Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Four to Dorsai! by Gordon R. Dickson Gordon R. Dickson Books In Order. Gordon R. Dickson was a Canadian author who was as influential to the science fiction genre as the likes of Heinlein. In fact, it is difficult to say which of these two authors influenced the other. But no one can deny the fact that, by the time he died in 2001, Dickson had created an immovable literary legacy. Gordon R. Dickson is a child of Alberta. That is where he was born in the early 1920s. The family eventually moved to America, the result of Dickson’s father passing on. That was in the mid-1930s. Like most young men, Gordon couldn’t avoid being pulled into World War II. Though, he did not serve in the military for long. And when he finally returned to civilian life, the first thing the author did was to get himself a degree in Creative Writing. Those years were of great benefit to Dickson who got to meet and study with people like Poul Anderson and Sinclair Lewis. In fact, it could be argued that Anderson helped give Dickson’s career a boost. The pair wrote a story together that was published in ‘Fantastic Story Quarterly’ in 1950. Dickson’s fans would have to wait another six years before ‘Alien from Arcturus’, his first novel, was published. The novel set the tone for the author’s future works which were all relatively serious and often featured warm and kind aliens with sage-like personalities. Dickson and Anderson proceeded to collaborate on numerous occasions. And fans of both authors will tell you that their styles tend to mirror one another in some places, especially when it comes to their choice of characters and locations. They also enjoy exploring the nature of humanity, this along with attempting to predict the trajectory the human race will follow as they eventually take to the stars and explore space. Even with his penchant for dissecting the nature of man, though, Gordon R. Dickson’s science fiction was far more commercial and straightforward than the works of his peers in the genre. As such, the author did not have to work quite as hard to elicit popularity. The most expansive of the author’s works is the Childe Cycle which Dickson himself called his life’s work. The series, which blends mysticism with science fiction, follows the exploits of a series of latent supermen who realize that they have the power to direct the course of history. It earned the author as many fans as it did critics. When Dickson wasn’t writing, he was out making a name for himself in the science fiction community via the many appearances he made at conventions. Dickson wasn’t just popular among science fiction readers. The SF Social circles also loved him because he was always an entertaining speaker who did not require much coercing to pull his guitar out and play onlookers an exciting tune. During his healthier years, Gordon R. Dickson could be found all over the place in North America so long as there was a science fiction convention of significance going on. The author wasn’t always fortunate in the health department. Even as a child, Dickson suffered from asthma. And when he died in 2001, the cause was reported to be severe asthma. In life, the illness couldn’t keep Dickson down. The author has such an extensive bibliography because he made an effort to produce at least one book a year. And even during the final years of his life when he was too ill to leave his house, the author never stopped churning out books. For his literary efforts, Dickson was awarded with numerous prizes including a Hugo and a Nebula accolade. In 1976, Gordon R. Dickson wrote a series of lighthearted fantasy novels the first book of which was loosely adapted into ‘The Flight of Dragons’, a 1982 animated movie. A Seattle film director (Jesse Stipek) acquired the rights to make a live-action adaptation of the animated movie in 2013. Donal Graeme is Dorsai and that makes him far greater than the average man, as all Dorsai are. There is no race among the 14 worlds of humanity that is quite as feared and respected as the Dorsai, beings with incredible strength that desire independence above all else. But even among the Dorsai, Donal Graeme is something special. And with his talents, once he takes his first steps into the stars, everything will change. Dorsai is the first book in the Childe Cycle series. The book takes place in a universe where different worlds are designed to produce people who are equipped for one particular job or role. As a result, civilization survives through these various planets working together and battering to ensure that each World receives the skilled manpower it requires to achieve its goals. The hero, Donal Graeme, hails from a planet whose people live to fight. Donal has a great future and this book explores his rise through the ranks to become a powerful military leader. Dorsai is often described as less of a novel and more of a collection of episodes designed to show just how great a commander Donal can be. Not all those episodes connect seamlessly. Jim Eckert wasn’t a dragon, and he did not plan to become one. But that is exactly what happened. It all began when Eckert set out