- Location
- In a van, down by the river.
I'm okay with growing readers in a lab. Perhaps it's the future of publishing.
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Drake's Drum
- Thread starter Nick Sumner
- Start date
- Location
- In a van, down by the river.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to one and all!
There are minor updates to the, USN, USAAF, US Naval Aviation, Italian Naval Aviation, Regia Marina and Order of Battle appendices at the Drake's Drum website if anyone is interested over the Christmas holidays.
Back in the New Year!
There are minor updates to the, USN, USAAF, US Naval Aviation, Italian Naval Aviation, Regia Marina and Order of Battle appendices at the Drake's Drum website if anyone is interested over the Christmas holidays.
Back in the New Year!
Omund the Wooden-Leg
Chazadjin Marmaduke Brandybuck
Earlier this week, bought the paperbacks of the "Drake's Drum" series (is it still a trilogy? or will be a quadrilogy?) as the paperback of "Festung Europa" on the shelf looked lonely. They arrived to-day, along with a postcard from my college friend who lives in France, who wrote it around Christmas and has only now posted a little while ago. I wanted to see Khrushchev's Stalingrad rant to the Iceland Conference again.
- Location
- In a van, down by the river.
Yeah, its a tetralogy/quadrilogy now. Cue Douglas Adams jokes.
Manuscript for DD4 is currently at just under 110,000 words with six chapters to write before I have a first draft. Feels surreal to be writing about war and conflict with today's news...
Manuscript for DD4 is currently at just under 110,000 words with six chapters to write before I have a first draft. Feels surreal to be writing about war and conflict with today's news...
Omund the Wooden-Leg
Chazadjin Marmaduke Brandybuck
You won't have real blood dripping from your hands, your ears won't be ruptured from the crump of exploded missiles...
- Location
- In a van, down by the river.
For which I am very grateful.
- Location
- In a van, down by the river.
Three British Prime Ministers in Drake's Drum: Horizon of Our Hopes.
L to R
Archibald Sinclair (Liberal) in office 20/2/41 - 15/5/52.
Rupert Brabner (Conservative) in office 24/6/56 – 31/3/67.
Harold Wilson (Liberal) in office 31/3/67 – 5/4/1976.
- Location
- In a van, down by the river.
Four Presidents of the United States
L to R
Adalai Stevenson (Democrat) in office 20/1/53-20/1/57.
Earl Warren (Republican) in office 20/1/57-20/1/61.
Joseph P. Kennedy (Democrat) in office 20/1/61-20/1/65.
Barry Goldwater (Republican) in office 20/1/65-20/1/73.
- Location
- In a van, down by the river.
As of just now 71% of the ratings for DD4 are 4 or 5 stars.
Pretty chuffed...
Pretty chuffed...
- Location
- Balham
- Pronouns
- he/him
- Location
- In a van, down by the river.
Some flags from the Drake's Drum timeline.
The flag of the Islamic republic of Aceh from 1966 on.
The flag of the Kingdom of Kashmir, 1943 - 1961.
The flag of the Islamic Republic of Kashmir, from 1961 on.
The flag of the Islamic republic of Aceh from 1966 on.
The flag of the Kingdom of Kashmir, 1943 - 1961.
The flag of the Islamic Republic of Kashmir, from 1961 on.
So, over the last ~month I've read the Drake's Drum books.
First off, Nick, thanks for writing them. Obviously they were a good read, or I wouldn't have got through 4 of them.
That said, the first two were the best ones, for the simple reason that the whole series is strongest on the war itself, military operations etc; it is weakest on politics, which is an issue in the first book, but becomes more and more prominent as the series goes on and takes up a substantial part of book 4. The authorial thumb on the scales to ensure that the parties of the left failed to prosper all around the world grew gradually more blatant, and the tracts about why the centre-right was the one true path got longer. If I remember right, at one point the US Republicans won the presidency 5 times in a row? And as for what happens to the UK Labour party, the less said the better.
The high point of book 4 was definitely the photographer running around a Japanese protest - excellent sequence. Other sections which were very effective included the radio interview of a veteran, and the invasion of Malta.
First off, Nick, thanks for writing them. Obviously they were a good read, or I wouldn't have got through 4 of them.
That said, the first two were the best ones, for the simple reason that the whole series is strongest on the war itself, military operations etc; it is weakest on politics, which is an issue in the first book, but becomes more and more prominent as the series goes on and takes up a substantial part of book 4. The authorial thumb on the scales to ensure that the parties of the left failed to prosper all around the world grew gradually more blatant, and the tracts about why the centre-right was the one true path got longer. If I remember right, at one point the US Republicans won the presidency 5 times in a row? And as for what happens to the UK Labour party, the less said the better.
