The Sword

The General #5

by S.M. Stirling, David Drake

For five years Raj Whitehall has led his men across the face of the planet Bellevue. With saber and bayonet he has conquered one barbarian nation after another. Now his greatest enemy is his own overlord, Barholm Clerett, who's so paranoid of Raj's victories that he is reduced to only one thought: Raj Whitehall must die.

Genres: Science Fiction, Military Science Fiction, Fiction, Military Fiction, War, Fantasy, Adventure

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1995

About the author

Stephen 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.

Reviews

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4/5 Stars

The Colony Showdown

We had a taste of the eventual showdown we get in this book in the first book of the series. Young, newly exposed to the insight of Center Raj suffered his first defeat and barely made it home with the remnants of his force. Now five years have passed, Raj is a seasoned general equipped with a solid core of companions and a suddenly faithful wife. (Or not?) against a comparably equipped army and more numerous foe. The details of the battle were nicely detailed and I was able to follow the conflict and it was not until the end that I realized the coup de grace of the Sword of the Stars.
Favorite Line: N/A

The Cover: 3/5 Stars (Audible)

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oldy but goody. I am re-reading this series from the 1990's and, while dated, the battle action is good, while the characters are bit too 19th century now. This series is not for everyone, but if you like military SF, it fills the bill. Dogs instead of horses, lots of Earth-like tensions. The Moslems are the villains so you know there is no PC content.

Don't be fooled by the cover art, there is nothing from any cover that makes it way into the books. This is all 19th century warfare in the far future.

[Rob Markley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great and fun scifi - by now I felt the ideas were starting to get thin ... just how many different military tactics could he play out and did it all make sense... but it does in this volume. As far as I knew - and perhaps then it was so - this is where it all finished up

[Marianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

"I know you defeated all our bad guys, but now we don't like you."
"Oh, we need you to defeat more bad guys. Kthxbai."

I only had books 2 and 5. These read kind of okay by themselves, but maybe would benefit from context?

[Matthew Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic end to the series - can see why people were left clamouring for more.

[JMA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good closure.

[John Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite series. Alternative history of conquest.

[Andreas · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking for something uncomplicated and this definitely was. Unfortunately it went beyond uncomplicated and entered into boring. Several hundred years after the fall of the Galactic Federation, the planet Bellvue has descended to a 17th-18th Century technology level and is divided by warring tribes. Unknown to everyone, a battle computer is still running underground waiting for someone that can unite the battle and begin rebuilding the Federation. Of course that someone appears and Raj Whitehall begins uniting the planet. The previous books were better then this one which was nothing more then the army of civilization easily defeating the army of barbarians solely due to the fact that they were civilized while the enemy were barbarians. I’ll read the next book, which was the last in the series, although two more books were tacked on later. I’m not sure about those yet.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I really enjoy this series, and this author. Solid characters, decent villains, plenty of action, exciting story. I don't read much "war/battle" fiction, but this is just very good stuff. The only series that might be better is The Lost Regiment series by Forstchen. But this is a wonderful set.

[Cris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A satisfying end to the series. I think Stirling's choice for the last scene was in many ways a very good choice. But I admit to wanting just a little bit more. I would really liked to have seen Raj and his Companions deChair Barholm.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read - well thought out action sequences and battles

[Hrairoorah · Rating 2 out of 5]

The series is beginning to become tiresome to me. It's the same thing over and over and I am losing interest in the characters.

[Laurie D'ghent · Rating 1 out of 5]

Made it two pages and the graphic violence made me laugh too much to continue