History Main / TheGeneral

* ''Literature/TheGeneral'', a military science fiction novel series by Creator/DavidDrake and Creator/SMStirling.

* ''Literature/TheGeneral'', a military science fiction novel series by DavidDrake and SMStirling.

* Or possibly an entry from our extensive list of MilitaryAndWarfareTropes, such as FourStarBadass, GeneralRipper, GeneralFailure, or something along those lines. ([[PeopleSitOnChairs Just being a General is not a trope.]])

* Or possibly an entry from our extensive list of MilitaryAndWarfareTropes, such as FourStarBadass, GeneralRipper, GeneralFailure, or something along those line. (Just being a General is not a trope.)

''The General'' may refer to:

--> ''Spirit of Man of the Stars give me strength!''
--> '''that is not my function.'''
--> - Raj Whitehall and Center

--> '''stochastic effects may randomize even the most rigorous calculation.'''
--> - Center

--> '''if the enemy reacts perfectly, both in making a plan on the basis of statistically-insignificant intelligence and in execution of that plan, then they could successfully attack us tonight. in that case, i will begin to believe in a god myself. theirs.'''
--> - Center

--> '''i am not god.'''
--> '' No, but you're the closest approximation available within current parameters''
--> - Center and Raj Whitehall

Military Science Fiction series by Creator/DavidDrake and Creator/SMStirling, who rather specialize in the genre.

The planet Bellevue was part of a vast, star spanning [[TheFederation Federation]] until civil war destroyed the 'Tanaki Nets' that made interstellar travel possible and called down atomic fire on military installations and population centers alike. Technological civilization has been losing ground on Bellevue ever since.

1,103 years after 'the Fall', two young aristocrats, Raj Whitehall (a provincial seeking his fortune in the Civil Government's military) and his patrician friend Thom Poplanich are exploring the ancient catacombs beneath East Residence when they blunder into the centrum of Sector Command and Control Unit [=AZ12-b14-c000 Mk. XIV=], a surviving AI supercomputer from pre-Fall times.

Center chooses Raj as its instrument to reunite Bellevue and reverse the entropic cycle that will, if uninterrupted, lead to the total destruction of Human civilization and possibly the end of Human life on Bellevue. Or, as Raj sees it, he has been chosen by an Angel of the Spirit of Man as an Avatar to serve the Spirit's purposes on 'This Earth'. Both man and computer realize that this will more likely than not lead to Raj's death, either in battle or at the hands of his paranoid Governor, the Sole Rightful Autocrat of the ''Gubierno Civil'', Barholm Clerett.

The series is very obviously based on the history of 5th c. Byzantium. (Albeit with military technology more akin to that of the 1870s.) Barholm Clerett is a less-stable Justinian I. His wife Anne is a former 'entertainer' like the Empress Theodora, and Raj's campaigns show a more than passing similarity to those of Belisarius. Bellevue's Byzantium is 'The Civil Government', a theocratic state based on the literal worship of technology as relics of 'Holy Federation', the direct creation of 'The Spirit of Man of the Stars'. Interestingly, the 'Gubernio Civil' is descended from Hispanic colonists from the southwest United States and Latin America; their main language is Sponglish, similar to the Spanjol spoken by peons in the barbarian lands of the Brigade and the Squadron.

In addition to the Civil Government there is 'The Colony', a Moslem state founded by refugees from the Final Jihad and the Civil Government's most formidable rival. (The Colony was on Bellevue ''first''; presumably they had their own name for the planet.) Its other enemies are the Brigade and the Squadron; blond, fair-skinned barbarians speaking a corrupted form of American English -- Namerique -- and descended from mutinous Federation troops stranded by the Fall.

