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RCN #9
The Road of Danger
Captain Daniel Leary with his friend–and spy–Officer Adele Mundy are sent to a quiet sector to carry out an easy task: helping the local admiral put down a coup before it takes place. But then the jealous admiral gets rid of them by sending them off on a wild goose chase to a sector where commerce is king and business is carried out by extortion and gunfights.
With anarchy and rebellion in the air, a rogue intelligence officer plots the war that will destroy civilization and enlists the help of a brute whom even torturers couldn't stomach.
And, of course, it’s up to Leary and Mundy to put a stop to the madness...
349 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2012
38 people are currently reading
425 people want to read
About the author
David Drake
306 books886 followersDavid Drake is an American author of science fiction and fantasy literature. A Vietnam War veteran who has worked as a lawyer, he is now one of the major authors of the military science fiction genre.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
January 25, 2022
Aubrey and Maturin in space
Verified Purchase
This review is from: The Road of Danger (Lt. Leary Book 9) (Kindle Edition)
This is an excellent addition to the Leary/Mundy series with depth as well as action and adventure. In this volume, Captain Leary spends a large part of his time away from his ship and crew. In his absence there is more focus on Adele Mundy's intelligence activities than in most volumes. Consequently there is more espionage than space combat. This may not appeal to die hard fans of military scify, but those who follow the relationships of the characters as well as the combat should be pleased.
Verified Purchase
This review is from: The Road of Danger (Lt. Leary Book 9) (Kindle Edition)
This is an excellent addition to the Leary/Mundy series with depth as well as action and adventure. In this volume, Captain Leary spends a large part of his time away from his ship and crew. In his absence there is more focus on Adele Mundy's intelligence activities than in most volumes. Consequently there is more espionage than space combat. This may not appeal to die hard fans of military scify, but those who follow the relationships of the characters as well as the combat should be pleased.
June 27, 2020
6/22/17 4th reread. Less military, more adventure, making for a nice change.
April 29, 2013
Leary and Adele scotch a nefarious scheme by some disaffected and corrupt Alliance officers to restart the war with a civil conflict in a remote border area. I keep reading this series because of its great characters and high action storylines, but the repetitiveness is really getting to me--not just the way that certain word pairings like "Tovera" and "sociopath" recur, but the way the characters keep falling into ruminations (often in the midst of battles or at other inappropriate times) on the same topics, volume after volume, such as Mundy's conviction that she's not quite human.
And Drake has a weird predilection for the word "grin." I noticed it in earlier volumes and decided to track it here. In this 478 page episode along with frequent smiles (big, small, delighted, hardening, even "mental") someone, usually Leary, "grins" 70 times by my count, to wit: pages 14 (twice), 16, 17, 35, 43, 48, 52 (twice), 59, 66, 67, 75 (twice), 76, 77, 84 (L & A both), 87, 103 (twice), 111, 119, 122, 129, 149, 150, 153, 154 (twice), 155, 159, 161, 164, 191, 195, 205, 215, 217, 219, 233, 235, 236, 242 (twice, once it's Tovera--scary!), 244, 277 (twice), 281, 287, 295, 300, 301, 328, 339, 344, 347 (twice), 350, 377, 393, 401, 413, 414, 416, 419, 420, 423, 427, 473, and 478. No other reference to an expression even comes close, and it leaves one with a spooky impression of the characters marching through the story beaming fixedly.
And Drake has a weird predilection for the word "grin." I noticed it in earlier volumes and decided to track it here. In this 478 page episode along with frequent smiles (big, small, delighted, hardening, even "mental") someone, usually Leary, "grins" 70 times by my count, to wit: pages 14 (twice), 16, 17, 35, 43, 48, 52 (twice), 59, 66, 67, 75 (twice), 76, 77, 84 (L & A both), 87, 103 (twice), 111, 119, 122, 129, 149, 150, 153, 154 (twice), 155, 159, 161, 164, 191, 195, 205, 215, 217, 219, 233, 235, 236, 242 (twice, once it's Tovera--scary!), 244, 277 (twice), 281, 287, 295, 300, 301, 328, 339, 344, 347 (twice), 350, 377, 393, 401, 413, 414, 416, 419, 420, 423, 427, 473, and 478. No other reference to an expression even comes close, and it leaves one with a spooky impression of the characters marching through the story beaming fixedly.
