[1] Short essays in Hammer's Slammers provide details of the political, social, economic, and technological conditions in the Hammerverse.
The series began with short stories which were published at Galaxy magazine (edited by Jim Baen), beginning with ‘Under the Hammer’ (October 1974).
The Forlorn Hope (1984) is about another, smaller, low-rent body of mercenaries, Fasolini's Company, based on Xenophon's Anabasis or The March Upcountry.
[6] As with his other work, Drake borrows plots from historical or mythological sources for many of the Hammer's Slammers stories.
[1] Other stories borrow from pulp era fiction (The Sharp End is based on Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest.)