The unexpected visit by S. M. Stirling reminded me of the first time I noticed that I'd lost suspension of disbelief.
His Draka books.
The Domination books are kind of an oddity for me in that my objections aren't what other people are complaining about for the most part.
For me the alternate history and the geo-political situation were simply givens and I could accept them as such (even if I emphatically never wanted to find myself IN that world). Of course, I don't think you're supposed to WANT to live in a dystopia.
The part that jarred me was the unanswered tech the Domination had.
Military technology is a pendulum of measure, counter-measure. It swings fastest when the measure is very effective.
The Draka are shown with some proven weapon systems that are ahead of their time that would have been noticed as effective and changed their opponents thinking on their weapons development.
Semi-automatic detachable magazine guns are referred to as WW1 era guns, but the rest of the world didn't notice and still had bolt guns by WW2 (where the Draka have embraced the SCHV concept to the hilt).
Then there's that 1980's NATO spec main battle tank. What was that thing intended to fight and how did The Domination's procurement department justify spending the money on it instead of three lighter but still game stopping tanks? We skipped a bunch of steps in armor development here and I was left wanting an explanation. Especially since Zee Germans still had their real-world historical armor.
The rest of the world surely would have noticed the weapons and tactics being developed and responded. And that knocked the wheels off my suspension of disbelief.
Fortunately, not hard enough to keep me from finishing the story. I like dystopic science fiction and alternate histories.
PS: There might BE an explanation for the unanswered tech, I just didn't see it in the text if it was there.
PPS: Yes, I know I was supposed to equate the content of the alternate history with the author's burning desire to be a Draka or something while complaining about something in this series... But creating a world for the setting, even loving your creation, does not correlate with a burning desire to become what you've created. Something I think that Mr Stirling has pointed out.
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What I had a very hard time belieivng was all the conquering the Draka had done without anybody from the outside apparently caring enough to try to stop them, even if only for their own gain. Hogging all of Africa, I could see...maybe, particularly if they had better weapons than in OTL and had licked the problem of African diseases. Taking that much of Asia, not so much...the Russians and the British would start feeling very threatened. And when they started conquering European Christians (the Bulgarians were under the Yoke at the beginning of Marching Through Georgia, if memory serves me) the rest of the Powers would have said "Okay, fun's fun, but enough's enough!" and ganged up on the Draka.
ReplyDeleteI have not read any of the Dies The Fire books. (And this despite finding the Nantucket trilogy perfectly good rollicking fun.) The reason I can't is that I just can't swallow a premise so obviously contrived to allow a sort of Rapture Of The Nerds, but for SCAdians. ;)
ReplyDeleteGiant Space Bats can mess with geography and fling islands back in time all they want, but I will not stand for them tampering with basic chemistry and the flow of electrons. :p
You have a point there about the firearms. It should have been semi-auto for everyone else by the 1940's, even if the Domination was first with assault rifles.
ReplyDeleteMy bad.
Don't let me get you too down. Most of it didn't register until years later when I started researching the reasons the Tiger I and Panther had been developed.
DeleteAnd I can accept them as givens for the world even if no explanation is given. I figure I've accepted stranger things gaming in worlds with magic.