October 20, 2014
Drake is moving fast and though he has given us the Peace of Amiens, just by that title we know that the battles between Cinnabar and the Alliance will resume momentarily. It is what happens in between that we are now concerned with and with jumps of logic that Conan Doyle would find familiar, we see a glimpse that Drake assures he has gotten from ancient sources as a guideline.
Yet our heroes Mundy and Leary seem to be able to piece together information that we do not even know about. That seems to be the fault here. That and Drake breaking apart the tale into two streams. Leary seems to have a little James T Kirk need to be the only officer to do anything, which as we know from being fans of Star Trek is very egotistical.
While Leary seems to have more development than Honor Undefeatable Herrington, still a Captain does not solo and no logic really gets around that. It is also time, being book 9, that Leary needs to see more branches from his tree. His officers seem to stick, instead of go off to do their own thing. All are rich from prize money. None have a shore life, because even with the peace, the Sissies seem to have too little down time to have lives.
That should be explored more in this series that has developed into years of in storyline time bending. And then, will the Napoleon of the series and the Britain develop allies such as Prussia, Russia, Austria so that they have large navies as well to provide balance to the Europe of the world of Lt. Leary?
Those questions need to be addressed to give better background. It seems far too much as if each book Drake decides that there is a new problem so an entire new quadrant is placed in the Universe without regard to what has gone before. At such a rate, Leary will never conclude his career, and can have a life of a thousand years before the war will ever truly finish.
That is what causes me to withhold the highest praise for the series. That the challenges may change slightly, but in the end they are becoming far too similar from book to book.
Yet our heroes Mundy and Leary seem to be able to piece together information that we do not even know about. That seems to be the fault here. That and Drake breaking apart the tale into two streams. Leary seems to have a little James T Kirk need to be the only officer to do anything, which as we know from being fans of Star Trek is very egotistical.
While Leary seems to have more development than Honor Undefeatable Herrington, still a Captain does not solo and no logic really gets around that. It is also time, being book 9, that Leary needs to see more branches from his tree. His officers seem to stick, instead of go off to do their own thing. All are rich from prize money. None have a shore life, because even with the peace, the Sissies seem to have too little down time to have lives.
That should be explored more in this series that has developed into years of in storyline time bending. And then, will the Napoleon of the series and the Britain develop allies such as Prussia, Russia, Austria so that they have large navies as well to provide balance to the Europe of the world of Lt. Leary?
Those questions need to be addressed to give better background. It seems far too much as if each book Drake decides that there is a new problem so an entire new quadrant is placed in the Universe without regard to what has gone before. At such a rate, Leary will never conclude his career, and can have a life of a thousand years before the war will ever truly finish.
That is what causes me to withhold the highest praise for the series. That the challenges may change slightly, but in the end they are becoming far too similar from book to book.
February 17, 2018
David Drake gave modern military science fiction a kickstart in 1979 with his series of short stories about a 30th century mercenary unit called "Hammer's Slammers." The collected edition of those stories by that name was his first published book and he's more or less never looked back. In 1998, he turned his military experience to space opera with With the Lightnings, the first of what are now nine novels pairing spaceship captain Daniel Leary with intelligence officer Adele Mundy. The pair have saved the Republic of Cinnabar star nation from defeat or destruction several times over.
In The Road of Danger, Leary's ship is sent to a backwater world called Sunbright to find out if a popular revolutionary leader is a citizen of Cinnabar and either way, to stop him before his revolt brings a resumption of the galactic war that backdropped the first books of the series. The plan has Leary sneak into Sunbright as a crewman on a smuggler while Mundy masquerades as a noblewoman who's willing to hire her ship out to the forces trying to put down the revolt. Bravery, derring-do and cunning will have to be deployed if Leary and Mundy are to win the day.
Drake has said he's writing a space-opera knockoff of Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturin books, and he's done well with most of them. Road relies a little too much on some already-established knowledge that seems to pad the story -- by the fourth or fifth time we read Mundy talk about her discomfort with people or the fact that her servant/bodyguard is a paranoid sociopath we may be saying, "I heard you the first time, Dave." That drops Road's rank into the bottom half of the series, but it's still serviceable space opera that'll get you into orbit in one piece.
Original available here.
