Customer Reviews

Some Golden Harbor (RCN)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Some Golden Harbor (2006) is the fifth SF novel of the Leary, RCN, series, following The Way to Glory. In the previous volume, after the loss of his captain, Lieutenant Daniel Leary took the Hermes to attack an Alliance convoy in the Bromley system. The cutters damaged several cargo transports and the heavy cruiser Scheer, but Midshipman Timothy Dorst and his crew were killed in action.

Later, Signal Officer Adele Mundy made cutter 614 appear as a battleship and the Scheer surrendered to Admiral Milne's flotilla. Leary and a prize crew took the Scheer to Ritikin. There Leary was promoted to Commander by order of Admiral Anston, President of the Navy Board.

In this novel, Daniel has orders to go to Ganpat's Reach in an advisory role. Adele meets with Maurice Claverhouse in the Pleasaunce Style restaurant to obtain information about Dunbar's World. Adele is hoping that Claverhouse will have more current information on the situation than that available from Mistress Sand's organization.

Daniel visits the mother and sister of Midshipman Dorst. They already know of his death, but Daniel was his commanding officer and feels a duty to personally console the family. He also steers the family to his sister Deirdre to hasten distribution of Dorst's share of the prize money; Daniel's private deal with Deirdre will ensure that the Dorsts get immediate payment of the full amount.

Adele has expedited the use of the Princess Cecile to carry Daniel to Gunpat's Reach. Moreover, she has arranged for former Sissies to crew the ship. Their crew is being held in a hulk near Harbor 3.

Admiral Vocaine is now the Chief of the Navy Board, taking office after the retirement of Admiral Anston following a heart attack. Vocaine has instituted a new policy of detaining enlisted personnel between voyages, denying them port liberty. Both Daniel and Adele travel out to the place to collect the crew.

In this story, Lieutenant Vesey is acting captain of the Princess Cecile since Daniel is officially a passenger on this voyage. Besides, Daniel figures that the responsibilities will take her mind off the death of Midshipman Dorst. She has been very lost in her grief except when she has duties to perform.

Their first stop is Pellegrino, from which the invaders of Dunbar's World have come. Adele discovers that a disabled Cinnabar freighter has been waiting for parts for more than a month. Daniel decides to visit the captain of the freighter to get local news.

Adele visits the Cinnabar consular agent, who is also an agent for Mistress Sand. Hijaz Nordeen tells her the reason for the invasion. Chancellor Arruns has a son and heir -- Nataniel -- who is impatient in his wait for the chance at power. So Chancellor Arruns would prefer that Nataniel remain on Dunbar's World indefinitely.

Bennaria was the initial complainant to the Cinnabar Senate, for the invasion has disrupted their trade. Yet Daniel and Adele discover that Bennaria is not taking any steps on their own to oppose the invasion. Of course, they are quite willing to lend support to any Cinnabar effort, as long as it does not require their money or military.

This story tells of how Daniel accomplished his mission on Dunbar's World without any naval or military support other than the unarmed Princess Cecile and her well-armed crew. Daniel and Adele conduct covert operations on Bennaria to acquire what they need. Then they use these resources on Dunbar's World to get the Pellegrino troops off the planet.

Naturally, Daniel and Adele are resoundingly successful on Dunbar's World and confound their critics on Cinnabar. What else would you expect? Enjoy!

Highly recommended for Drake fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of naval and military maneuvers, intelligence gathering, and political intrigue.

-Arthur W. Jordin

I've read most of Drake's work (all the SciFi) and have been a big fan of the Lt. Leary series. This book just does not "do it" for me.

Out of the 370 or so pages, perhaps 10% is real action - not what's expected from the series. The rest reminds me of an early text-only video game. Start at point A. Move to point B. Can't open door - it's locked. Return to point A and find magic key. Return to point B and use key. Oops - I forgot to grab the magic lint - can't cross threshold. Return to point A, get lint. Return to point B. Unock door again. Use lint. Can't look around - Darn - it's dark. Return to point A for a torch. Return to point B, fight ogre blocking door. Unock door. Use lint. Look around with torch. Can't. I forgot to grab the matches and light the torch. Return to point A, get matches. And on and on and on. I was getting ready to fall over I was spun around so much!