on a quest to rescue his betrothed. The journey took him through an astral projection machine into a world where a person could become a dragon. Though, it isn’t really accurate to say that Eckert is a dragon. He is merely locked in the body of one, a talking dragon called Gorbash. And, unfortunately, Angie, his betrothed is still very much human, or rather a George, as the dragons call the humans in this world. When an evil dragon takes Angie captive, Eckert must come to terms with his new body and go after her. This is the first novel in the Dragon Knight series. The book tells the story of a young and bright university graduate whose experiments with astral projection end in chaos. His girlfriend is cast off into a different dimension. That drives Eckert to repeat the experiment so that he can follow her. But the rescue attempt ends with Eckert waking up in the body of a talking dragon. Now Eckert must acclimate to his new situation. Life as a dragon is unlike anything he has ever known, mostly because of the many powers Eckert now has. He begins to explore his new world. He also makes a few new friends who come in handy when his girlfriend is kidnapped and he must lead the charge to rescue her. “Dorsai!” by Gordon R. Dickson. It’s interesting that I’d book end the reading list for my SciFi and Fantasy book discussion group with two novels, published in the same year, both up for the Hugo that year and credited with the rise of military sci-fi. The two novels are Gordon R. Dickson’s “Dorsai!” and Robert A. Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers.” Both are heralded as influential and classics of their particular little cul-de-sac of science-fiction literature. But go into any bookstore today and you’d easily find multiple copies of “Starship Troopers” on the shelf. I’d dare say it’d be a bit more difficult to find a copy of “Dorsai.” I’m not saying you wouldn’t but it seems that “Troopers” has withstood the test of time while “Dorsai!” has become something of an afterthought. And reading “Dorsai!,” I can see why Heinlein’s military science-fiction novel has withstood the test of time better than this one has. It’s not that “Dorsai!” is necessarily a terrible novel. I think the problem I had with it is, I don’t necessarily think it’s a novel. It’s a lot of snippets and (at first) unconnected dots about a great military commander and his rise through the ranks. But early on, you’d be hard pressed to say exactly what the driving narrative of the novel is. At times, “Dorsai!” is terribly episodic in nature, with a few characters coming in and out at various points to connect things, but frustratingly not adding up to a complete narrative. The story does start to come together in the last third of the novel, but by then I was so frustrated with the book and the episodic nature that the best narrative tie-up in the world wasn’t going to help things. A lot of it stems from the fact that the main character, Donal Graeme, isn’t all that terribly likeable. In the future as created by Dickson, various planets produced people who are more equipped for one particular job or role than another. This leads to a system of barter in the universe with the specialized planets working together out of necessity since while one group is great at one thing, they are terribly weak in another. In many ways, the societies are so limited and defined by one particular characteristic that it becomes a bit off-putting at times. Sort of the same issue you can have with classic “Star Trek” or “Doctor Who” stories–it’s hard to believe the entire planet is reflected by one group of people that the heroes just happen to run across. (For example, why does the whole planet subscribe to the “let’s all be gangsters” theory in the classic “Trek” episode). Enter Donal Graeme, who is from the military caste and apparently has some great future. The novel gives us glimpses of his rise and how he’s this great military leader. Hints come along that he may be more than he seems and there are moments when you can see the influence “Dorsai!” might have had on Frank Herbert in writing the Dune saga. Donal is clearly meant as some kind of messiah. And that may be where “Dorsai”! goes so wrong for me. It’s hard to believe that other military commanders hadn’t or couldn’t come up with some of the “revoluationary” strategies Donal uses. For example, at one point he attacks a group earlier than expected. Seems to me the element of surprise might be one that military commanders had thought of before now. But the entire novel acts as if this is the greatest military strategy since slice bread. “Dorsai!” does have a lot of other issues. For one thing, the characters are extremely wooden and the dialogue a bit stilted. A lot of this I chalk up to the era “Dorsai!” was written. The writers then may have had a lot of brilliant ideas, but sometimes writing a realistic conversation was a bit of stretch. But at least with Asimov and Heinlein, you had some characters that actually felt better realized than what we get here. And if you’re looking for some strong female characters, this is not the book for you. The universe here is extremely misogynistic. And