Lt. Leary Commanding (RCN) - David Drake

Author's product rating:   

Would you read it again?	Absolutely
Story	Outstanding
Characters	Outstanding
Readability	Excellent
How does it compare to other works by the same author?	Very good

Advantages:	A further entry in the Adventures of Lt Leary
Disadvantages:	Not for those who do not like military adventure stories

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

One of the greatest threats to any maritime trading nation was piracy. This was true for all the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries for the maritime nations of Earth.

For a story based in space, piracy becomes somewhat more of a problem. Due to the vast areas of space, you can have difficulty finding your prey. The best places to start looking are near to the ports where you can expect ships to arrive and depart the same as was true for the water and sail navies of this world.

The pirate or privateer has the same problem, stop and board the target ship and then take it and its cargo to a port and sell them. You could be left with the problem of the original ships crew and officers who you can expect to raise a few objections to this process. The merchant owners certainly will.

The governments of the nations whose ships and cargos are being pirated will listen to the howls of the rich merchants who are loosing profits and navy anti-piracy patrols will be sent to deal with the problem. Of course every merchant would like one navy ship for each merchant ship, but this is just not practical. Nobody wants to pay the price to build and man these ships. And putting guns on a merchant ship and crew and magazine space that could so easily be more profitable for cargo, well no merchant would stand for that.

For the navy involved, the recapture of a pirated merchant ship will make a nice prize and money in the pocket. The capture of a reasonable enemy warship can also lead to prize money as your government will probably buy in the ship. This can of course save the full cost in both time and money
of building such a ship. This was a usual practice with the water navies of the 17th and 18th centuries here on earth.

And it is 18th century Britain that forms the basis for these stories, that and Rome. The actions of the Republic of Cinnabar Navy (RCN) are very similar to 17-18th century British Royal Navy. The political situation would appear to be more based on Rome.

The hero of these tales Lieutenant Leary has returned from his exploits in the Kostroma system. He is the hero of the hour. However all is not well with one of the Republics allies. Lt Leary, his ship and crew are being sent to join an anti piracy squadron that operates near the troubled planet of Strymon.

Adel Mundy, Who has been rated as a warrant officer in the ship is also acting for Republic Intelligence. She is ideally qualified for this as she is a librarian and data specialist who has an almost magic way of finding out things that other people would rather that she did not. She is also a formidable pistol shot, but is rather unhandy in many other ways. She, the friendless last survivor of her family has now found another family, The RCN and the ship of Lt Leary.

Helping out two heroes' are Hogg, the manservant of Lt Leary. Hogg is a countryman whose family has been in service with Leary's for generations. Hogg is a loyal servant and all round fixer. You do not always want to know where he gets what is needed from.

Helping Adel is Tovera. She is a soulless killer who knows that she is a flawed personality and wants to serve Adel, so that Adel can supply the missing piece of behaviour of Tovera. She can be a very trusted subordinate, though she herself is very untrusting of others. She can kill without any compunction and is very good at it. She's a snake but she's our snake.

Whilst refitting his ship Daniel is introduced to the Noble Son (hostage) of the late planetary president from a client planet Strymon. There has been trouble there recently and he wants to return to his planet but The Senate of Cinnabar is not likely to let him go. There follows an assassination attempt, but just who was the proper target?

So here we have the second book in this series. The stories are set in a futuristic world that has echoes in our past that we can see and relate to very well. That is a major strength of these books. The characters are all well developed. They continue to grow and develop through the story. There is no love interest between our two heroes' and this does not spoil the story in the least. I cannot tell if one will ever develop in some future novel though Leary has a penchant for brainless bimbos and Adel has no sex life at all.

There is a good interaction between the officers and the crew that can and does occur in some of the smaller warships where all ranks are closely living together. There are still the divisions between commissioned and non commissioned officers and the ordinary crewpersons, but a good captain should know all about the man under his command, their names and their strengths and weaknesses. He should be able to depend on the petty officers for support and backing, as he should support them. This is well handled in these stories. Warships are not run by democratic committee.

What you get with these stories is a good action based tale with a strong mix of intrigue and politics thrown in. The story lines are all very believable and make for a stirring story. The action sweeps along at a very fast rate. The action sequences are particularly well handled I think. Given the style of ship and the armaments that they must carry, then the tactics to make the best use of these armaments will follow. This does appear to have been well thought out. There are no "gee wiz" technologies on display. The actions lead up to a very good climax.

Within these stories no race or peoples are parodied as the villain as can happen in some stories. The Major players of both the Republic and the Alliance refer to other peoples as "wogs". The Alliance does appear to favour Germanic titles for its ships. This is not to be taken as a racist attack against any other peoples. It is a part of the story and correctly reflects the attitudes that were in place on earth in the society that forms the basis for these stories.

Copies should be available at most major bookshops priced £7.99.
Mass Market Paperback 576 pages (June 1, 2001)
Publisher: Baen Books
ISBN: 0671319922

Amazon.co.uk price £4.28

Brief about the author.
David Drake was born in 1945, served in Vietnam 1969-1971, graduated from law school and served as an attorney. Has been a full time writer since 1981.He has a BA in History and is married.