David Drake is a Vietnam war veteran who used his military experience to create an extremely successful series of military science fiction series called the Hammer’s Slammer stores. The setting is called the Slammers universe or the Hammerverse. The series (and the universe) is named after the first book in the series, a collection of short stories titled Hammer’s Slammers (with the pivotal character of Colonel Alois Hammer).

David utilizes both is own military experience as well as inspirations drawn from historical or mythological stories to create his stories.

Being one of the first to write a popular military science fiction series, David Drake is now considered a major figure in the genre and helped establish many of the norms future writers have followed.

David was born in Dubuque, Iowa in 1945.