David Drake was born September 24, 1945 in Dubuque, Iowa. When he was ten, his family relocated to Clinton, Iowa. He graduated from the University of Iowa in 1967 with a BA in History (with honors) and Latin. While attending Duke Law School, he was drafted in 1969. He served in Viet Nam, part of the time as an interrogator, having learned Vietnamese. Upon returning from Viet Nam, he finished law school and went to work for the city of Chapel Hill as Assistant Town Attorney.

He had sold his first story while an undergraduate at the University of Iowa and continued to write during subsequent years. In 1980, he resigned his position as Assistant Town Attorney and drove bus while writing. In 1981 he quit driving bus to become a full time writer. While all his books are in the science fiction genre, he exercises quite a bit of latitude within this genre, writing military science fiction, fantasy, thriller, humor, sword and sorcery, epic and historical fiction. He lives in Chapel Hill with his wife, Jo.