Rating: 
Summary: More Than It Seems
Review: Daniel Leary and Adele Mundy are as different as night and day. He's simply an excellent naval officer with a knack for combat, astrogation, drinking and wenching... except when he's being a naturalist and a bit of a philosopher. She's just an emotionless ex-librarian with a knack for information retrieval, espionage, and guns... except for that soft spot she has for her crew, her country, and her best friend Daniel.The Far Side of the Stars, the third Leary-Mundy adventure with the RCN, is full of unexpected revelations and discoveries. As always, Drake writes battles believably; but in this series, his sense of humor, adventure, and romance comes out to play. Yes, romance. Leary and Mundy continue possibly the most low-key, slow-motion romance ever. (Drake _likes_ smart, relatively unemotional women in love in Spocky ways -- see _Birds of Prey_ and the Lord of the Isles series.) but things begin bubbling with a couple of the subsidiary characters, amusingly enough. If you don't mind being _very_ patient and characters that are the opposite of cute and fluffy, Drake is for you. Just don't expect more than one or two bones thrown to you per book. See, Drake is pretty low-key himself, as a writer. His writing and characterization are quiet, not showy. Pay close attention or you'll miss something special.
Rating:
Summary: More Than It Seems
Review: Daniel Leary and Adele Mundy are as different as night and day. He's simply an excellent naval officer with a knack for combat, astrogation, drinking and wenching... except when he's being a naturalist and a bit of a philosopher. She's just an emotionless ex-librarian with a knack for information retrieval, espionage, and guns... except for that soft spot she has for her crew, her country, and her best friend Daniel. The Far Side of the Stars, the third Leary-Mundy adventure with the RCN, is full of unexpected revelations and discoveries. As always, Drake writes battles believably; but in this series, his sense of humor, adventure, and romance comes out to play. Yes, romance. Leary and Mundy continue possibly the most low-key, slow-motion romance ever. (Drake _likes_ smart, relatively unemotional women in love in Spocky ways -- see _Birds of Prey_ and the Lord of the Isles series.) but things begin bubbling with a couple of the subsidiary characters, amusingly enough. If you don't mind being _very_ patient and characters that are the opposite of cute and fluffy, Drake is for you. Just don't expect more than one or two bones thrown to you per book. See, Drake is pretty low-key himself, as a writer. His writing and characterization are quiet, not showy. Pay close attention or you'll miss something special.
Rating: 
Summary: Join Captain Leary in the North!
Review: David Drake continues his RCN series with high style! He's created what most authors aspire for - an outstanding series based around solid and enjoyable characters, set in an environment with nearly unlimited potential. Once again Lt. Leary, proves his leadership and command abilities, while womanizing his way across the galaxy...fortunately he knows he couldn't carry the whole thing off without his merry band of misfits, including the most able and loyal Adele Mundy, computer/information extraordinaire, and of course - expert shot. And what their respective "masters" can't handle - Hogg, Leary's rogue of a manservant, and Tovera, Mundy's equally deadly assistant are more than up to. If these four aren't enough - then the Princess Cecile and her crew, the Sissies, will get the job done! The only thing bad about this series is the wait you have to endure until the next installment arrives.
Rating:
Summary: Join Captain Leary in the North!
Review: David Drake continues his RCN series with high style! He's created what most authors aspire for - an outstanding series based around solid and enjoyable characters, set in an environment with nearly unlimited potential. Once again Lt. Leary, proves his leadership and command abilities, while womanizing his way across the galaxy...fortunately he knows he couldn't carry the whole thing off without his merry band of misfits, including the most able and loyal Adele Mundy, computer/information extraordinaire, and of course - expert shot. And what their respective "masters" can't handle - Hogg, Leary's rogue of a manservant, and Tovera, Mundy's equally deadly assistant are more than up to. If these four aren't enough - then the Princess Cecile and her crew, the Sissies, will get the job done! The only thing bad about this series is the wait you have to endure until the next installment arrives.
Rating: 
Summary: Can be read as a series of vignettes . . . .
Review: I had some difficulty with this book, even though I have read many of David Drake's other books with great enjoyment and enthusiasm.