there are some odd overtones, especially when woman after woman throws herself at Donal, only for himself to truly be his best around the men, esp. his servant, Lee. It could just be the mind-set of today talking but intended or not, it’s still there. I wonder how readers in the 1960’s might have reacted. All of that said, I still don’t think this is the worst novel I’ve read. Certainly there is Heinlein with stronger misogynistic slants and it’s not like Asimov was always strong on the character or creating fully realized worlds. (While I love Foundation, the worlds there are, at times, extremely one-dimensional as well). But it’s interesting to read a novel that clearly influenced a lot of other writers (the novel could even been seen as a bit of a pre-cursor to Stephen King’s Dark Tower series), but yet isn’t exactly still as well respected or remembered today. I kept having to remind myself this was once up for a Hugo. But having a Hugo nominee not live up to the test of time isn’t anything new. Looking back on recent Hugo nominees, it’s puzzling sometimes at what does make the short list. I wonder how many of those will be like “Dorsai!” in a few years–seen in the shadow of the eventual winner. Dorsai! (1976) Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. In my quest to review SF books from the Classic Era (1950s-60s) I am sampling authors I missed when I was reading SF as a teen. Dickson was one of them. I'm a little amazed at how much he wrote and how many awards for which he was nominated. He was born in the 1920s which made him a contemporary of most of the great Classic SF writers. He had short stories in over 20 different SF pulp publications and at least 40 novels. I have been putting off reading this book. It just didn't interest me. Part of this is the senselessness of being a professional soldier just to be hired and die for any "dirt ball" tyrant that happens to be in power. In spite of this I found myself liking our hero as the story followed the progression of his career and life. Better then I expected but I will not be reading the rest of the series. ( ) “Dorsai!” by Gordon R Dickson: thirty five years ago I loved this. Now it seems very thin. In 1957, two years before the first version of “Dorsai!” was serialized in in “Astounding Science Fiction”, Peter Graham coined the phrase: “The Golden Age of Science Fiction is twelve.” I started reading science fiction in the sixties when I was ten but I didn’t get to “Dorsai!” until my early twenties. I was still a twelve-year-old at heart and most science fiction excited me. I loved the puzzle-solving, the removal of constraints, the triumph of optimism. I was already being lured towards a different, more socially-based sensibility by writers like Ursula K Le Guin and her “Left Hand of Darkness” but I was still up for hard- core space opera when I read “Dorsai!” At the time, I found it literally astonishing: the idea of a military race, bred to fight and lead and win, producing a genius who would shape the fate of many world’s by fighting as little as possible was new and fresh. The pace was brisk, The plot turned on its heals at lightning speed and the ending caught me completely by surprise. It was a celebration of what I was looking for in Science Fiction at the time. So, when I saw the audio version on audible.com, I thought it would be fun to relive all of that. It turns out, I’m not twelve any more. I was not thrilled. The plot is still clever and the pace is still brisk but how had I not seen how shallow the characters were, how ridiculously male-dominated the book was, how morally bankrupt the politics was and how dishonestly bloodless the fighting was? “Dorsai!” is well read by Stefan Rudnicki and offers a pleasant way to while away the hours. It is a book of its time but that time is no longer mine. ( ) This book caught my interest because it was said that it, together with Starship Troopers, is considered as a classic that are responsible for the rise of military science fiction. Well, for Starship Troopers I can perhaps understand such a statement. For this one, not so much. Actually, to me, this was a rather mediocre book. The book tells the story of Donald Graeme as he becomes a rising star as a military expert (genius) and mercenary from the planet Dorsai, renowned for “breeding” the best military personnel in the galaxy. Sounded pretty okay to me. Unfortunately the book does not exactly impress me. First of all it does not really feel like a book with a single coherent story from start to finish but rather as a sequence of loosely connected episodes. For most of the book there was really not any real development of neither story nor character, it just went from one assignment to another which, of course, Donal managed with apparent ease. Second, for being considered as being cause of the rise of military science fiction there was not really that much hard code military material and a lot of it was naïve and nonsensical. It was rather apparent that the author hade little to zero military knowledge. When not solving his “military” assignments with one hand behind his back Donal mostly engaged in various political and philosophical discussions. I cannot say that much of it felt very engaging. As I wrote before, the whole the book mostly felt like a string of rather superficial short stories. This is not a series that I will continue reading. ( ) (Original Review, 1980-08-24) On the question of Dickson's Dorsai or Childe cycle: I understand that originally there were to be 9 books. 