I'm not kidding. Leary was a pinball dizzily bouncing between two planets throughout the book. There was more "political action" - about as exciting as reading the minutes from a Senate session on Soybean Subsidies - then anything else.

The "tyrannical Alliance" was nothing of the sort. More a minor character that sent advisors and hired mercs. And really poor, unskilled mercs at that.

Tovera is becoming more humanized (at one point Drake seems to have confused Hogg with Tovera.) Adele is turning into a Schitzo. At this rate, we'll have a new character named Adelovera. Or we'll get a "Fight Club" hit, and find out that Tovera and Adele are the same person. The lines between the two are becoming too blurred.

Spoiler (kind-of)....

The end, with a cross-dressing TV serenading the crews was a pretty pathetic and uninspired moment in the book, and one of the most bizarre events in the series. Picture this: You have commanded your crews through harrowing space battles, negotiated peace on two planets, and avoided a fight between hired killers/bodyguards.

Do they do to Disneyland? Nope. Get drunk and party like it's 9999? Nope. They watch a drag queen sing from on top of the ships hull.

The whole story seemed unpolished and rushed to print. Yes, the storyline was good - not great (as many of Drake's are) - but the execution was poorly done this time. Sure, Drake at his worst is better than many authors at their best, but this was not up to par. I'm sure if he would have read his final version a few weeks after putting it down, he would have said "What the hell?!?"

Boy, I really dislike writing this review. Why? Because I've really enjoyed the first four in this series. Well, "The way to Glory" was showing a bit of a slowdown, but nothing like "Some Golden Harbor"!

Yeah, there's some action, but it's the same kind of action you're seen time and time again in the other books. Character growth? Forget it! There has been little or no change in any of the relationships since "The Far Side of the Stars". Leary's still just a big old playboy who just happens to be a terrific navigator and ship fighter. Mundy isn't much better, same old robot in a human shell.

The worst part about this is it's starting to get really boring, and that's a shame since it started off so well. I think the best thing Drake can do is either kill them all off, abandon the it or put some real changes into the storyline. But I suppose as long as we keep buying this churned out crud he'll keep writing it.

Neutral on this one.

This series is an homage to O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series, and despite some flaws I like it better than the original. For the rest of this review I'll assume the reader has read the other novels -- I don't recommend starting with this one.

The interesting thing about this book is that it is not really about Daniel Leary. He actually serves mainly as a narrator/observer to everyone else. The younger officers are learning how to become officers, Tovara is becoming more complex, Hogg is becoming more real, but Adele Mundy is remaining something of a whiner. The crew was mostly present in a cameo role, but the new non-RCN characters were more interesting than usual.

Unfortunately, the plot didn't have much color to it. No excursions to exotic caves or jungles or deserts, no spy intrigue, no chain-of-command conflicts, no meetings with pirate warlords, etc. What was there seemed like a fairly generic SF military novel. Drake spent some time telling us all the things that might go wrong with the battle plans because actually nothing really did go wrong -- the battles were all pretty much pro forma.

The series this is based on was 20 books long; a boxed set runs to 7000 pages. I don't know if Drake is going to keep chunking these out every time he finds some historical battle that fits the mold, but unless we start seeing some more character development from Leary and Mundy I expect the quality to just peter out over time.

This will have to be brief - but I have an advance copy of the book and can say that anyone who has been following Leary's and Mundy's adventures in the war of the Republic of Cinnabar with the Alliance will find this one a worthy continuation of the series.

We left Leary promoted to Commander and about to take the prize Scheer home for repair - and find him no longer in great favor at the Admiralty, as his patron Admiral Anston has retired following a heart attack. However - Adele Mundy remains an agent of the Republic's Intelligence apparatus (headed by one Bernice Sand) and the pair of them (with the aid of a little creative data base alteration by Adele - bright girl she is) are off with Princess Cecile and the Sissies on a new adventure.

