Good surface warfare fiction currently free in Kindle Store

[poeticmotion]

Seas Of Venus is on Kindle Store for free right now, so those of you who like naval fiction should give it a try. It's a omnibus of two books, 'Surface Action' and 'The Jungle', both by David Drake. 

They are technically science fiction, but were both written as homages/sequels to a 1940's science fiction novel, so while the author knows there aren't actually oceans under the clouds of Venus, he wrote these as if there were,since in the 1940s we didn't know any better. They're about mercenary naval fleets and set centuries in the future after Earth died in an atomic war, leaving only the colonies established in islands and subsurface domes on the oceans of Venus. The science is no longer there, but the books have strong internal consistency and explain why aircraft carriers and the such are useless, which means that battles are fought between dreadnoughts and destroyers and cruisers; the technology is much like it might be today if we had never invented carriers and still fought battles with World War II-era tactics and ships taken to technologically advanced points of evolution, if that makes sense. There's some great scenes involving fleet actions between fleets of battleships with cruisers, DDs, subs, and torpedoboats all fighting in support. Plus just a really well-told story with great characters.

https://www.amazon.com/Seas-Venus-David-Drake-ebook/dp/B00AZ0LVSA

[dEsTurbed1]

thanks, got it for free...

[Khafni]

I'm a big fan of David Drake. My favorites are his Hammer's Spammers books. I'ma gonna go get 'em. Thanks for the head's up!

[RainbowFartingUnicorn]

I have owned two copies of these found by haunting used bookstores. I very much love David Drake's books.

[poeticmotion]

22 minutes ago, Khafni said:

I'm a big fan of David Drake. My favorites are his Hammer's Spammers books. I'ma gonna go get 'em. Thanks for the head's up!

Yeah, the Slammers books are awesome. o/

[alexf24]

Thanks. I have over 240 books in my Kindle, so what's a couple more? Got 'em! (never read Drake)

 

[Wolfswetpaws]

[poeticmotion]

9 hours ago, alexf24 said:

Thanks. I have over 240 books in my Kindle, so what's a couple more? Got 'em! (never read Drake)

 

He's one of the more intellectual and interesting military science fiction authors out there. He writes a lot of works reframing historical conflict or retelling classic lit (the iliad, the Odyssey, etc.) in science fiction settings. Very character-driven stuff and he does a lot of cool things with story structure, but still lots of action.