WITH THE LIGHTNINGS [Paperback]

David Drake (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Baen Publishing (2005)
• ASIN: B0018WQZNU
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)

More About the Author

The Army took David Drake from Duke Law School and sent him on a motorized tour of Viet Nam and Cambodia with the 11th Cav, the Blackhorse. He learned new skills, saw interesting sights, and met exotic people who hadn't run fast enough to get away.

Dave returned to become Chapel Hill's Assistant Town Attorney and to try to put his life back together through fiction making sense of his Army experiences.

Dave describes war from where he saw it: the loader's hatch of a tank in Cambodia. His military experience, combined with his formal education in history and Latin, has made him one of the foremost writers of realistic action SF and fantasy. His bestselling Hammer's Slammers series is credited with creating the genre of modern Military SF. He often wishes he had a less interesting background.

Dave lives with his family in rural North Carolina.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best work David Drake has done alone, so far, July 7, 1999

By 

Michael Huston (Summerville, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: With the Lightnings (Mass Market Paperback)

David Drake wrote a novel with Janet Morris, "Arc Riders," which is one of the finest novels about time travel in Science Fiction. He has always written good stories with good technology, but I have found it hard to identify with his main characters. And though not in the same league as S.M. Stirling, I have found his graphic descriptions of mayhem unsettling. This novel is as enjoyable as a David Weber novel, with leading characters you can identify with and like. It is not really a future war novel, more of an adventure novel with war in it. "Starliner" and "The Forlorn Hope" were good novels in this genre, but this is the best work David Drake has done alone, so far. It would make an excellent beginning for a series.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Killer Librarian Meets Captain Aubrey, March 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: With the Lightnings (Mass Market Paperback)

Bibliophile friends recommended this book to me on two counts: they said that it contains one of the deadliest hiney-kicking librarians in all of fiction, and that the partnership between the two leads is reminiscent of the late (sigh) Patrick O'Brian's team of Aubrey and Maturin. Both recommendations are definitely true. The book kept me turning pages and very absorbed in the plot. I especially appreciated that Drake didn't drag in a romance just because his two main characters were male and female. I can imagine something like that happening a few books down the line, but as fast as the plot moved in this first outing it would have been very implausible.

My only complaint was that Drake seemed to work TOO hard at making his futuristic space navies similar to Hornblower or Maturin's British Navy -- complete with masts, barefoot sailors, and prize money. David Weber's "Honor Harrington" series has a little bit lighter touch with this kind of thing. Still, looking forward to the sequel due out in August.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A stimulating, unusual story, September 9, 2001

By 

Jennifer Burdoo (Emporia, KS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: With the Lightnings (Mass Market Paperback)

Let's get the plot out of the way first; it's fairly straightforward. Lt. Daniel Leary, of the interstellar Republic of Cinnabar, is a junior officer aboard the communications vessel RCS Aglaia, sent to the planet Kostroma for diplomatic purposes. Adele Mundy, whose family was massacred on orders of Leary's politically important father, is the new Electoral Librarian of Kostroma, trying to get a government library off the ground with virtually no help from the ostensible government. The Alliance, Cinnabar's deadly enemy, takes over Kostroma in a single night of violence, and the eager Daniel and dispassionate Adele are Cinnabar's only hope. The result is a space opera that takes place mostly on the ground. With more politicking and character development and less action than Drake's usual work, With the Lightnings is surprisingly thoughtful for military science fiction. The physical conflicts are resolved not so much through violence than through outside-the-box thinking and skilful research, to the point that this book promotes a surprisingly positive view of information science. This is remarkably refreshing storytelling.

Admittedly, With the Lightnings is Aubrey/Maturin in space, in the same sense that Honor Harrington is Horatio Hornblower in space. If you don't like Napoleonic sea stories, they're both hard to get into - but there is a caveat. Despite the similarities to their literary counterparts, Daniel Leary of Bantry and Adele Mundy of Chatsworth are unique, engaging characters with offbeat personalities. Lieutenant Leary, for example, the rough `n' tough naval officer, is an enthusiastic naturalist, and the Kostroman wildlife that Drake provides for his likable curiosity is exciting in itself, with shades of Drake's survival novel "The Jungle." In fact, it's that very curiosity that draws him to Adele, whose favorite pastime is looking things up.

Ah, Adele. What is it I like about her? She's not just a spy; she's a librarian, and her intelligence still comes into play despite all the cool technology that she has to aid her. As a library student, I've learned that merely getting information is never enough (particularly with today's "information overload," especially on the Internet). You must recognize which information is important and how to use it, and Adele demonstrates this perfectly. I have seriously recommended this book to fellow students and librarians, because it inadvertently takes a positive look at the information industry. While some readers may think the book is at first slow (because the real conflict only appears 150 pages in), I was captivated by the descriptions of Adele's duties as a librarian, and by Drake's ideas of what makes for a good library - perfect discussion material for most of the classes I'm taking. Daniel Leary's own inquisitiveness also takes up a good deal of story time, and his interests in biology become an important plot point later on.

Adele's other unusual trait is her expertise with a pistol; her detached skill with an instrument of death further accentuates her cool objectivity. As a character, she perfectly balances Daniel's fiery cheerfulness. Both Daniel and Adele are professionals in their fields, and they treat each other with a professional sort of friendship that, delightedly, has no romantic overtones. They're friends, not lovers, yet they're dedicated to each other as they are to their jobs. This is what friendship should be; again, it's refreshing.

Okay, I admit that the plot of With the Lightnings is pedestrian. But David Drake, with unique sci-fi concepts and compelling characters, makes it work and come alive in a way few authors can. This is a book to treasure.