After nearly losing his command and his life on a raid against the Colony, Raj returns to defeat the Colony's Settler and its great general Tewfik ibn Jamal in the first book of the series, ''The Forge''. Raj's next assignment, in ''The Hammer'', is the reconquest of the Southern Territories currently held by The Squadron, a barbarian naval power. Raj's campaign to retake the Western Territories from 'The Brigade' is covered in ''The Anvil'' and ''The Steel''. In the final book ''The Sword'' Raj returns to the east to face the one general who's ever beaten him, Tewfik.

It should be noted that the series shares many similarities with Drake's later BelisariusSeries (not surprising really).

A sequel series has Center and the [[SoulJar recorded mind]] of Raj acting as SpiritAdvisor to a couple of brothers on another world who must fight the Chosen, a SocialDarwinist [[TheEmpire Empire]] of [[RecycledInSpace Space]] [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Nazis]], ({{Expies}} of Stirling's own TheDraka), to ready their planet for entry into TheAlliance founded by The General. This series uses elements from The Spanish-American War, WorldWarI, the Spanish Civil War, and WorldWarII. Yet another sequel series does the same on another planet, with EricFlint stepping in for Stirling after the first book (Flint also co-wrote with Drake in the BelisariusSeries), and doesn't even try to disguise the nod to ancient Rome.

Out of print now, but available in its entirety on the free Baen CD [[http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/03-SlammersCD/SlammersCD/ here]] (titles 'Warlord' and 'Conquerer').

If you're looking for the BusterKeaton movie of the same name, go [[Film/TheGeneral here]]

----
'''Examples'''