In The Road of Danger, Leary's ship is sent to a backwater world called Sunbright to find out if a popular revolutionary leader is a citizen of Cinnabar and either way, to stop him before his revolt brings a resumption of the galactic war that backdropped the first books of the series. The plan has Leary sneak into Sunbright as a crewman on a smuggler while Mundy masquerades as a noblewoman who's willing to hire her ship out to the forces trying to put down the revolt. Bravery, derring-do and cunning will have to be deployed if Leary and Mundy are to win the day.
Drake has said he's writing a space-opera knockoff of Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturin books, and he's done well with most of them. Road relies a little too much on some already-established knowledge that seems to pad the story -- by the fourth or fifth time we read Mundy talk about her discomfort with people or the fact that her servant/bodyguard is a paranoid sociopath we may be saying, "I heard you the first time, Dave." That drops Road's rank into the bottom half of the series, but it's still serviceable space opera that'll get you into orbit in one piece.
Original available here.
March 3, 2013
I'm probably being hard on the book when I give it two stars, but I've enjoyed the series so much, that I suppose that I just demand more from the books than I might from a different series or stand-alone.
I usually enjoy the characters, and the whole Master/Commander cloning thing doesn't bug me at all. It seems that the character of Mundy is starting to become a caricature of herself, with all her main features being blown out of proportion. And her constant self analysis is starting to wear on me too. You can pick the villains out while blindfolded too. There's not a lot of subtlety going on here.
The thing that really bothered me the most was the way so many chapters just seemed to start with no connection to what had just happened. Place names and characters seemed to come out of nowhere and get tossed away willy-nilly. Maybe it was just me, but the whole thing seemed chaotic and haphazard at times.
I await the next in the series and hope for better.
I usually enjoy the characters, and the whole Master/Commander cloning thing doesn't bug me at all. It seems that the character of Mundy is starting to become a caricature of herself, with all her main features being blown out of proportion. And her constant self analysis is starting to wear on me too. You can pick the villains out while blindfolded too. There's not a lot of subtlety going on here.
The thing that really bothered me the most was the way so many chapters just seemed to start with no connection to what had just happened. Place names and characters seemed to come out of nowhere and get tossed away willy-nilly. Maybe it was just me, but the whole thing seemed chaotic and haphazard at times.
I await the next in the series and hope for better.
April 13, 2012
Not the strongest in this series--but hey, still pretty darn good.
Peace has broken out between Cinnabar and the Alliance, so there's officially not a whole lot for Leary, Adele and the rest of the crew of the Princess Cecile (the Sissies)to do. So they are in the back of beyond, delivering messages and being drafted for a 'hopeless' mission. Adele also has her own mission, from her second employer, spy-master Mistress Sand. There are a goodly number of twists and turns as the plot unfolds, of course, and some space battle derring-do. It all wraps up quite nicely and Leary, Adele and the Sissies head back to Cinnabar for some well earned R&R.
I give it 3 1/2 stars and I'm already looking forward to the next one.
Peace has broken out between Cinnabar and the Alliance, so there's officially not a whole lot for Leary, Adele and the rest of the crew of the Princess Cecile (the Sissies)to do. So they are in the back of beyond, delivering messages and being drafted for a 'hopeless' mission. Adele also has her own mission, from her second employer, spy-master Mistress Sand. There are a goodly number of twists and turns as the plot unfolds, of course, and some space battle derring-do. It all wraps up quite nicely and Leary, Adele and the Sissies head back to Cinnabar for some well earned R&R.
I give it 3 1/2 stars and I'm already looking forward to the next one.
June 20, 2015
Not up to Drake's usual standards--the plot is convoluted, the characters unchanged and defined largely by repetitious "telling" of their generic core characteristics. Again and again Drake reminds us that Tovera is a sociopath who mimics normalcy to pass, that Adele is a damaged soul who is utterly devoted to her heroic friend Daniel. Of course, Drake on an off day is better than a lot of his peers at their best, but for this series to hold my interest I need to see some measure of growth and well as a conflict with a solution that Daniel and Adele can't handle with facile ease. One bonus of this book is the final climax, where the characters switch roles, with Adele in charge and Daniel backing her up--fun scene.