Generally, the "galactic politics" themes in this book bored me to death. We have a young captain in a small warship struggling to survive in a very savage pond. Naturally, there are corrupt officials and dirty deals, and the Lieutenant and his shipmates have to be clever, quick, and devious to survive. But unfortunately, this is pretty trite.
Another reviewer mentioned fairly shallow characters that are pretty much without complexity. This is okay in an action novel, but all this political intrigue combined with fairly superficial characters -- it just "wears on a reader."
What I did discover is that David Drake does not disappoint with action-based "future war" narratives. Embedded in this book are a number of simply excellent battle scenes-- gunfights in skid-row taverns, naval battles between the Lieutenant's frigate and much larger vessels (light-cruiser class). When the ion cannon are blazing and the hyperdrive missiles are flaring, no one writes better than David Drake.
Since the novel is a thinly linked picaresque type novel, and is essentially a series of short stories connected only by a very loose overall plot, I decided to read the book that way.
So I skimmed and skimmed, and when the ion bolts were blazing and the missile traces crossed the heavens, I settled in for a very careful read!
Unfortunately, this means I read half the book carefully and skimmed the rest. But I just could not really get through this book on its own terms.
One other thing I might mention-- Drake describes the spaceships in the book with old fashioned terms appropriate to the sailing ships of Napoleon's time. Use of terms such as "hatches," "rigging," "forecastle" and the like are presumably supposed to lend a sort of "Horatio Hornblower" excitement to the story. Unfortunately, it just seems totally absurd.
David Drake is a wonderful writer and has done some EXCELLENT books. Unfortunately, this is not one of them.
Rating:
Summary: A bit disappointing
Review: I love the characters in the Lt. Leary series and looked forward to the next installment. But I was a bit disappointed with The Far Side of the Stars. The characters, especially Daniel, turned one dimensional. Instead of being well knit with the characters triumphing through their own abilities, the storyline is very choppy, very contrived, and not very believable. Lt. Mon is gotten out of the way with scarcely a "By God" and never seen or heard of again, though the character and his fate should have been worth some further discussion. The crew has to leap from planet to planet, never getting a good picture/feel for any of them, to set up a completely unbelievable set of coincidences. The merging with the tree is a VERY old theme, and stretches happenstance way too far since Daniel's neighbor just happens to be...(take a guess. You could see it coming from the time they landed on that particular planet) The convenient rich couple who are conveniently gotten out of the way (sort of like Lt. Mon) and the last second reformation of old Cinnebar citizens are just too much. However, it's hard for Mr. Drake to write a bad book. And with those characters, it's even harder. But he did try. I hope the next 'Lt. Leary' has a bit more thought and originality to it.
Rating: 
Summary: Ciphers On Tour
Review: Others have mentioned the picaresque plot of this book. I don't have any problem with that, per se. A meandering journey can be entertaining if you are with people you like, but I'm afraid that's where this book falls short. Neither Leary nor Mundy are much more than ciphers here, and they are the most developed characters. Does either have a friend besides the other? Leary at least has some defining quirks away from work, but in this book he doesn't even get to do any wenching. Mundy is an almost tragic character, totally defined by her work, compelled to gather mounds of information that nobody will ever consult, totally cut off from love or even compainionship (other than Leary's). The Klimovs would seem to have potential to be great characters, but Drake underplays them time and again, letting the most interesting revelation (about the Count's past) pass without acknowledgement. The odd thing is that Drake's characterizations in the Lord of the Isles books are so much better. The plots meander just as much, but all four main characters have such distinct and totally appealing voices that it matters hardly at all. Caschel in particular is the best realized character in any of Drake's works, and possibly anywhere.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but not up to RCN#1
