Johanna, Rahksan, Yolande, Myfwanwy, Gwendolyn… you can't throw a rock in any of the books without hitting at least two. Stirling seems to like lesbian or bisexual female characters. Ancient Grome: Not literally, but the Draka love for the ancient classics leads to a lot of Greek, Roman, and Indian themes in the names of their cities, architecture, and even military ranks.Amoral Afrikaner: While the Draka aren't, strictly speaking, Afrikaners (the Boers get assimilated early on, though their influence survives in some loanwords in Drakan English), their empire is centered in what is now South Africa.Alternate Universe: The Draka were experimenting with wormholes for FTL travel and instead opened a gateway to another Earth.A lot of this story rests on various world powers refusing to get involved with intervening against a growing fascist empire until it's way too late. Alternate History Wank: A textbook example thereof.Alternate History: And not the nice kind either!.It is made permanent at the Second Treaty of Rio in 1945, and made into The Federation after the 1975-76 Indian Incident. Led by the United States and established at the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro in 1943, the Alliance is a defensive and free-trade pact between the US, Australasia, SE Asia, Japan, South America, India, and Britain. The Alliance: The Alliance for Democracy, the timeline's analogue to the Allies of the Second World War.It needs them to explain how and why a sparsely-populated colony of farmers of the late 1700s could industrialize quicker than all European nations put together and conquer a continent which no less than three Real Life superpowers (British, French and German Empires) could barely do, even with several other Great Powers' help.Knowing the Draka, they have them as slaves. Alien Space Bats: The only decent explanation why no one else stopped them before they became too powerful.However, it only really serves to make them even more unsettling. Affably Evil: A lot of Draka characters, when you get past the slavery and the warmongering and the rampant amorality, are actually surprisingly pleasant people.The Domination is an abridged omnibus of the main trilogy, not a separate book. Drakas! (a collection of short stories set in the Draka timeline, edited by S.Drakon (a Draka from the 25th century is hurled back to 1990s Earth by a space-warp experiment).The Stone Dogs (covering the "Protracted Struggle" between the Domination of Draka and the remaining democratic nations, now joined into the "Alliance for Democracy").Under the Yoke (covering Europe's incorporation into the Domination after the Eurasian War).Marching Through Georgia (set in the opening hours of the Drakan entry into the Eurasian War, the alternate equivalent of our World War II).And you just know this is going to be bloody. Standing in their way is the United States of America and the Alliance for Democracy. Their goal is nothing less than world domination. Burning with a desire for revenge, they founded the Domination of Draka: an Empire forged on conquest and slavery. They are joined shortly by French Royalists, defeated Confederate troops, and generally the other losers of history. The Draka timeline diverges from our own during The American Revolution, where American Crown Loyalists, due to the Dutch intervening in the war, are shipped to the new British Crown Colony of Drakia-named after Sir Francis Drake-on the southern coast of Africa. Stirling said "Screw that." Apparently tired of seeing the same cliches being used again, and again he created the Domination of the Draka, an Evil Empire that doesn't intend to lose… ever. "Gather 'round lads and lasses and we shall tell ye a story of a good republic and an evil empire where the bad guys are vanquished and truth, justice, and the American Way prevail." And yet of the two forces the second is the greater we do this because we choose to do it." "The Draka will conquer the world for two reasons because we must and because we can.
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