The Forge

On a planet that was once part of a vast interstellar civilization, humans survive on the edge of barbarism amid the ruins of the once-great empire.

©1991 S.M. Stirling & David Drake (P)2019 Recorded Books

Top rated

S.M. Stirling & David Drake makes a great team, I have never been disappointed with their work.

Hope they release the rest of the series soon!

I read this when it first came out in paperback. It's an excellent story and a well crafted series.

if you liked the Belisarius series....

if you were really sad when the belisarius series ended this is for you!
same basic premise different world.

A Series To Listen too

Adventurous and Exciting and Well Thought out and well carried out. Love every minute listening to the series.

Well done performance of an old favorite

The General series hold a particular place in my heart as they are the books that turned me on to both David Drake's and SM Stirling's other works. I've long enjoyed the series and was quite pleased to learn they were bring made into audio books. The plot is an interesting one that revolves around an ancient supercomputer, Center, surviving from before the collapse and civil war in a then-long dead Federation that lead to technical and civil regress across explored space. Center recruits Raj Whitehall to first halt and then reverse humanity's regression and the series follows their efforts. The setting itself is interesting to me with a state sponsored religion based on the worship of a Spirit of Man and old technological objects featured as relics. Those who have even a passing familiarity with IT will find some amusement here at some of the terms used and the ranks of the church, yet it is presented in a way that comes across sufficiently to suspend disbelief and fits the plot of the story well. It very clearly draws inspiration from Byzantine Orthodox worship and Belisarius with a current tech base approximately equivalent to the 1870s. The world of this book is a brutal one, which anyone familiar with Byzantine history or the era of British Imperialism should be unsurprised by, the authors pull no punches in regard to the sorts of things that happen in war. That said, it is a well developed setting that is entertaining to read.

This is my first audiobook I've heard by Franklin Pierson and I am quite pleased with his narration. He manages to get a very appropriate tone for Center and for Raj both their internal dialogues and Raj's spoken words. He also manages to put a good twist on the accents noted in the book and does well with everything from high court language down to the barely intelligible speech of peasants and barbarians. I look forward to seeing the rest of the titles in this series available in audio format and do hope they retain Mr. Pierson as narrator for consistency's sake and the excellent work he did with The Forge.