April 30, 2012
Perhaps the Leary series is getting a bit long in the tooth. The formula still works, but it's getting a bit old and stale. Also, Drake falls a bit into Turtledove mode in this one, just how may times in one book do we need to hear that Tovera is a paranoid psychopath, or that Mundy considers herself not part of the human race? Those are significant character bits, but repeating them each 10 or more times in a single book, especially one this late in a series where most readers will know all that already?
dnf
February 19, 2013I love this series. I'm giving up on this one for now at about a third of the way through. It is very slow going and for some reason difficult to figure out what is going on. Adele seems to be the main character in this one and I like Daniel better. Not only that but the author is hitting us over the head with Adele's oddities and her data gathering thing and I get it already. In fact I got it several books ago. I hope to try again later.
July 1, 2015
Another great read in the Lt. Leary series. As usual, the adventures of Captain Leary and his friend Adele Mundy continue to captivate. This is a fine example of Space Opera/Military Science Fiction. A must read for fans of David Drake and the Lt. Leary series.
Read
June 15, 2019The Road of Danger is the ninth entry in the Republic of Cinnabar Navy series by David Drake, and continues the epic space adventures of Captain David Leary.
With peace between The Republic of Cinnabar and The Alliance of Free Stars, and most of humanity split between the two, Leary and his ship, the Princess Cecile, are sent on s secret mission to try and locate a Cinnabar citizen that is trying to reignite war. Joined by his good friend and spy Adele Mundy, Leary find themselves in a wild chase to prevent war.
The Road of Danger is less a military action story with armies facing off across a battlefield and more an intriguing spy drama involving plot twists, double crosses, and secret agendas. Whilst this would prove to be a challenge to characters in many books here David Leary and Adele Mundy prove to be more than capable of handling the challenges.
The two lead characters are the best at what they do, Adele is the cold, pragmatic intelligence officer who prefers to keep people at a distance and spend time with facts and figures rather than feelings, and Leary is the suave navy officer with a love of history, and great instincts. Whilst they are fun characters, and move the story along in good ways, if I’m being honest they at times feel a little too competent at times. Adele comes across as an infallible super-spy in the mould of James Bond. Thankfully, the two leads are a partnership of equals, with both of them getting the opportunity to shine throughout the course of the book.
I don’t want to go into too much plot detail here as I don’t want to spoil the many twists and turns that the reader will experience, but Drake manages to craft an engaging and interesting tale that spans across multiple worlds, varied factions, and includes some well written action sequences.
The book has a strong influence from the Vietnam war, which David Drake served in. The characters visit worlds that are home to rice patties, where the local population are ruled by corrupt and incompetent leaders. Whilst not enough in itself to summon images of the Vietnam War, a military leadership that is a times incompetent and other points outright corrupt it’s not hard to see where Drake may have found some of his influences.
The Road of Danger is a space opera at heart, filled with space battles, melodrama, and over the top set-pieces. It’s a solid and entertaining story that will keep you engaged throughout. A definite recommendation for fans of science fiction, action adventure, or spy intrigue.
With peace between The Republic of Cinnabar and The Alliance of Free Stars, and most of humanity split between the two, Leary and his ship, the Princess Cecile, are sent on s secret mission to try and locate a Cinnabar citizen that is trying to reignite war. Joined by his good friend and spy Adele Mundy, Leary find themselves in a wild chase to prevent war.
The Road of Danger is less a military action story with armies facing off across a battlefield and more an intriguing spy drama involving plot twists, double crosses, and secret agendas. Whilst this would prove to be a challenge to characters in many books here David Leary and Adele Mundy prove to be more than capable of handling the challenges.
The two lead characters are the best at what they do, Adele is the cold, pragmatic intelligence officer who prefers to keep people at a distance and spend time with facts and figures rather than feelings, and Leary is the suave navy officer with a love of history, and great instincts. Whilst they are fun characters, and move the story along in good ways, if I’m being honest they at times feel a little too competent at times. Adele comes across as an infallible super-spy in the mould of James Bond. Thankfully, the two leads are a partnership of equals, with both of them getting the opportunity to shine throughout the course of the book.
I don’t want to go into too much plot detail here as I don’t want to spoil the many twists and turns that the reader will experience, but Drake manages to craft an engaging and interesting tale that spans across multiple worlds, varied factions, and includes some well written action sequences.
The book has a strong influence from the Vietnam war, which David Drake served in. The characters visit worlds that are home to rice patties, where the local population are ruled by corrupt and incompetent leaders. Whilst not enough in itself to summon images of the Vietnam War, a military leadership that is a times incompetent and other points outright corrupt it’s not hard to see where Drake may have found some of his influences.
