Lt. Leary, Commanding

RCN Series, Book 2

By: David Drake

Narrated by: Victor Bevine

Lt. Daniel Leary of the Republic of Cinnabar Navy commands the corvette Princess Cecile. His friend, Signals Officer Adele Mundy, has the latest in spy apparatus and the skills to prowl the most tightly guarded database. All they lack are enemies, and fate is about to supply that need in abundance!

A hostage uses the Princess Cecile to regain his freedom and his throne; an ally plots with enemies of Cinnabar, knowing the plan can only be safeguarded by destroying the Princess Cecile; a pirate chief joins in a cutthroat battle with a rival, and the Princess Cecile is a pawn.

Daniel, Adele, and their crack crew must battle bureaucrats and traitors, the winds of a barren desert, and the strains of a voyage never before attempted. If they succeed at every stage, their reward will be the chance to fight another enemy: one which can blow them and a hundred ships like theirs to vapor!

BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction by author David Drake.

Go Navy: download more titles in the RCN Series.©2000 David Drake (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Grand fun for lovers of action in high space." ( Booklist)
"The suspense on the way to the climactic battle is genuine, and the action scenes are up to the author's very high standard." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Filled with battle scenes on the ground and in the far reaches of space, this sf adventure should appeal to fans of military sf." ( Library Journal)

Good Buddy's and crew makes a Family of fighters.

With Nathan Leary, RCN LT. at the helm of the Little Ciss there is an almost sure victory ahead of them. All the Spacers say so after his track record in killing Alliance ships and spanning the nexus in record time. But Lt. Natan Leary, only feels half his team has arrived until the most intregal part of his personal staff and friend arrives, Mistress Adele Monday. Whom He has known only a year but does not know how he ever survived before they met and became friends and shipmates. She is the closest friend Leary has ever had in a female of his class.

Entertaining

Perhaps, my expectations were a bit high?
But I definitely enjoyed the book,and confirm my point I will read the next one.

RCN Series

David Drake’s writing is thoroughly entertaining and the RCN series, this being book 2, was as delightful listening to as the first book; narrated by Victor Bevine.

Narrator ruined it - really bad match up

Grew up on David Drake, but never got to this series. While I do like Victor Bevine for some genre, not this one. He does not have the hard edge necessary.

The story is pretty good, has a lot of that “develop characters within a mission” structure. It advances Lt Leary, his Signals Officer Adele Mundy, piracy, and the Cinebar world.

Great book, ok performance.

The story over all is excellent and a great continuation of Daniel Leary and his friends and crew. The only issue I take with the story is David Drake’s habit of restating world building events that happened prior to the books which were discussed in the first book. While it is great for a reader or listener that picks up the book to for just this story and not the whole series, it’s a bit repetitive for a fan of the series. The narration is again very monotone, and I find it easy zone out or fall asleep while listening to the performance.

Swashbuckling at Storytime.

This second book in the series was, I felt, FAR more in line with the Aubrey-Maturin (sp) source material, with a lot more starship combat AND shore-time intrigue. It would be a rousing read, I have no doubt. However, once again Victor Bevine's voice lends itself more to the calm cadences of bedtime tales than to the derring-do of Leary, Mundy, and their compatriots. He's good, and it's not enough to stop me from downloading the next book as soon as I finished this one, but I would like to have had more energy, more gusto, out of at least the tense, action-packed moments with which the novel abounds.

A compelling sequel

Here you will find the story is engaging, the characters memorable and the narrator's performance faultless.

This RCN Series is addicting so far..

I find Book 2 better then 1. I like the author don't spend too much time building in new characters which make the story move smoother and easier to understand.
I also found the narrator's voice to be excellent and easy on the ear. Though I prefer a female voice Victor Bevine is great on these books. If you like David Weber
Honor Harrington Series you should like this. Got to go back to finish the Harrington
series first then I'll be starting the RCN Series.

Love this series

Highly recommended. Great narrator. Excellent story, very exciting. I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

Average, but entertaining.

While I believe that David Drake read the Aubrey-Maturin books by Patrick O'brian, I'm not sure he understood what about character interaction between Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin made the books so great.

It's clear that he has aped the style, as was his intention, and as long as you aren't expecting Aubrey-in-space, then this series is perfectly fine. It's entertaining, written well enough that I'm not cringing throughout, and I enjoyed it.

I wish he hadn't mentioned anything about O'Brian's series, because it's difficult not to contrast the two now, but the RCN books stand on their own well enough.

Unlike everyone else who has listened to this series I didn't have a problem with the narrator.

If you are looking for a better-than-average series (unlike this very average one) in a similar vein, the Honor Harrington series by David Weber is far superior, and can also be found here on Audible. Alternatively, if you haven't yet, you should certainly listen to the Aubrey-Maturin books, which can also be found on Audible.