* Suzette, Lady Whitehall is a whole bundle of tropes: LadyOfWar, TheMedic, FemmeFatale, and even BrokenBird thanks to her impoverished childhood. She is also at the opposite end of the [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism Sliding Scale]] from her idealistic husband -- to PoisonousFriend levels.
* AllPlanetsAreEarthlike - Somewhat averted. Bellevue's native vegetation has a reddish coloration and native lifeforms are dangerous sauroids. It's mentioned repeatedly that without aggressive hunting of the sauroids, nobody can live on Bellevue except the barbarian [[BadAss Skinners]].
** Played straight in that some of the native life is edible, and reportedly TastesLikeChicken.
* AndManGrewProud - the Fall of 'Holy Federation' that led to this mess.
* {{Badass}}: Raj Whitehall.
* BadassCrew: The Companions: Gerrin Staenbridge, Barton Foley, Antin M'Lewis, Kaltin Gruder...
* BadassGay: Both Barton Foley and Gerrin Staenbridge.
* BarbarianTribe - The Military Governments, descended from [[TheFederation Federation]] soldiers stationed out in the boonies. Some are VERY barbaric indeed - and NONE of the This Earth heretics speak proper Spanjol!
** Allegedly TruthInTelevision, in that any who did not speak Latin were considered "barbarians". Because non-Latin speakers sounded like they were just saying "bar-bar-bar..."
*** Replace Latin with Greek and you've got the idea.
** And when Raj refers to the barbarians as "vandals" there's serious wordplay in the context.
* BattleCry - The Colony (Allahu Akbar!), Squadron (GETTEM!), and Brigade (UPYARZ!) all have traditional battle cries.
* BilingualBonus: If you speak the ancestor languages of Namerique or Sponglish, you'll spot the humor in things like the term for the Brigade nobility [[note]]''brazaz'', from the English "brass ass", a derogatory term for military officers[[/note]] or a spineless bottom-feeding fish used for dog food [[note]]''advocati'', from the Spanish ''abogado'', "lawyer"[[/note]]
* ButYouScrewOneGoat: Appearing in soldiers' comments as everything from a BadassBoast to a mortal insult, depending on context.
* TheCasanova: Major Kaltin Gruder, who averages three duels with outraged husbands per winter, keeps an entire mini-harem of slavegirl concubines, has had at least a one-night stand in every single town the army ever stopped in, and once managed to find a girlfriend to happily (and temporarily) shack up with within ''half an hour of first entering a city being sacked''.
** Was once heard joking that he enjoyed the opportunity to go on campaign because it gave him a chance to get out of the house and get some ''sleep''.
* TheCavalry: Riding eight hundred pound wardogs!!
** Raising the threat index by several degrees. As Raj observes on several occasions, half-ton carnivores in a bad mood are very bad news.
* TheChosenOne - Raj, and in an unexpected way his friend Thom Poplanich as well.
* ContinuityDrift - Suzette's eyes keep changing color, as do the number of generations her family have been prominent and other admittedly minor details.
* DeadlyDecadentCourt - East Residence is described even by its inhabitants as a 'snake pit' where murderous intrigue is the favored pastime of the patrician elite. Luckily for Raj Whitehall his wife, Lady Suzette, is a past mistress of all the arts from seduction to poison.
-->'''Messer Enrike, merchant:''' The Brigade were far easier to deal with. Grovel a little and you could steal them blind. Small chance that that would work with Raj Whitehall. He might pass for a simple honest soldier in East Residence, that pit of vipers, but a simpleton from the Governor's court could give lessons in intrigue to Carson Barracks.
* DaysOfFuturePast
* TheEmpire - Both the Civil Government and the Colony are like this.
* ErmineCapeEffect - East Residence court dress is extremely elaborate. The Governor is rarely seen out of his cloth-of-gold vestments and Suzette frequently wears her splendid and seductive court costume to awe and inflame provincial officials.
** Also Subverted: Because of the local CargoCult religion, the Governor's 'fanciest' vestments, only brought out for the most important and holy of occasions, are ... the holy jumpsuit of a pre-Fall data technician.
** Let us not forget that Suzette's 'dazzling' court outfit is in fact trailer-trash bling, but with real gold and jewels.
* EvilChancellor - Tzetzas. ''Literally'' the Chancellor. There's a joke in-story that a venomous reptile bit him and died in convulsions while Tzetzas was unaffected. Driving his own country's people so far into debt that he can enslave them and take their property for himself is just good business, as far as he's concerned.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The Civil Government is Byzantine Rome, the Colony is the Sassanid Empire, the Squadron and Brigade are Vandals and Ostrogoths respectively, and the Skinners are the Huns.
