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The General #6
The Chosen
Picking up where their highly successful sreies The General leaves off, The Chosen follows the further adventures of Raj Whitehall and Battle Central--this time to the stars! Original.
480 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 1, 1996
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403 people want to read
About the author
S.M. Stirling
170 books1,645 followersStephen Michael Stirling is a French-born Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. Stirling is probably best known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and the more recent time travel/alternate history Nantucket series and Emberverse series.
MINI AUTO-BIOGRAPHY:
(personal website: source)
I’m a writer by trade, born in France but Canadian by origin and American by naturalization, living in New Mexico at present. My hobbies are mostly related to the craft. I love history, anthropology and archaeology, and am interested in the sciences. The martial arts are my main physical hobby.
MINI AUTO-BIOGRAPHY:
(personal website: source)
I’m a writer by trade, born in France but Canadian by origin and American by naturalization, living in New Mexico at present. My hobbies are mostly related to the craft. I love history, anthropology and archaeology, and am interested in the sciences. The martial arts are my main physical hobby.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 27, 2011
The human galactic federation is in ruins, and the worlds have devolved to various levels of barbarism. On the planet Bellevue, which is at about the early nineteenth century in development, a young officer named Raj Whitehall and his friend venture into the catacombs under the capital. There, they find an ancient battlecomputer named Center. With Center’s help, Raj must unite the planet and enable humanity to retake the stars. The story is at least somewhat based on that of the Byzatine general Belisarius.
The first seven novels are written by Drake and Stirling. The last one by Drake and Flint. David Drake writes very detailed outlines, while his collaborators write the actual text.
The first five novels are a set and deal with the conquest/unification of Bellevue. They are nowadays published in two volumes, known as Warlord and Conqueror:
* The Forge
* The Hammer
* The Anvil
* The Steel
* The Sword
After finishing the conquest of Bellevue, the personalities of Center and Raj are imbued in computers that are sent to other worlds with launched asteroids. Basically this scenario has infinite permutations as human worlds at various levels of development can be written about. The first of these follow-up novels is:
* The Chosen
It is a great singleton set on a world with early twentieth century technology. Finally there is the two volume story consisting of:
* The Reformer
* The Tyrant
Here, we take a serious step “back in time”, as the planet Hafardine is at about Roman Empire level in it’s technology. The Tyrant is rather different in style from the others due to being penned by Flint. However, his trademark dry humor meshes well with the overall thrust of the series.
This is great military SciFi, with excellent battlescenes and great characters, not to mention a dose of dry humor. Very highly recommended.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=145
The first seven novels are written by Drake and Stirling. The last one by Drake and Flint. David Drake writes very detailed outlines, while his collaborators write the actual text.
The first five novels are a set and deal with the conquest/unification of Bellevue. They are nowadays published in two volumes, known as Warlord and Conqueror:
* The Forge
* The Hammer
* The Anvil
* The Steel
* The Sword
After finishing the conquest of Bellevue, the personalities of Center and Raj are imbued in computers that are sent to other worlds with launched asteroids. Basically this scenario has infinite permutations as human worlds at various levels of development can be written about. The first of these follow-up novels is:
* The Chosen
It is a great singleton set on a world with early twentieth century technology. Finally there is the two volume story consisting of:
* The Reformer
* The Tyrant
Here, we take a serious step “back in time”, as the planet Hafardine is at about Roman Empire level in it’s technology. The Tyrant is rather different in style from the others due to being penned by Flint. However, his trademark dry humor meshes well with the overall thrust of the series.
This is great military SciFi, with excellent battlescenes and great characters, not to mention a dose of dry humor. Very highly recommended.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=145
October 12, 2016
This is one of my favourite books.
To explain why, is difficult. First thing, I read it at least once a year, just because I enjoy it, and because it is a banquet for a hobby military historian.
Theoretically a part of David Drakes "General" series, but written by S.M. Stirling, it seems to belong to that series, but in reality it is nothing less but a Par Force Ride through military history from 1880 to 1936. Each section of the book is loosely based on factual happenings in the timespan I described above.
It starts with the technology of the late 19th century, then describes a mixture of the 1898 / 1905 wars (US/Spain, Japan/Russia) takes huge parts of the spanish civil war, then goes WWI and ends in the 30ies. You will find lots of tongue in cheek episodes, from the "Guns of Navarone", over "For whom the bell tolls", "Richthofen", up to "Der Untergang"
The red threat running through the whole book is Stirlings Draka series, again the REALLY bad guys.