3 historical fiction, 3 present day fiction, and 3 SF. I also read that publishers were unwilling to put out SF books of the size of the 3 proposed so they were each split in half. So far only 4 books have been published (or so I believe, correct me if I am wrong). These are "Necromancer", "Tactics of Mistake", "Dorsai!", and "Soldier Ask Not". That is the order of their internal chronology (i.e., read them in that order), not the order of their publication. Dickson is said to be working on at least two more books in the cycle at this time. I don't know about anyone else but I EAGERLY await these two books. In addition to the books there are several short stories associated with the cycle. Three of these are gathered together with a thin connecting tissue in "Spirit of Dorsai" (I'm not positive of the title, it should be in books in print though), one of these is the very strong story "Brothers" from the collection "Astounding" published in memory of John Campbell. The related stories also include "Lulungomeena", "The Lost Dorsai" (published recently in Destinies), and "Man of War" (as usual I'm not sure of the title, this is an older story and I'm not sure where to find it). Two other Dickson books, "Home From the Shore" and "The Space Swimmers", deal with a theme/subject (I don't know which word to use) similar to that of the Childe cycle. Listing the future segment of the Childe Cycle is a confusing task. Over the years that Dickson has been writing it, he has published material from the cycle in a variety of forms, from short story to novel, and under several names. Now as the future portion of the cycle nears completion the various pieces are being brought together with the appropriate framing material. The confusion comes in determining out how older work has been rearranged, expanded, and retitled. According to an Ace advertisement, they will bring out the 5 books of the future segment of the Childe cycle in trade paperback form. Currently, 4 of the 5 books are available. They are DORSAI!; SOLDIER, ASK NOT; THE SPIRIT OF THE DORSAI; and LOST DORSAI. LOST DORSAI includes excerpts from the fifth book to be entitled THE FINAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. Steve has explained THE SPIRIT OF DORSAI. A cursory bookstore examination of LOST DORSAI indicates that it is a minor reworking of the Destinies novella. The excerpt and illustrations fill it out to full size. I am not sure how all of the earlier titles which Steve lists will map into the 5 Ace books, if indeed all of them will. However, I have one speculation to offer on the basis of the framing material in the SF Book Club's THREE TO DORSAI, a single volume collection of "Necromancer", "Tactics of Mistake", and "Dorsai!" I suspect that THE FINAL ENCYCLOPEDIA will include the material in "Necromancer" and turn the future segment of the Childe Cycle into a non-recursive time loop. The Dorsai books don't glorify war so much as humanity. Dickson claims to be describing the growth of a social consciousness. One of the major hallmarks of the Dorsai soldiers is that they win wars with the minimum of bloodshed. And that they honor their contracts, debts, and obligations. This extends to all phases of their lives. They also don't seem to hassle you for being whatever you are, unless you hassle them. Read the story "The Lost Dorsai" to see what I mean. [2018 EDIT: I read the Dorsai cycle in its entirety back in the day several times over.] [2018 EDIT: This review was written at the time as I was running my own personal BBS server. Much of the language of this and other reviews written in 1980 reflect a very particular kind of language: what I call now in retrospect a “BBS language”.] ( ) Dorsai! Her life was to be rich and rewarding . . . resplendent with daring adventures and endless excitement, beyond the wildest dreams of mere mortals. Gifted with the voice of an angel and being virtually indestructable, Helva XH-834 antipitated a sublime immortality. Enoch Wallace is not like other humans. Living a secluded life in the backwoods of Wisconsin, he carries a nineteenth-century rifle and never seems to age—a fact that has recently caught the attention of prying government eyes. The truth is, Enoch is the last surviving veteran of the American Civil War and, for close to a century, he has operated a secret way station for aliens passing through on journeys to other stars. But the gifts of knowledge and immortality that his intergalactic guests have bestowed upon him are proving to be a nightmarish burden, for they have opened Enoch’s eyes to humanity’s impending destruction. Still, one final hope remains for the human race . . . though the cure could ultimately prove more terrible than the disease. Spirit of Dorsai. The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.