Hammer's Slammers

[Matti]

I got read last of that book earlier this week, and it was ride boys! This halfthousand page thick collection includes 15 short stories that detail futuristic mercenary armored regiment, Hammer's Slammers. Author, David Drake, is veteran of Vietnam war and Hammer's Slammers is based on his own personal experiences of war.

Possible weakness could be abundance of military terminology which can be difficult for civilians to understand. Becouse of this and detailed violence publishers did not at first accept stories to their publications. But then Galaxy magazine took and released couple stories and those got feedback from veterans: "I was there. I did that." From there on started rolling more short stories and novels with strength of 170 ton supertank.

Most of the stories are from viewpoint of ordinary soldiers and low ranked officers. Most of them don't even care why they are fighting. Founder and commander of the regiment, colonel Alois Hammer, and his closest officers are often no more than sidecharacters. Characters are not noble world saving heroes, but mercenaries who do what they are paid for. In between of the stories are details of the universe (Hammerverse), technology and images of the regiment's equipment.

Books of Hammer's Slammers are realistic hard scifi. Cutting them requires diamond drill.

The drive fans of other tanks were already roaring when ours began to whine up to speed. The great vehicle shifted greasily around me, then began to turn slowly on its axis. Fourth in line, we maneuvered through the courtyard gate while the draft from our fans lifted flames out of the palace windows. We are the tank lords.

[Matti]

Has anyone else here bought this yet? What is your opinion of it?

[Matti]

I have good news for those who want to learn more about Hammer's Slammers: three of the books are FREE!
The Tank Lords
Paying the Piper
Cross the Stars

[DaddyHoggy]

Nice find Matti, thank-you!

Although, I do love a book that has both the words "Complete" and "Volume 1" on the cover...

In the case of phrase 2 your honour, may I refer you to phrase 1...

[drew]

Could be worse, could be another one of those trilogies in four parts...

Cheers,

Drew.

[maaarcooose]

Could be worse, could be another one of those trilogies in four parts...

Cheers,

Drew.

That usually grows into five after some time off to work on other projects.

!m!

[DaddyHoggy]

Well HHGTTG is up to part six...

[Matti]

Nice find Matti, thank-you!

Although, I do love a book that has both the words "Complete" and "Volume 1" on the cover...

The Complete Hammer's Slammers is what you could expect: every story of the Hammer's Slammers in very thick books. The Complete serie consist of three volumes. First volume includes short stories from Hammer's Slammers and The Tank Lords + A death in peace time, which is new story. Other two volumes consist of larger stories that were thick enough for their own (thin) books of 100+ pages each, like Paying the Piper and Cross the Stars. Right now I'm on page 491 of The Complete Volume 2, story Rolling Hot. If there were Slammers story worth of full length movie, this is very good candidate.

Weapons of Hammer's Slammers are greatly more powerful than weapons of today, but their use isn't much different. Most common weapon for Slammers and many other high profile mercenary forces are powerguns that range from 1 cm pistol to 20 cm tank cannon. Barrels are forged from iridium in precision of atomic level. They fire copper rounds at near speed of light and so hot that airborne round is practically plasma. 2 cm three-barrel powerguns, called tribarrel, use liquid nitrogen to cool rotating barrels between shots. Such is power of 2 cm weapons, tribarrels and lighter infantry rifles alike, that one round is enough to vaporize much of the unprotected man's torso. When hundred Slammers troops and two AA cannons (3 cm, 8 fixed barrels) attacked rebels, who were packed together on large plaza, bodycount of bloody rebels is about 30 thousand. "No job too dirty..."

20 cm powerguns of the 170 ton tanks have range up to low orbit and pack enough megajoules to blast several meters of rock (20 m if I recall correctly). Vehicle mounted tribarrels can blast incoming artillery rounds out of the sky. Only the heaviest tanks have enough sensors and tech for that, but those can form network with other vehicles for targeting data. Other Slammers' weapons are submachine guns (I don't recall seeing caliber mentioned, but I guess it's 1 cm of pistols), grenade launcher (not so different from what are in the world right now), hand grenades, and rocket howitzer artillery (hog) that can land shell on bunker 1000 km away.

All Slammers' vehicles are air cushion comparable to hovercrafts. Many light vehicles can move on top of water, but 170 ton supertanks don't. So they work like this: on top of vehicle are turbines that draw air and at the bottom are rotating blades that provide lift inside plenum chamber. Light vehicles, like jeeps and infantry skimmers, are fueled from batteries. 30 ton combat cars are open topped and armed with 3-4 tribarrels. Those are equivalent of M113 ACAV variants, and are powered by nuclear fusion. Smaller vehicles can recharge from fusion power of combat cars and other heavy vehicles on the move. King of the battlefield is 170 ton M2A4 tank armed with tribarrel and 20 cm powergun. Rocket howitzers are also mobile. Trucks and other vehicles aren't well detailed, but Slammers makes use of them.

In cover page (see first post) 170 ton tank fires all its weapons: 20 cm powergun should be obvious, tribarrel on top, and directional mines across the lower part of the hull intended as close-in defense against infantry and incoming missiles.