The Heretic

David Drake’s legendary Raj Whitehall/The General series, stunningly reborn! In a world of muskets, bows and arrows, and reptile riding nomads, a young warrior fights against a totalitarian computer devoted to stasis.

ABEL DASHIAN'S WORLD DOESN'T NEED A HERO

Duisberg is one of thousands of planets plunged into darkness and chaos by the collapse of the galactic republic, but where other worlds have begun to rebuild a star-travelling culture, Duisberg remains in an uneasy balance between mud-brick civilization and bloodthirsty barbarism.

The people of Duisberg have a god: Zentrum, a supercomputer from the ancient past. Zentrum has decided avoid another collapse by preventing civilization from rising from where it is. And because even a supercomputer and the powerful religion which it founded cannot block all progress, Zentrum has another tool: every few centuries the barbarians sweep in from the desert, slaughtering the educated classes and cowing the peasants back into submission. These are the Blood Winds, and the Blood Winds are about to blow again.

This time, however, there's a difference: Abel Dashian, son of a military officer, has received into his mind the spirit of Raj Whitehall, the most successful general in the history of the planet Bellevue--and of Center, the supercomputer which enabled Raj to shatter his planet's barbarians and permit the return of civilization.

One hero can't stop the tide of barbarians unless he has his own culture supporting him. To save Duisberg, Abel must break the power of Zentrum.

With the help of Raj and Center, Abel Dashian must become . . . THE HERETIC!

About the Raj Whitehall series:

“[T]old with knowledge of military tactics and hardware, and vividly described action. . .devotees of military SF should enjoy themselves.”—Publishers Weekly

“[A] thoroughly engrossing military sf series . . . superb battle scenes, ingenious weaponry and tactics, homages to Kipling, and many other goodies. High fun.”—Booklist

About David Drake:

“[P]rose as cold and hard s the metal alloy of a tank … rivals Crane and Remarque …” –Chicago Sun-Times

“Drake couldn’t write a bad action scene at gunpoint.” –Booklist

About Tony Daniel:

“[D]azzling stuff.”–New York Times Book Review

“[His work] teems with vivid characters and surprising action.”–Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Daniel proves that the Golden Age of science fiction is right here and now.”–Greg Bear

“[A] large cast of utterly graspable humans, mostly military and political folks, of all ranks and capacities and temperments. Daniel has a keen eye for the kinds of in extremis thinking and behavior that such a wartime situation would engender. . . .Following in the footsteps of Poul Anderson and Greg Bear. . .”—Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine on Daniel's Guardian of Night

The Army took DavidDrake from Duke Law School and sent him on a motorized tour of Viet Nam andCambodia with the 11th Cav, the Blackhorse. He learned new skills, sawinteresting sights, and met exotic people who hadn't run fast enough to getaway. Dave returned to become ChapelHill's Assistant Town Attorney and to try to put his life back together throughfiction making sense of his Army experiences. Dave describes war from where he saw it: the loader's hatch of a tank inCambodia. His military experience, combined with his formal education inhistory and Latin, has made him one of the foremost writers of realistic actionSF and fantasy. His books include the genre-defining and bestsellingHammer’s Slammers series, the RCN series including What Distant Deeps, Inthe Stormy Red Sky, The Way to Glory, and many more. His bestselling Hammer's Slammers series is credited withcreating the genre of modern Military SF. He often wishes he had a lessinteresting background. Dave lives withhis family in rural North Carolina.

Tony Daniel isthe author of five science fiction books, the latest of which is Guardian ofNight, as well as an award-winning short story collection, The Robot’s TwilightCompanion. He is Hugo finalist forhis story “Life on the Moon,” which also won the Asimov’s Reader’s ChoiceAward. Daniel’s short fiction has been much anthologized and has beencollected in multiple year’s best compilations. Daniel has also cowritten screenplays for SyFy Channel horror movies,and during the early 2000s was the writer and director of numerous audio dramasfor critically-acclaimed SCIFI.COM’s Seeing Ear Theatre. Born in Alabama,Daniel has lived in St. Louis, Los Angeles, Seattle, Prague, and New YorkCity. He now lives in Wake Forest, NorthCarolina with his wife and two children.