Retro Review of Killer (1985) by David Drake and Karl Edward Wagner up on Fantastic Worlds

[jordan179]

Introduction:  When David Drake (author of the "Hammer's Slammers" interstellar mercenary series) and Karl Edward Wagner (author of the "Kane" fantasy series about the eponymous cursed warrior-wizard) get together, you know they're not going to write a story about happy little Smurfs.  Killer is no disappointment in this regard.

Synopsis:  In the

Comments

[eric_hinkle]

I so remember this one, mainly for that horrifying scene where Lycon is in one cell, and his family is in the other, and then this robed and oddly-acting guard comes in and head straight for the cell with Lycon's family...

Absolute worst moment: It holds up the keys and shows them to Lycon.

[jordan179]

Close: the phile is passing for human by wearing a hooded robe. She doesn't have the keys, but she picks the (crude) lock with her long, strong claws.

And there's nothing Lycon can do to stop her, even if he could have meaningfully fought her when he was unarmed.

[eric_hinkle]

Thanks for reminding me. I also remember what became of the Greek tutor of Lycon's son. Man that was a nasty end -- rather deserved, but nasty.

[silent_o]

My first thought was "I'll just head over to the Baen website and buy a pdf."
Then I found out it's unavailable. Now I've been searching the internet for an hour or so. I may even have to resort to the dreaded Inter-Library Loan. D:

-edit-

That is unless the used book store doesn't have it. They left me hanging when I tried to round out one of my pulp collections. (Had all but the first one.)

My house is slowly turning into a pile of books and i may need help.

[jordan179]

Interestingly, I recently read a short essay by David Drake describing how the book was written, and it originated from an idea to do late 1st century Roman fantasy (which I'm guessing became the stories of Vettius and His Friends, a Drake anthology on that topic). Drake later turned it into a science-fiction story, which IMO accounts for a lot of its excellence, especially the mirroring between the alien empire and the Roman Empire.

Drake complained that Wagner altered his work too much in the editing, but as far as I can see the novel came out really well -- while not as good as his most recent science-fiction work (the RCN Cinnabar series with Leary and Mnudy), it's still really good.

[silent_o]

Will need to look into this. I need something to tide me over until my next Weber fix.