Lost Dorsai
Lost Dorsai is a science fiction novella by American writer Gordon R. Dickson. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1981 and was also nominated for the Nebula Award in 1980.
Plot summary
A few highly skilled mercenaries, the Dorsai, are stuck defending a powerless ruler whose army has revolted. To make matters worse, one of their members, the military band leader, refuses to kill. He finds a way to save his comrades, using the machismo permeating the culture of the world they are on, though the price is high.
Reception
Susan Shwartz reviewed Lost Dorsai in Ares Magazine #4 and commented that "Dickson has packed an amazing amount of human pain into Lost Dorsai. It is an intense novella, and very finely crafted; each major character is drawn into each other character's pain."[1]
Dave Langford reviewed Lost Dorsai for White Dwarf #57, and stated that "From the surprisingly satisfying resolution, which turns the enemies' machismo judo-style against them, I suspect Dickson has been reading Kipling again."[2]
Sources, references, external links, quotations
- Lost Dorsai title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
References
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- If This Goes On— by Robert A. Heinlein (1941)
- Waldo by Robert A. Heinlein (1943)
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- Killdozer! by Theodore Sturgeon (1945)
- Animal Farm by George Orwell (1946)
- The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert A. Heinlein (1951)
- A Case of Conscience by James Blish (1954)
- Riders of the Purple Wage by Philip José Farmer /Weyr Search by Anne McCaffrey (1968)
- Nightwings by Robert Silverberg (1969)
- Ship of Shadows by Fritz Leiber (1970)
- Ill Met in Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber (1971)
- The Queen of Air and Darkness by Poul Anderson (1972)
- The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin (1973)
- The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree Jr. (1974)
- A Song for Lya by George R. R. Martin (1975)
- Home Is the Hangman by Roger Zelazny (1976)
- By Any Other Name by Spider Robinson / Houston, Houston, Do You Read? by James Tiptree Jr. (1977)
- Stardance by Spider Robinson and Jeanne Robinson (1978)
- The Persistence of Vision by John Varley (1979)
- Enemy Mine by Barry B. Longyear (1980)
- Lost Dorsai by Gordon R. Dickson (1981)
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- Souls by Joanna Russ (1983)
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- Press Enter by John Varley (1985)
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- Blood of the Dragon by George R. R. Martin (1997)
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