The Road of Danger is a space opera at heart, filled with space battles, melodrama, and over the top set-pieces. It’s a solid and entertaining story that will keep you engaged throughout. A definite recommendation for fans of science fiction, action adventure, or spy intrigue.
August 7, 2021
I'm not sure how I feel about this book. While I love the characters of Daniel Leary and Adele Mundy, Hogg and Tovera, and the rest of the Sissys, it feels like Drake has created something he's not not sure what to do with them. Part of the problem is the characters have become so successful at their respective jobs, that you really can't imagine them ever being defeated, despite what ever dangers Drake decides to throw at them.
What is really needed is an antagonist who is the equal of both Leary and Mundy, and so far no such figure has appeared, although there is a hint at the end of the book that this may be about to change.
It's a good book, with Daniel using his own initiative to interpret his orders to return a Cinnabaran citizen back to Cinnabar after raising a revolution on an enemy Alliance world. Because Cinnabar and the Alliance are now at peace with each other, they have requested that Cinnabar deal with the problem.
As usual, there are shenanigans afoot, and Adele and Daniel deal with the problems in their usual manner, with a grin and a deadly pistol shot respectively.
What is really needed is an antagonist who is the equal of both Leary and Mundy, and so far no such figure has appeared, although there is a hint at the end of the book that this may be about to change.
It's a good book, with Daniel using his own initiative to interpret his orders to return a Cinnabaran citizen back to Cinnabar after raising a revolution on an enemy Alliance world. Because Cinnabar and the Alliance are now at peace with each other, they have requested that Cinnabar deal with the problem.
As usual, there are shenanigans afoot, and Adele and Daniel deal with the problems in their usual manner, with a grin and a deadly pistol shot respectively.
March 8, 2022
I am a fan of the series and have been reading it at fast forward. The author helpfully points out ancient inspiration for the plots. However, I am commenting on this particular entry to point out that the "first reader" that David Drake always thanks in the foreword did a bad job here - the peace treaty between the two superpowers is switched from the Peace of Rheims to the Peace of Amiens from one book to another, and one of the main character's father, who has been named Lucius Mundy throughout the series became Lucas Mundy. That and a few regrettable typos and errors indicate that another read through would have been necessary. The story also dragged on for a bit compared to the other ones and was less interesting. Nevertheless, a drug of choice for military fiction aficionados who read in bulk.
February 25, 2023
Another excellent Story!!
Drake weaves delightful stories which combine action and intrigue. He is a truly remarkable author and is able to take you to another world. While his stories may have a moral, he doesn't hit you over the head and beat you with it. He tells you a great story and when you think about it you realize he also shared a thoughtful moral... amazing and wonderful. Thanks for your wonderful escape from a dreary world to your creation Mr. Drake. I always enjoy it.
Drake weaves delightful stories which combine action and intrigue. He is a truly remarkable author and is able to take you to another world. While his stories may have a moral, he doesn't hit you over the head and beat you with it. He tells you a great story and when you think about it you realize he also shared a thoughtful moral... amazing and wonderful. Thanks for your wonderful escape from a dreary world to your creation Mr. Drake. I always enjoy it.
July 24, 2024
Still as an audio book, still I don’t like it (I find my attention slipping and I don’t want to go back because I don’t know how much). Same plot as the last book, a small space battle more intrigues. Adelle has a bigger role which I like. More Tovera jokes and often biology curiosity but not alien related builds.
June 20, 2017
Another Lieutenant Leary and Lady Mundy binge. By this point, you're on board or you're not. This one, however, is one of the better depictions of a failed state I've encountered in SF with more than a whiff of John Le Carre.
November 28, 2019
Another great Leary book
You might expect some filler novels this deep in the arc of the series. That's not the case here.
Vessey and Mundy have great moments, as well ad the usual Leary exploits, in and out of the atmosphere.
You might expect some filler novels this deep in the arc of the series. That's not the case here.
Vessey and Mundy have great moments, as well ad the usual Leary exploits, in and out of the atmosphere.
August 17, 2022
Not one of the best of the series, but readable enough if you like the series in general.
This one is critical of idealists who start revolutions without realizing what happens in revolutions. It also has some background politics conducted by more pragmatic people.