Review: The Far Side of the Stars is the third in Drake's RCN series, light space-operas starring Lt. Daniel Leary, a young starship captain in the Republic of Cinnabar Navy, and his faithful, deadly Signal Officer Adele Mundy. I liked With the Lightnings, the first book of this series, a lot: <http://www.sfsite.com/10b/with43.htm>, but didn't much care for Lt. Leary, Commanding, the darker sequel. This one's an improvement, I thought, but still.... The RCN series is Drake's SF tribute to Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin "Master & Commander" series -- itself a knockoff of Forester's Hornblower stories [note 1]. The sfnalization of Jack Aubrey's Royal Navy is a bit too literal for my taste -- Drake has starships with actual *sails*, complete with sailors in the rigging, and warships exchanging broadsides of solid-shot missiles. Granted, these are Casimir-effect sails, and antimatter-powered missiles that have a top speed of 0.6 c, but still.... Leary and Mundy (the fighting librarian!) were a fresh, fun combination in LIGHTNINGS. In this book, they, and their supporting cast, seem a little shopworn. One of the pleasures of a good series is watching the characters and background develop and grow richer from book to book. So far, Leary, Mundy and their universe seem pretty static -- and I'm starting to think that they aren't really very likeable, or very interesting, people. The plot is episodic, which is fine, but, you know, we've seen this stuff before.... And the auctorial pushing, shoving and hammering-to fit are distressingly obvious. Hmm. I see I haven't said much about what actually happens in the book. And I don't think I will, actually: you can get a plot summary from the Usual Sources, but I don't think it's really going to help you decide whether or not to read the book. Anyway, if you're new to the series, you need to start with #1. And stop there, would be my advice. Bottom line: STARS is decent commercial fiction and a not-unpleasant way to spend a few hours. Fans of Leary & Mundy will want to check it out [note 2]. But Drake has done better. And I believe I'll let someone else take the lead in trying out the next RCN Leary/Mundy book. Baen's cover art comes in for (often well-deserved) brickbats, and this is a prime example. The man in the heavily-armored spacesuit (click on cover to enlarge), who appears to be riding a souped-up Space Ski-Doo --and the four different typefaces in the title, all contribute to, well, an *unusual* cover. Eye-catching, to be sure. It definitely doesn't match my mental picture of STARS... STARS comes with a bonus: a really neat CD, which includes the complete texts for 26(!) of Drake's books, including an audio version of STARS and other cool stuff. This is a new Baen marketing idea, and a good one.
_________
Note 1). the O'Brian books are popular with a lot of SF fans (including me). And everyone should try at least one Hornblower.... Note 2). One hazard the book-reviewer faces is that critical reading of light, commercial fiction may spoil the fun for the reviewer. For this one, I was truly in the mood for a light, escapist read, and read it pretty much like I'd read any such book. It just didn't quite do the job for me, and I'm adding this note to make sure you know that I like Drake, and I like this kind of book, and I think I gave it a fair shake. And it's not a *bad* book -- just a little disappointing. Your mileage may vary. Review copyright 2004 by Peter D. Tillman
First published at SF Site
Rating:
Summary: Ciphers On Tour
Review: The Far Side of the Stars is the third novel in the RCN series, following Lt. Leary, Commanding. In the previous volume, the captain and crew of the Princess Cecile have been marooned yet escaped, cut a deal with pirates, driven off an Alliance squadron, and installed a new president for Strymon. In the process, their ship has been badly damaged and was left in a Strymon shipyard for repair under Lieutenant Mon while Daniel and Adele return to Xenos. In this novel, Daniel is temporarily at half-pay while his ship is under repair. He has been preparing a funeral for his uncle Stacey Bergen, the famous navigator and explorer. He is his uncle's principal heir and has been named as trustee for the widow. His sister Deirdre has passed on a message through Adele that he needs to find a yardmanager for his uncle's shipyard. The Princess Cecile has been brought back to Xenos by Lieutenant Mon to be sold out of service. The Count and Countess Klimov from Novy Sverdlovsk have been carried on the Sissie as passengers and wish to buy the ship. Lieutenant Mon has been offered command, but the ship has encountered several problems in transit, so the crew think Mon is a hard-luck captain. Mon asks for advice from Daniel and is instead offered management of the Bergen and Associates shipyard, while Daniel takes the captaincy of the Princess Cecile. Everybody is satisfied and the crew happily cues up to sign the ship's articles. The Klimovs have several requirements, including hunting, primitive societies, and card games. However, they are primarily searching for a huge carved gem called the Earth Diamond. Eighty years before, a mercenary soldier made himself Emperor Ivan the First of Novy Sverdlovsk. Twenty years later, he was overthrown but escaped in his private yacht with the Earth Diamond and other treasures. Since the present continents of Earth had been deformed by planetoid bombardment prior to the Hiatus, the information carved on the diamond globe is now literally priceless. The ex-emperor was last reported heading toward the Galactic North. Therefore, the first port of call for the ship will be 4795-C, where there are dragons, enroute to Todos Santos in the Ten Star Cluster. Adele has an additional task bestowed by Mistress Sand. The RCN has received word of an Alliance base under construction on Gehenna, the satellite of Radiance, the capital of the Commonwealth