* AFatherToHisMen: Raj Whitehall, of course, but his subordinate commanders also qualify.
* {{Handguns}} - The standard Civil Government sidearm is a five-shot revolver, similar to an early Colt. Barton Foley, however, prefers a cut-down shotgun he carries in a shoulder holster.
* TheFederation - although by the time of the novels it has long since been destroyed.
* GodGuise: The Civil Government's religion equates the Federation with Heaven, Computers as Angels, etc... It's also a good example of a CrystalDragonJesus as the Spirit of Man of the Stars faith's rites and temples bear a more than passing resemblance to the Orthodox Catholic Church.
** There's also a schism between the 'Gubierno Civil''s Spirit of Man of the Stars and the Military Governments' Spirit of Man of This Earth (the equivalent of the Arian heresy).
** The "computers as angels" aspect is played up for comic relief ... and this series deals realistically enough with war to ''need'' a lot of comic relief. Raj will notice some "holy relic" of computer technology, to which Center replies by telling him it's a minor piece of circuitry, and tended to malfunction a lot, too. And as the Arch-Sysup (equivalent to the Pope) says:
--->"My son, my son ... I shall pray for you. Avoid the sin of rashly assuming that your program is debugged ... do not in your pride refuse to copy to your system the wisdom others have been granted by long experience."
* HorseOfADifferentColor - More like a different species, would you believe riding ''dogs''??
** That's eight hundred to sixteen hundred '''pound''' dogs. About the size of a horse. Mind you, it's a carnivorous beastie with fangs.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo - You might call this Raj's theme song - pity he can never quite believe it.
** It's also Suzette's theme song, and she sings it ''much'' more enthusiastically than her idealistic husband.
** At one point, one of the savage Skinners cheerfully says Raj is "bad like us" because of all the death he's caused. Raj [[YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame starts to nod in agreement]], but Center reminds him he's working to build a future in which there's ''nobody'' like the Skinners, anywhere.
* IfMyCalculationsAreCorrect - Center's extrapolative faculty is indistinguishable from prophecy, but it's EitherOrProphecy based on probabilities.
* ImpoverishedPatrician - Suzette's backstory. It helps explain some of her ruthlessness; her fierce love for Raj covers the rest.
* ImprobableAimingSkills - Center can do things to your perceptions, just ''starting'' with overlaying gunsights on your vision, that make unlikely shots rather more likely. Battle-hardened vets stare in awe after Raj takes down several enemies with rapid pistol fire, one-shot-one-kill. At one point it enables him to shoot a grenade out of the air -- he's relieved no one saw that, because if they had, the rumors that he receives 'divine' aid would become unstoppable.
* InsistentTerminology - Any time Raj refers to the planet he's on as "Earth", Center will interrupt with a "'''bellevue'''".
* MagicFromTechnology - Center claims to not be a supernatural being, but a lot of what it can do for/through Raj puts the lie to that.
* [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race Guys]] - the Skinners, who are anything but [[NobleSavage noble savages]]!
* RapePillageAndBurn - According to Bellevue rules of war, what the troops are entitled to do after a city is taken by storm. The officers either take part or close their eyes to it. Things are usually brought back under control in twenty-four hours or so. In Raj's army, any violation of civilian property or persons after that is punishable by hanging.
* TheRival - Tewfik ibn Jamal to Raj Whitehall.
** More a WorthyOpponent and FriendlyEnemy I'd say. There is a definite hint they will become good friends in the future. [[spoiler:At the very end of the series, Center predicts Raj's daughter marrying Tewfik's grandson.]]
** Also, Cabot Clerett (see below).
* RoyallyScrewedUp - Governor Barholm and his nephew and heir Cabot Clerett are both raging paranoids.