This one is critical of idealists who start revolutions without realizing what happens in revolutions. It also has some background politics conducted by more pragmatic people.
October 14, 2022
Leary and Mandy are sent to put down a coup but are stuck in a a web of corruption. Weber’s space opera series, inspired by the works of Patrick O’Brian (the two main characters resemble Aubrey and Maturin), is consistently entertaining.
July 22, 2018
Adele Mundy lurks less in the background in this episode of 'RCN Adventures'.
June 23, 2024
RECOMMENDED
Read
October 26, 2025Why you might like it: RCN series: Aubrey/Maturin in space, with logistics. Rubric match: not yet scored. Uses your engineering/rigor/first-contact/world-building rubric. Tags: military-sf, ops
November 4, 2025
Good novel. Space opera theme, centred around neo-Roman society and 18th century sailing techniques.
March 8, 2017
Love this series
I wish there was more than one book left to read and write more about leery I do have more to come
I wish there was more than one book left to read and write more about leery I do have more to come
March 28, 2012
I admit, I haven't read any of the previous books in this series, but really, I wouldn't call this a space opera, which is what attracted me to this book. I have a soft spot for the high action, high drama of space operas... this seemed to me to be so slow as to be mostly character development, though there's some space opera-like action at the end.
It's a tale of a naval corvette and her crew as they are sent on a 'hopeless' task. They slowly wend their way through various challenges till finally near the end, they reach the planet where the focus of their 'hopeless' task lies and it turns out to not be hopeless at all, though there seems to be a few bureaucrats standing in their way.
I had a few questions about this book, like why one of the main characters is autistic or something and her servant is a sociopath... an odd combo for a hero set, difficult to have any empathy for cold killers with no emotions. Usually it's a different kind of novel that uses unsympathetic characters for its heroes. The main character, Captain Leary didn't seem to do much in this book, but the other characters spent a lot of time telling the reader how great he was, I wish he'd lived up to their expectations!
But then the author used a couple of interesting tricks that I liked, little side trips into 'local' alien flora and fauna, I really liked those small bits, I wish he'd written more about those.
But as far as 'space opera' goes, this book didn't come close to that billing, I'm not even sure why it was used, they need to stop calling it that or there will be some disappointed readers. It kept me reading, hoping that Miz Mundy would start having a personality, but she never did and I really can't see much going for this book. I hope the previous ones were much better, it really doesn't stand alone very well as new readers just don't know why the characters are so emotionless and cold.
It's a tale of a naval corvette and her crew as they are sent on a 'hopeless' task. They slowly wend their way through various challenges till finally near the end, they reach the planet where the focus of their 'hopeless' task lies and it turns out to not be hopeless at all, though there seems to be a few bureaucrats standing in their way.
I had a few questions about this book, like why one of the main characters is autistic or something and her servant is a sociopath... an odd combo for a hero set, difficult to have any empathy for cold killers with no emotions. Usually it's a different kind of novel that uses unsympathetic characters for its heroes. The main character, Captain Leary didn't seem to do much in this book, but the other characters spent a lot of time telling the reader how great he was, I wish he'd lived up to their expectations!
But then the author used a couple of interesting tricks that I liked, little side trips into 'local' alien flora and fauna, I really liked those small bits, I wish he'd written more about those.
But as far as 'space opera' goes, this book didn't come close to that billing, I'm not even sure why it was used, they need to stop calling it that or there will be some disappointed readers. It kept me reading, hoping that Miz Mundy would start having a personality, but she never did and I really can't see much going for this book. I hope the previous ones were much better, it really doesn't stand alone very well as new readers just don't know why the characters are so emotionless and cold.
January 23, 2016
Nothing in this review is meant as any sort of attack against the author in particular. I'm a huge fan of David Drake, especially of his "Hammers' Slammers," and Bolo stories, which is why I jumped all over the chance to review this title. Unfortunately, because I had such high expectations, it fell pretty flat.
I think Drake is at his best describing space combat, and there just wasn't a whole lot of that in this book. There's a lot of espionage and political backdooring as the Alliance and Cinnabar might or might not go to war. Frankly, I had a hard time following all the political subplots going on, even as they seemed to mostly come to a resolution at the end. And as an annoying afterthought, I have no idea what the cover illustration has to do with the book--the story within the front and back cover bears little resemblance to the action depicted on the front of the book.