of God. The Commonwealth has embargoed Radiance to foreign naval vessels, but the Princess Cecile is now a private yacht with the armament and sensors of a warship. Moreover, Bernis Sand arranges for the reinstallation of additional modules to further enhance the sensors. The first part of the story is a quest for the Earth Diamond. Step by step the Sissie follows the path of the Emperor's yacht. They find a belt-buckle here and an artifact there, leading them toward the priceless relict. They run into Alliance interference on Todos Santos in the form of Captain Bertram of the freighter Goldenfels. The captain begins to form a grudge toward Daniel when the Sissie is assigned to the berth that had previously been reserved for his ship. Then Bertram tries to cheat at cards, but the Count gets the better of him anyway. Moreover, the Goldenfels is not what she seems, for she has military grade security systems and over three hundred men on board; she has to be an Alliance spy ship. When the Princess Cecile leaves Todos Santos, the Goldenfels pursues her. While this volume differs radically in plot from the first two in the series, the Princess Cecile nevertheless gets into some fearsome naval battles, even though she is now a civilian craft. However, she gains some unexpected allies along the way. Moreover, the plot was designed by Murphy: everything outside their control goes wrong and only the competence of captain and crew saves them from numerous perils. This story takes place in an ambiance much like the Napoleonic Era. In fact, the Alliance commanders are named for French commanders of that time. However, the technology seems to tie this series to the Reaches trilogy based on an environment much like the early Spanish colonial period. If so, the Reaches stories must occur during the early recovery from the Hiatus. Maybe the author plans to connect these two storylines. One thing seems to be incongruous, however. The author mentions that the communications protocols are based on those of his former unit in Viet Nam, which seems to be the case. But the RCN environment is sufficiently different to make those protocols problematical. While current naval (and marine) protocols need not be used, the naval call sign conventions are designed for the much more complex environment of a naval capital ship, both internally and externally. Some of the terminology also differs. However, call initiation, termination and other control practices are not very different in most environments. To some extent, these commo practices were modified for communications with other ships, ports and so forth. While these modifications are sufficient for a small vessel such as the Princess Cecile, further mods would be required for a larger ship with a crew in the thousands and with dozens of excursions by landing craft, shuttles and other onboard craft. Moreover, larger craft have escorts and the larger the ship, the more numerous the escorts. In addition, naval communications and control is much more centralized than the military versions; so many vessels moving at such high velocities relative to each other must be controlled much more closely and require more complex communications protocols. Thus, naval protocols are much like that of a combined airport and seaport which is itself moving through space. Nonetheless, this story was very convincing and filled with excitement throughout; the author knows how to keep the reader on the edge of his seat. The characterization, however, was rather wooden, with each character having only a few defining attributes. Adele has the best defined character, but she is deliberately handicapped with a notable flatness of affect; for example, she has little fear of dying and she presents a blank expression even when disturbed by some incident. One would hope that she loosens up more as the series continues. Highly recommended for Drake fans and for anyone else who enjoys naval SF in a highly complex political environment. -Arthur W. Jordin
Rating:
Summary: A Tour of the Galactic North, With Various Battles
Review: The Far Side of the Stars is the third novel in the RCN series, following Lt. Leary, Commanding. In the previous volume, the captain and crew of the Princess Cecile have been marooned yet escaped, cut a deal with pirates, driven off an Alliance squadron, and installed a new president for Strymon. In the process, their ship has been badly damaged and was left in a Strymon shipyard for repair under Lieutenant Mon while Daniel and Adele return to Xenos. In this novel, Daniel is temporarily at half-pay while his ship is under repair. He has been preparing a funeral for his uncle Stacey Bergen, the famous navigator and explorer. He is his uncle's principal heir and has been named as trustee for the widow. His sister Deirdre has passed on a message through Adele that he needs to find a yardmanager for his uncle's shipyard. The Princess Cecile has been brought back to Xenos by Lieutenant Mon to be sold out of service. The Count and Countess Klimov from Novy Sverdlovsk have been carried on the Sissie as passengers and wish to buy the ship. Lieutenant Mon has been offered command, but the ship has encountered several problems in transit, so the crew think Mon is a hard-luck