** At least they have their good points; Barholm is a competent ruler, and Cabot a genuinely brave and talented military commander who, unfortunately, covets everything Raj has: his fame, his position, and especially his beautiful wife. Settler Ali ibn'Jamal, ruler of the Colony, is just a complete psycho.
*** It might even be argued that some level of paranoia is not an unreasonable response to the DeadlyDecadentCourt that is Byzantium, er, East Residence. The only reason Raj ''isn't'' a threat to the Chair is that he's [[TheHero an utterly incorruptible idealist]] with Center sitting on his shoulder, whispering in his ear what will happen ([[RunningGag plus or minus some percent]]) if he does try to take it for himself.
* ScienceIsBad - Inverted. The goal of the series is to restore the High Tech civilization that once flourished on Bellevue and, if necessary, rebuild TheFederation from there.
* SchizoTech: Justified by the Fall. Some artifacts and knowledge managed to survive even if most didn't. The rest of the tech-base is firmly in the 1880s, with internal combustion engines as the cutting-edge, experimental technology.
* ShoutOut - almost too many to list.
** Raj is called "the King of Spades" as was Robert E. Lee, and his nickname of 'Messer Raj' is very similar to Lee's "Marse Robert".
** Shakespeare's Henry V is cribbed on more than one occasion.
*** Lampshaded in the books: Raj asks Bartin Foley where he got the words for that speech, and Bartin replies that it's from a surviving fragment of a "pre-Fall" drama.
** Raj utters a variant of Cromwell's famous before-battle prayer. "Oh Spirit of Man of the Stars, you know how busy I must be this day. Do not forget me, even if I forget You."
** Suzette quotes Stonewall Jackson. "No, I don't want them to be brave. Kill them all."
** The lines: "He fears his fate too much or his desserts are small/ who will not put it to the touch to win or lose it all." are used as a toast.
*** Originally said by James Graham, Marquis of Montrose (1612 - 1650). Brilliant Scottish general who finally 'put it to the touch' a few times too many.
** And then there's all the Creator/RudyardKipling...
** ...and one to Bill Mauldin. In 'The Steel', Raj's soldiers are trudging through the muddy landscape of the Brigade's lands, heading for Old Residence, and one asks, "What's the name of this river?" On being told it's the Wolturno, he replies "Ever fukkin' river in dis country is named Wolturno."
** The second sequel series makes two mentions of an evidently frog-like native creature ... called a [[TheMuppetShow kermitoid]].
** One of the characters mentions the story of an incorruptible cop who, after being framed and thrown into a prison with ''loads'' of convicts who hated him, used [[ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} Rorshach's]] line: "I'm not locked up in here with you. You're locked up in here with me."
** The Halvaardi seem to like the Spartans: "-so the next tax collector who asks for 'earth and water'...gets thrown down a well to find plenty of both".
* StoryboardingTheApocalypse: Center can show Raj ''detailed'' audiovisual scenarios of the most likely results of various courses of action. Sometimes, just to rub in for us what a WorldHalfEmpty they're in, it'll show him situations he can't do anything about.
* SufferTheSlings
* TakeThat - It's mentioned that the war dogs are often fed a particular kind of fish, a bottom-feeder with a disgusting smell, utterly unfit to be eaten by humans. The fish is called the ''avocati'' -- clearly derived from the Spanjol for "[[AcceptableProfessionalTargets lawyer]]." Only good for dog food, eh....
* ThrowAwayGuns - Barbarians like the Squadrones and Brigaderos still use flintlocks and muzzle loaders and so carry a lot of spares.
* TrueCompanions- Literally, the Companions, a circle of loyal lieutenants around Raj.
** TheLancer - Colonel Gerrin Staenbridge, second in command.
** LoveableRogue - Antin M'Lewis, former Bufford parish thief and captain of scouts.
** TheSmartGuy - Colonel Jorg Menyez, infantry leader and fortifications expert (unfortunately allergic to dogs); Colonel Dinnalsyn, chief of artillery.
** TheBigGuy -- Major Kaltin Gruder, the straightforward & unimaginative blunt instrument.
** SergeantRock - Master Sergeant [=DaCruz=].
*** [[spoiler:Subverted when [=DaCruz=] gets killed in a skirmish with the Squadrones in the second book]].
* VestigialEmpire - the Gubierno Civil is practically a text book example. Indeed the shrinkage is a serious problem that might lead to the extinction of Human life on Bellevue if not reversed.
* WellIntentionedExtremist - Center, who considers the cause of Human civilization worth any number of individual Human lives ... though he becomes less and less happy about it the longer he knows Raj.
* WouldNotShootACivilian: Crimes against non-combatants are harshly punished in Raj's army, except after a city that refuses to surrender is taken by storm, in which case all bets are off.

