really slow to me. However, once the main character gets home the story picks up and it is beautifully written. There is a scene where an old remote-controlled war machine is reactivated in the middle of a crowd, and only two people in the crowd understand why it was reactivated and all the implications and ramifications of that. It's been over four years since I last read _Cross the Stars_ (which is also why I unfortunately can't remember the main character's name), but I can still remember that scene clearly, as well as the final confrontation between our hero and villain in the assembly hall. In an afterword to the novel, Drake said _Cross the Stars_ was a retelling of Homer's Odyssey. Each of the obstacles encountered on the path home had a parallel in the Odyssey. Just as Ulysses slipped into his own household in disguise so he could ascertain the true loyalties of his wife and find a way to defeat his enemies, the hero of _Cross the Stars_ comes back to his home planet in disguise so that he can find out the loyalties of a long-lost love and find a way to defeat the man who usurped his family's position. David Drake is one of my favorite authors. I originally liked his storylines and characters most of all, but as I read more of his works, I started to truly love his ability to describe people, his gift for describing the emotional struggle in a conflict, and his historical knowledge. In the afterword of this book, Drake explains how his experiences in the Vietnam War and his studies in classical history and Latin have affected his writing style. Just that alone makes this book worth reading. I agree with another reviewer who said this book is an excellent way to sneak the classics into your teenager's reading list. But be warned that Drake's battle scenes are well-written and sometimes very grisly because of that. The description of the aftershock of a plasma bolt reducing a dozen henchmen to life-size ash statues was a bit horrific, as was reading about the assembled parliamentarians walking through the piles of ash to leave the assembly hall. (On a side note, I also found the middle of the Odyssey very slow reading, so once I read that _Cross the Stars_ was based on Ulysses' journey, my dissatisfaction made a lot more sense.) All in all, a VERY good book.

I never thought I could like this type of military sci fi adventure. Being a fan of Star Trek and it's book series, never thought I would like this. What a surprise! Not only are the characters more real, the situations and action come at a mile a minute. If you like science fiction and action; read more Baen books by David Drake. He doesn't waste his time with over wrought descriptions. Like Harlan Ellison, he cuts to the chase and the action of the moment to make for entertaining reading.

Drake captures the spirit of the Odessey and retells this classic myth in a delightful setting, every bit as strange and facinating to its readers as anything that Homer came up with.The PBS character Wishbone, takes classic stories and applies them to modern life. Drake takes a classic myth and applies it to the future with wonderful results.If you want to sneak one of the classics into your teen's reading, this is the book to do it :-)

david drake is a master at the specialized form of military science fiction. this is one of his must read books. It is the continuation of hammers slammers and is about one soldier in that army and the taking of his proper place on the family throne.