If you are interested in military history, this is your book, a tour de force through the technologies of the early 20th century, with a touch of Spain, France, Switzerland and of course sea monsters, how could I forget that part....
To explain why, is difficult. First thing, I read it at least once a year, just because I enjoy it, and because it is a banquet for a hobby military historian.
Theoretically a part of David Drakes "General" series, but written by S.M. Stirling, it seems to belong to that series, but in reality it is nothing less but a Par Force Ride through military history from 1880 to 1936. Each section of the book is loosely based on factual happenings in the timespan I described above.
It starts with the technology of the late 19th century, then describes a mixture of the 1898 / 1905 wars (US/Spain, Japan/Russia) takes huge parts of the spanish civil war, then goes WWI and ends in the 30ies. You will find lots of tongue in cheek episodes, from the "Guns of Navarone", over "For whom the bell tolls", "Richthofen", up to "Der Untergang"
The red threat running through the whole book is Stirlings Draka series, again the REALLY bad guys.
If you are interested in military history, this is your book, a tour de force through the technologies of the early 20th century, with a touch of Spain, France, Switzerland and of course sea monsters, how could I forget that part....
December 3, 2013
My issue with this book is that while the Bellevue part of the cycle pulled very little punches with Byzantine politicking and the hellishness of war, here we get WWII (with some WWI-like elements) all prettified, whitewashed and glorified.
One would think that fighting a regime that is much worse than Nazi Germany is enough of a moral high ground... But apparently not. Good guys need to be purity Sues with guns. So, most of the situations where the Allies weren't exactly knights in shining armour simply didn't happen in this dispensation, or were re-interpreted to be someone else's fault. Almost no one makes any difficult choices, and a few ones that are made are glossed over.
So, when the brothers finally win it just doesn't feel as significant as Raj's original "conquest of peace" by any means necessary. It's just "good guys won, bad guys lost, as usual."
One would think that fighting a regime that is much worse than Nazi Germany is enough of a moral high ground... But apparently not. Good guys need to be purity Sues with guns. So, most of the situations where the Allies weren't exactly knights in shining armour simply didn't happen in this dispensation, or were re-interpreted to be someone else's fault. Almost no one makes any difficult choices, and a few ones that are made are glossed over.
So, when the brothers finally win it just doesn't feel as significant as Raj's original "conquest of peace" by any means necessary. It's just "good guys won, bad guys lost, as usual."
February 19, 2011
In this book, action moves to a different world.
Raj is dead, yet an electronic copy of him and Center are helping other worlds join the new federation.
In this book, two step brothers become Center's agents on their world. The story covers 3 decades of their struggle to keep one of the planet's civilizationconqueringiing the world and beyond (so Center projects).
Reminded me very much of WWI & WWII like action and battles (startsdirigiblesgables and ends with aircraft carries for example)
Raj is dead, yet an electronic copy of him and Center are helping other worlds join the new federation.
In this book, two step brothers become Center's agents on their world. The story covers 3 decades of their struggle to keep one of the planet's civilizationconqueringiing the world and beyond (so Center projects).
Reminded me very much of WWI & WWII like action and battles (startsdirigiblesgables and ends with aircraft carries for example)
September 6, 2012
Not nearly as good as the first 5. The two protagonists are Mary Sues and indistinguishable from one another anyway (in fact almost all the good guys are perfect). Raj was a much deeper protagonist with at least a few flaws (honor before reason being paramount).
The what-they're-rewriting veil is a lot thinner, too. The Belisaurius references aren't so thick in the first five, but this one is so blatantly World War One (with some jumps ahead to two on naval technology) that it's kind of silly. Why does this planet have such exact Germany, France, Spain, Anglosphere expies?
The what-they're-rewriting veil is a lot thinner, too. The Belisaurius references aren't so thick in the first five, but this one is so blatantly World War One (with some jumps ahead to two on naval technology) that it's kind of silly. Why does this planet have such exact Germany, France, Spain, Anglosphere expies?
February 18, 2019
Full of stereotypes. People live several millennia in the future from now, yet you have perfect copies of what the average American thinks about various European cultures. All the Germans have first names that were last up to date in the 1950s, yet seem to have made a sudden comeback; they use incorrect German (so help me, if I have to read "behfel ist behfel" one more time), and what else... oh yes, they're basically Nazis, except with, hard at it is to believe, even more blatant genocide and less individual humanity than the original edition.
The French don't wash enough, Italians are unorganised and volatile, Spanish are just backwards... and all of these distinct nations exist millennia in the future, with homogeneous culturally "typical" names and looks that you won't find in any sample of their population even in this year 2015.