* SchizoTech: Armored cars powered by diesel engines coexisting with a largely 1860's tech base. Then there's Center...
** But justified by the Fall. Some artifacts and knowledge managed to survive even if most didn't.
** There are no diesel engines. The highest technology available is a steam engine.
*** Generally, but very specifically in there's mention of some of the rare internal combustion engines available being used (steam engines are external combustion).

** One of the characters mentions the story of an incorruptible cop who, after being framed and thrown into a prison with ''loads'' of convicts who hated him, used [[{{Watchmen}} Rorshach's]] line: "I'm not locked up in here with you. You're locked up in here with me."

Military Science Fiction series by DavidDrake and SMStirling, who rather specialize in the genre.

1,103 years after 'the Fall', two young aristocrats, Raj Whitehall (a provincial seeking his fortune in the Civil Government's military) and his patrician friend Thom Poplanich are exploring the ancient catacombs beneath East Residence when they blunder into the centrum of Sector Command and Control Unit [=AZ12-b14-c000 Mk. XIV=], a surviving AI supercomputer from pre-Fall times.

The series is very obviously based on the history of 5th c. Byzantium. (Albeit with military technology more akin to that of the 1870s.) Barholm Clerett is a less-stable Justinian I. His wife Anne is a former 'entertainer' like the Empress Theodora, and Raj's campaigns show a more than passing similarity to those of Belisarius. Bellevue's Byzantium is 'The Civil Government', a theocratic state based on the literal worship of technology as relics of 'Holy Federation', the direct creation of 'The Spirit of Man of the Stars'. Interestingly, the 'Gubernio Civil' is descended from Hispanic colonists from the southwest United States and Latin America; their main language is Sponglish, similar to the Spanjol spoken by peons in the barbarian lands of the Brigade and the Squadron.

In addition to the Civil Government there is 'The Colony', a Moslem state founded by refugees from the Final Jihad and the Civil Government's most formidable rival. (The Colony was on Bellevue ''first''; presumably they had their own name for the planet.) Its other enemies are the Brigade and the Squadron; blond, fair-skinned barbarians speaking a corrupted form of American English -- Namerique -- and descended from mutinous Federation troops stranded by the Fall.

It should be noted that the series shares many similarities with Drake's later BelisariusSeries (not surprising really).

* {{Badass}}: Raj Whitehall.

* BarbarianTribe - The Military Governments, descended from [[TheFederation Federation]] soldiers stationed out in the boonies. Some are VERY barbaric indeed - and NONE of the This Earth heretics speak proper Spanjol!

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The Civil Government is Byzantine Rome, the Colony is the Sassanid Empire, the Squadron and Brigade are Vandals and Ostrogoths respectively, and the Skinners are the Huns.

* MagicFromTechnology - Center claims to not be a supernatural being, but a lot of what it can do for/through Raj puts the lie to that.
* [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race Guys]] - the Skinners, who are anything but [[NobleSavage noble savages]]!
* RapePillageAndBurn - According to Bellevue rules of war, what the troops are entitled to do after a city is taken by storm. The officers either take part or close their eyes to it. Things are usually brought back under control in twenty-four hours or so. In Raj's army, any violation of civilian property or persons after that is punishable by hanging.

* RoyallyScrewedUp - Governor Barholm and his nephew and heir Cabot Clerett are both raging paranoids.

* SchizoTech: Armored cars powered by diesel engines coexisting with a largely 1860's tech base. Then there's Center...

** Raj is called "the King of Spades" as was Robert E. Lee, and his nickname of 'Messer Raj' is very similar to Lee's "Marse Robert".

** And then there's all the RudyardKipling...

* {{True Companions}}- Literally, the Companions, a circle of loyal lieutenants around Raj.

*** [[spoiler:Subverted when [=DaCruz=] gets killed in a skirmish with the Squadrones in the second book]].

** Raj is called 'the King of Spades' as was Robert E. Lee, and his nickname of 'Messer Raj' is very similar to Lee's 'Marse Robert'.

** The lines: 'He fears his fate too much or his deserts are small/ who will not put it to the touch to win or lose it all.' are used as a toast.

** At least they have their good points; Barholm is actually a competent ruler aside from (or because of) his paranoia, and Cabot a genuinely brave and talented military commander who, unfortunately, covets everything Raj has: his fame, his position, and especially his beautiful wife. Settler Ali ibn'Jamal, ruler of the Colony, is just a complete psycho.
*** It might even be argued that "raging paranoia" is a reasonable response to the DeadlyDecadentCourt that is Byzantium, er, East Residence. The only reason Raj ''isn't'' a threat to (and possible seeker of) the Chair is that he's [[TheHero an utterly incorruptible idealist]] with Center sitting on his shoulder, whispering in his ear what will happen ([[RunningGag plus or minus some percent]]) if he does try to take power for himself.