captain. Mon asks for advice from Daniel and is instead offered management of the Bergen and Associates shipyard, while Daniel takes the captaincy of the Princess Cecile. Everybody is satisfied and the crew happily cues up to sign the ship's articles. The Klimovs have several requirements, including hunting, primitive societies, and card games. However, they are primarily searching for a huge carved gem called the Earth Diamond. Eighty years before, a mercenary soldier made himself Emperor Ivan the First of Novy Sverdlovsk. Twenty years later, he was overthrown but escaped in his private yacht with the Earth Diamond and other treasures. Since the present continents of Earth had been deformed by planetoid bombardment prior to the Hiatus, the information carved on the diamond globe is now literally priceless. The ex-emperor was last reported heading toward the Galactic North. Therefore, the first port of call for the ship will be 4795-C, where there are dragons, enroute to Todos Santos in the Ten Star Cluster. Adele has an additional task bestowed by Mistress Sand. The RCN has received word of an Alliance base under construction on Gehenna, the satellite of Radiance, the capital of the Commonwealth of God. The Commonwealth has embargoed Radiance to foreign naval vessels, but the Princess Cecile is now a private yacht with the armament and sensors of a warship. Moreover, Bernis Sand arranges for the reinstallation of additional modules to further enhance the sensors. The first part of the story is a quest for the Earth Diamond. Step by step the Sissie follows the path of the Emperor's yacht. They find a belt-buckle here and an artifact there, leading them toward the priceless relict. They run into Alliance interference on Todos Santos in the form of Captain Bertram of the freighter Goldenfels. The captain begins to form a grudge toward Daniel when the Sissie is assigned to the berth that had previously been reserved for his ship. Then Bertram tries to cheat at cards, but the Count gets the better of him anyway. Moreover, the Goldenfels is not what she seems, for she has military grade security systems and over three hundred men on board; she has to be an Alliance spy ship. When the Princess Cecile leaves Todos Santos, the Goldenfels pursues her. While this volume differs radically in plot from the first two in the series, the Princess Cecile nevertheless gets into some fearsome naval battles, even though she is now a civilian craft. However, she gains some unexpected allies along the way. Moreover, the plot was designed by Murphy: everything outside their control goes wrong and only the competence of captain and crew saves them from numerous perils. This story takes place in an ambiance much like the Napoleonic Era. In fact, the Alliance commanders are named for French commanders of that time. However, the technology seems to tie this series to the Reaches trilogy based on an environment much like the early Spanish colonial period. If so, the Reaches stories must occur during the early recovery from the Hiatus. Maybe the author plans to connect these two storylines. One thing seems to be incongruous, however. The author mentions that the communications protocols are based on those of his former unit in Viet Nam, which seems to be the case. But the RCN environment is sufficiently different to make those protocols problematical. While current naval (and marine) protocols need not be used, the naval call sign conventions are designed for the much more complex environment of a naval capital ship, both internally and externally. Some of the terminology also differs. However, call initiation, termination and other control practices are not very different in most environments. To some extent, these commo practices were modified for communications with other ships, ports and so forth. While these modifications are sufficient for a small vessel such as the Princess Cecile, further mods would be required for a larger ship with a crew in the thousands and with dozens of excursions by landing craft, shuttles and other onboard craft. Moreover, larger craft have escorts and the larger the ship, the more numerous the escorts. In addition, naval communications and control is much more centralized than the military versions; so many vessels moving at such high velocities relative to each other must be controlled much more closely and require more complex communications protocols. Thus, naval protocols are much like that of a combined airport and seaport which is itself moving through space. Nonetheless, this story was very convincing and filled with excitement throughout; the author knows how to keep the reader on the edge of his seat. The characterization, however, was rather wooden, with each character having only a few defining attributes. Adele has the best defined character, but she is deliberately handicapped with a notable flatness of affect; for example, she has little fear of dying and she presents a blank expression even when disturbed by some incident. One would hope that she loosens up more as the series continues. Highly recommended for Drake fans and for anyone else who enjoys naval SF in a highly complex political environment. -Arthur W. Jordin
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