The high point of book 4 was definitely the photographer running around a Japanese protest - excellent sequence. Other sections which were very effective included the radio interview of a veteran, and the invasion of Malta.
- Location
- In a van, down by the river.
Incognitia, firstly, thank you for reading the Drake's Drum series and I'm sorry if parts of it were disappointing. Thank you also for your comments here, but I must take gentle issue with some of your criticisms.
At no point in Drake's Drum do the Republicans win the US Presidency five times on the trot. Their longest winning streak is four terms, but don't forget that in OTL the Democrats won 5 consecutive times between 1932 and 1948.
It is, I feel, impossible to write an alternate history of the twentieth century without delving heavily into politics. I don't want to get bogged down in semantics, or gave away too many spoilers, but I don't think it is accurate to say that 'the parties of the left fail to prosper.' Quite the opposite, and the reasons why they evolve differently in TTL are manifest from book One on.
At no point in Drake's Drum do the Republicans win the US Presidency five times on the trot. Their longest winning streak is four terms, but don't forget that in OTL the Democrats won 5 consecutive times between 1932 and 1948.
It is, I feel, impossible to write an alternate history of the twentieth century without delving heavily into politics. I don't want to get bogged down in semantics, or gave away too many spoilers, but I don't think it is accurate to say that 'the parties of the left fail to prosper.' Quite the opposite, and the reasons why they evolve differently in TTL are manifest from book One on.
- Location
- In a van, down by the river.
A big update to the Drake's Drum website has just gone live. Photographs from Part 4 Drake's Drum: Horizon of Our Hopes have been added. Just as a taster, we have a photograph from the time of the Crisis Cascade of 1973. An RAF Hawker-Siddeley Hotspur fighter intercepting a Soviet Tu 95 bomber over the North Sea.
- Location
- In a van, down by the river.
There have been far too few pictures of enormous warships in this thread lately, so here's two images of Montana class battleships modernised for service with the USN in the 1980s.
- Location
- In a van, down by the river.
In other news there is a new update to the Drake's Drum website which includes the addition of password accessible content.
It consists of Annex 19, which is a complete Drake's Drum timeline and an Interlude chapter which was an attempt at comic relief, but didn't really propel the plot forward.
If you would like to know the password please email me with a picture of your copy of either the paperback version of Drake's Drum: Horizon of Our Hopes or a picture of the screen of your reading device with the map of Africa that is printed near the end of the penultimate chapter. My email is available in the 'Author' section of the Drake's Drum website and there is a link in my sig line. Please allow a day or two for a response.
It consists of Annex 19, which is a complete Drake's Drum timeline and an Interlude chapter which was an attempt at comic relief, but didn't really propel the plot forward.
If you would like to know the password please email me with a picture of your copy of either the paperback version of Drake's Drum: Horizon of Our Hopes or a picture of the screen of your reading device with the map of Africa that is printed near the end of the penultimate chapter. My email is available in the 'Author' section of the Drake's Drum website and there is a link in my sig line. Please allow a day or two for a response.
- Location
- In a van, down by the river.
Skylon
- Location
- In a van, down by the river.
Four leaders of the USSR in Drake's Drum:Horizon of Our Hopes. Clockwise from top left. Lazar Kaganovich 1943-1952, Nikita Khrushchev 1952-1964, Alexander Yakovlev 1975-1978, Leonid Brezhnev 1964-1975.
- Location
- In a van, down by the river.
The Crisis Cascade of 1973.
Top picture: USS Ranger on fire after a Korean air attack in the Tsushima Strait 12th October 1973. Middle picture: Harold Wilson, prime minister of the UK, speaks with Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel, 24th October 1973. Bottom picture: John Farley, mission pilot of Apollo 13. He was the first British astronaut to walk on the moon. The image was taken by mission commander Buzz Aldrin shortly after offering his famous 'Prayer From the Ocean of Storms,' 15th October 1973.
Top picture: USS Ranger on fire after a Korean air attack in the Tsushima Strait 12th October 1973. Middle picture: Harold Wilson, prime minister of the UK, speaks with Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel, 24th October 1973. Bottom picture: John Farley, mission pilot of Apollo 13. He was the first British astronaut to walk on the moon. The image was taken by mission commander Buzz Aldrin shortly after offering his famous 'Prayer From the Ocean of Storms,' 15th October 1973.
- Location
- In a van, down by the river.
With the possible exception of Israel, no country was as profoundly effected by the multiple crises of 1973 as Japan. The ultra nationalist Yukio Mishima stirred right wing sentiment into a frenzy. Protests marches involving as many as a third of a million people brought cities to a standstill, while violence flared constantly as the fabric of Japan's postwar life frayed.