On the positive side, fans of Daniel Leary's signals officer, Adele Mundy, will find plenty to read about, as she takes up a bit more time than in some other of the RCN books. Tovera, Mundy's bodyguard, is as psychotic as ever, and of course there is Hogg, Leary's servant/bodyguard, who always seems to know exactly what (not) to say.
I think die hard fans of the RCN series will find this installment adequate, but if you haven't read much of the RCN series to date, this is probably not a book for you.
I think Drake is at his best describing space combat, and there just wasn't a whole lot of that in this book. There's a lot of espionage and political backdooring as the Alliance and Cinnabar might or might not go to war. Frankly, I had a hard time following all the political subplots going on, even as they seemed to mostly come to a resolution at the end. And as an annoying afterthought, I have no idea what the cover illustration has to do with the book--the story within the front and back cover bears little resemblance to the action depicted on the front of the book.
On the positive side, fans of Daniel Leary's signals officer, Adele Mundy, will find plenty to read about, as she takes up a bit more time than in some other of the RCN books. Tovera, Mundy's bodyguard, is as psychotic as ever, and of course there is Hogg, Leary's servant/bodyguard, who always seems to know exactly what (not) to say.
I think die hard fans of the RCN series will find this installment adequate, but if you haven't read much of the RCN series to date, this is probably not a book for you.
May 18, 2015
I bought this book in hopes that it would be better than the first in the series. Unfortunately it was not. Most of my comments for that book apply here also. One exception was that this one had a decent story arc, the end of which coincided with the end of the book.
On the bad side:
- Unfortunately, although the book has a reasonably interesting plot, I found the narrative style boring. As a result, I was glossing over stuff and getting lost in the complexities of the story, and had to go back and re-read. Even then I was often still confused. Maybe I'm just not smart enough to follow subtle implications. However, just as often, when I did work it out, I found myself wondering why I bothered.
- Grammar: this author really needs to learn the correct usage of "which" vs. "that".
Other readers rated this and other books in this series much higher. I guess this author is just not for me.
On the bad side:
- Unfortunately, although the book has a reasonably interesting plot, I found the narrative style boring. As a result, I was glossing over stuff and getting lost in the complexities of the story, and had to go back and re-read. Even then I was often still confused. Maybe I'm just not smart enough to follow subtle implications. However, just as often, when I did work it out, I found myself wondering why I bothered.
- Grammar: this author really needs to learn the correct usage of "which" vs. "that".
Other readers rated this and other books in this series much higher. I guess this author is just not for me.
June 27, 2012
Once again we join Daniel Leary and Adele Mundy with the crew of the Princess Cecile. A Cinnabar national is inciting rebellion on an Alliance world. With the two nations now at peace, the political situations is sticky. If the rebellion succeeds, it could mean resumption of hostilities, and that would be ruinous for both sides.
Another fun adventure with our friends, this time rather interestingly splitting our two protagonists up for a good long section. While I do enjoy the reading, I get the feeling that Mr. Drake is treading. Leary and Mundy seem so superior to any challenge posed them that there are no real challenges. They are almost ridiculously awesome. Unless Drake puts their back to the wall against real odds again, this series will peter out into dullness.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1568
Another fun adventure with our friends, this time rather interestingly splitting our two protagonists up for a good long section. While I do enjoy the reading, I get the feeling that Mr. Drake is treading. Leary and Mundy seem so superior to any challenge posed them that there are no real challenges. They are almost ridiculously awesome. Unless Drake puts their back to the wall against real odds again, this series will peter out into dullness.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1568
February 13, 2016
Leary, Mundy, and the Sissies are perpetually entertaining. The complexities in the interwoven plot threads are fascinating, and the below the surface tensions, and political and tactical situations are as entertaining as ever. The threats of violence are always hidden beneath the polite, and nearly courteous byplay between the main characters and whichever adversary, allied or enemy, they must deal with in the course of the story.
Drake has done an excellent job here, and the book was longer than I anticipated, which kept me entertained longer than expected, causing my "real" work to suffer when I found it hard to put the book down.
I look forward to the next RCN novel.
Drake has done an excellent job here, and the book was longer than I anticipated, which kept me entertained longer than expected, causing my "real" work to suffer when I found it hard to put the book down.
I look forward to the next RCN novel.
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