S.M. Stirling - The Domination of Draka

I enjoyed this series, probably because the Draka are sooo bad that they become fascinating and bloody scary.

The Draka begin their history as the Cape Colony is lost by the Netherlands to the British. After the American War of Independence British Loyalists (along with their slaves) are resettled in the Cape joined by Hessian mercenaries who fought on the Loyalist side. The Cape Colony becomes the Crown Colony of Drakia after Francis Drake and later becomes the Dominion of Draka. From Wikipedia "The Crown Colony of Drakia (later, the Dominion of Draka) is an aggressive militaristic slave-owning society reinforced over the course of the 19th century by Icelanders fleeing their island after 1783-84 Volcanic devastation. 25,000 Icelanders offered asylum in Drakia, arriving 1783-86. French royalists, 150,000 defeated American Confederates and other reactionary refugees. The much earlier Dutch Boer settlers are completely assimilated by these subsequent immigrants. The genealogical lineage of both the original Boer and Southern Loyalist settlers is almost overwhelmingly Anglo-Saxon, Nordic, Germanic and Celtic although later immigrants are French Protestant Huguenots fleeing persecution from Roman Catholics, and then the aforementioned French aristocrats seeking sanctuary from the French Revolution."

The Draka have slaves known as serfs who they keep dominated on large farm or factory estates. The Draka themselves pride themselves on physical fitness and their citizen troops are in superb condition aided by their Janissary troops. The Draka citizens comprise only 10% of the population, the other 90% being serfs who are brutally repressed if they try to rebel. A favoured punishment is impalement, causing a slow and painful death. Taken from Marching Through Georgia "It was amazing, Trooper Patton thought. The German impaled on the stake still had the strength to moan. Even to scream, occasionally, and to speak, now and then. Muzzle flashes had let her see him, straddling as if the pointed wood his own weight had punched into his crotch was a third leg. Every now and then he tried to move; it was usually then that he screamed." Copyright S.M. Stirling 1988

What Stirling does well is make the Draka understandable. Most Draka believe that they are doing the right thing by their society's standards. Most Draka also believe that unnecessary cruelty to a serf is wrong, but I do remember being horrified by one passage where farmers were made to drive  tractors into minefields under the threat and torture of their families. Stirling suffered some criticism from readers who believed that the morals of the Draka were shared by himself. Those people are idiots, the Draka and the world that Stirling has created is a facinating, repulsive and compelling dystopia, but it is fiction boys and girls.

I found the first book (Marching Through Georgia) a bit of a plod as Stirling does go into great detail about military technology and technique, but it was worthwhile in the end. I enjoyed the second and third books (Under the Yoke & The Stone Dogs) much more. The fourth book (Drakon) was very good but I felt slightly unfulfilled at the end.

If you like science fiction and alternative history you will love the Draka series. But be warned - you will need a strong stomach as well.

Oh, and by the way, just because I enjoyed the Draka books, that doesn't mean that I approve of the Draka...