To see the absurdity of the future cultures, just take a look at the football ("soccer") national team of any of these countries. In the German one that won the World Cup, you have a man whose father came from Ghana and his mother from Germany, a man of half-Tunesian heritage, two players who Poles routinely claim should be Polish, a German whose family immigrated from Turkey some decades ago and another whose family came from Albania. Several of these people have rather un-Germanic last names, and not all of them are white.
A few generations from now, almost everyone in Germany will probably have some ancestors who recently immigrated. What on earth happened to all these people millennia in the future to make a whole people Germanic enough to bring tears of joy to a Nazi ideologist?
I am capable of some suspension of disbelief in science fiction or fantasy, but when I have to suspend it and then accept comically absurd stereoytpes, it's just too much.
The French don't wash enough, Italians are unorganised and volatile, Spanish are just backwards... and all of these distinct nations exist millennia in the future, with homogeneous culturally "typical" names and looks that you won't find in any sample of their population even in this year 2015.
To see the absurdity of the future cultures, just take a look at the football ("soccer") national team of any of these countries. In the German one that won the World Cup, you have a man whose father came from Ghana and his mother from Germany, a man of half-Tunesian heritage, two players who Poles routinely claim should be Polish, a German whose family immigrated from Turkey some decades ago and another whose family came from Albania. Several of these people have rather un-Germanic last names, and not all of them are white.
A few generations from now, almost everyone in Germany will probably have some ancestors who recently immigrated. What on earth happened to all these people millennia in the future to make a whole people Germanic enough to bring tears of joy to a Nazi ideologist?
I am capable of some suspension of disbelief in science fiction or fantasy, but when I have to suspend it and then accept comically absurd stereoytpes, it's just too much.
September 29, 2016
This is a fine installment in a very good series. Unlike the first 5 books, this one moves to a new world, and new cast of excellent characters. Just as with those books, it's a stretch to call it science fiction. Just a thin veneer, which ties things together. But it's very well written, and full of adventure and struggle. Well paced, and covers decades of war. Good guys and bad guys. It's a pleasure to read, and I'm sure the next installment will be as well.
May 1, 2018
A very enjoyable book - but I must caution that this is not purely on its own merits, but in the context of which I read it:
1) I read it as "book six" of the General Series, so seeing the ongoing dream of Bellevue's "Centre" coming to fruition on another planet was the kind of wish-fulfilment the end of book five promised.
2) I am a great fan of Stirling's dystopian 'Draka Domination' series, so to see a facsimile of the Draka - the Chosen of the title - being undone by the alleged planks of their own superiority was enjoyably cathartic! The snide joke by Stirling of having a vision of 'future Chosen' driving around in Hammer's Slammer's (David Drake) armoured vehicles made me imagine Drake and Stirling have a lot of friendly disagreements about the Draka.
It moves at the same brisk pace as the rest of the General Series, making it a very easy read, but nonetheless it managed to drop several very strong scenes which I am sure will stay with me.
1) I read it as "book six" of the General Series, so seeing the ongoing dream of Bellevue's "Centre" coming to fruition on another planet was the kind of wish-fulfilment the end of book five promised.
2) I am a great fan of Stirling's dystopian 'Draka Domination' series, so to see a facsimile of the Draka - the Chosen of the title - being undone by the alleged planks of their own superiority was enjoyably cathartic! The snide joke by Stirling of having a vision of 'future Chosen' driving around in Hammer's Slammer's (David Drake) armoured vehicles made me imagine Drake and Stirling have a lot of friendly disagreements about the Draka.
It moves at the same brisk pace as the rest of the General Series, making it a very easy read, but nonetheless it managed to drop several very strong scenes which I am sure will stay with me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 28, 2020
Interesting idea with a somewhat lacklustre execution.
April 16, 2023
Fun enough. WW2 version of The General.
December 16, 2025
One of my favourite series. Alternative history of conquest.
July 26, 2019
Read to this one now and really enjoying it. I love writing style and everything Describe in this book.
March 2, 2019
From my point of view this is the weakest in the series. An interesting plot device is used, different from the other (with two protagonists jointly operating whereas usually it's one in this series) makes for a bit if interest, but -- just wasn't my cuppa.
April 13, 2013
An interesting mix of Raj and Center (from the first five books in the series) with Draka-like villains and late 19th and early 20th century technologies among the combatants. Raj and Center are trying to unite the planet but are careful as to who they assist.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews