No, I'm not talking about the partner in Baker Botts who represented the Shrub during the Harken Energy debacle, I am talking about the Robert Jordan who is most famous for writing Conan stories and the Wheel of Time.
WI he and David Drake had died in the line of duty during their tours in the Vietnam War?
Obviously, this means no Hammer's Slammers, Lord of the Isles, or Wheel of Time, but what would have been the knock on effects?
Millitary SF did not begin with Drake. Before him we had Heinlein's Starship Troopers and H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen. But I highly suspect that things like Jerry Pournelle's CoDominion series, David Weber's Hornor Harrington, Empire of Man and Safehold, and stuff by Kieth Laumer and Harry Schmitz would have been changed into unrecognizability.
The High Fantasy Rennaisance had been underway for the better part of a decade and a half when Tor published Eye of the World in hardback in 1989, arguably having begun with the publications of The Sword of Shanara, Lord Foul's Bane, and the "Yellow Cover" editions of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels starting with The Heritage of Hastur and Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures. But not only did Eye of the World and its sequels quickly become a license to print money, they seemed to hearald a second wind that has arguably lasted today, inspiring the publication of such volumes as L.E. Modesitt's Magic of Recluse, Terry Goodkind's Legend of the Seeker/Sword of Truth (Wizard's First Rule et al.), Elizabeth Hayden's Symphony of Ages, and especially George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire.
So, with Drake and Jordan out of the picture, how is the literary world effected? Inquiring minds want to know!
WI he and David Drake had died in the line of duty during their tours in the Vietnam War?
Obviously, this means no Hammer's Slammers, Lord of the Isles, or Wheel of Time, but what would have been the knock on effects?
Millitary SF did not begin with Drake. Before him we had Heinlein's Starship Troopers and H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen. But I highly suspect that things like Jerry Pournelle's CoDominion series, David Weber's Hornor Harrington, Empire of Man and Safehold, and stuff by Kieth Laumer and Harry Schmitz would have been changed into unrecognizability.
The High Fantasy Rennaisance had been underway for the better part of a decade and a half when Tor published Eye of the World in hardback in 1989, arguably having begun with the publications of The Sword of Shanara, Lord Foul's Bane, and the "Yellow Cover" editions of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels starting with The Heritage of Hastur and Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures. But not only did Eye of the World and its sequels quickly become a license to print money, they seemed to hearald a second wind that has arguably lasted today, inspiring the publication of such volumes as L.E. Modesitt's Magic of Recluse, Terry Goodkind's Legend of the Seeker/Sword of Truth (Wizard's First Rule et al.), Elizabeth Hayden's Symphony of Ages, and especially George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire.
So, with Drake and Jordan out of the picture, how is the literary world effected? Inquiring minds want to know!
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