Those who see a resemblence to some of the O'Brian Aubry-Maturin novels (including a privately owned warship pressed into the use of the nation that employs the primary characters)are observing what Dave wants them to, by the way.

In any case - we see the usual combination of well-realized characters and blazing action against odds that the author has used for most of his writing career. Well worth acquiring a copy of this fine book, but I'd advise not making it your first encounter with Daniel Leary and Adele Mundy. It can stand alone, and you won't be sorry you read it, but there are nuances of character that will be more apparent if you have read the earlier tales in the series. And (like most of Dave's tales) it is solidly grounded in history. As he has said - if people did it that way once, why wouldn't they do similar things again? It does help to keep the stories grounded in reality, seems to me.

SOME GOLDEN HARBOR(2007)**1/2 is far-future interstellar Military SciFi, and follows the first four books from the Republic of Cinnabar Navy(RCN) series: THE WAY TO GLORY(2005)***, THE FAR SIDE OF THE STARS(2003)*****, LT LEARY COMMANDING(2000)****, and WITH THE LIGHTNINGS(1998)*****.

I'm a big fan of David Drake's, and of the RCN(Leary/Mundy) Series. Unfortunately, there is very little new here. There is nothing special about the planets that are visited, the action scenes are too little and too far apart, and when they do happen, they are nothing very different than what we have seen in past books in the series.

The regular characters exhibited no new behaviour, and frankly, Adele's "little smiles" are becoming a bit old. There was very little interesting about the new characters either - the alien Fallert (who seems to be interested in Tovera?) is about the only exception.

One thing I noticed is that the author made reference to use of VHF frequencies in this book - I like the way he uses actually frequency data... and after I'd complained about him using a 15Khz frequency for data in one book, and said 151.880Mhz(VHF) would have been more appropriate.

Another thing I've notice is that the level of violence in this series of books has declined - or maybe I'm getting so used to Drake's descriptions of killings, that I'm becoming immune to them... I'm also currently reading Cormac McCarthy's BLOOD MERIDIAN (1985), a Western set in the 1850's, where the descriptions of cruelty, violence, murder, and death are so frequent and graphic that it makes Drake's books look like walks in the park.

I really enjoy David Drake's writing. His science fiction has always been really great.

The RCN space opera series, of which this is the latest book, is really good. Only the fact that Drake wrote the Slammers series keeps me from calling this series his finest work. This book is five stars, but is also the lowest five stars of the series. It is still a great book, the others are better.

The hero started the series as a low ranking officer who is from a powerful family but disowned. His spirit and raw ability to command bring him riches and respect of his own.

His faithful sidekick, the fallen noble family daughter Mundy, is a sexless Spock type character who is as loyal as she is expert in computers and capable of unfeeling logical violence.

The series tracks the duo as the hero climbs the ranks and gains enemies and wealth. This latest adventure see the two defeating a fortifed island with only scant resources, and saving a world.

The cracks that are just starting to arise are 1) Mundy is just too good at killing and data hacking. She can kill a dozen soldiers with a simple pistol, and hack any data network and override any computer safety. Even her sadness at being such a good unfeeling killer is expressed at the perfect time in the perfect way.

2) The hero, Daniel, is much too perfect. Every plan is masterful, every chance pays off for him. He can make the ship do magic things, every shot hits just as it should, every crew member loves him like a minor god.

The author, a vet himself assigned to a combat headquarters, does a great job with expressing Daniel's command of a crew of about 200. However, it is clear that while the author understands command functions passed on to units in combat, he cannot write about directly commanding larger bodies of fighting men. This leads to the now mid/high-ranking Daniel being, yet again, in charge of the same basic 200 men as in the first novel. The reasons for the small unit are starting to repeat.

The problem is not serious yet, but small signs are there.

Unfortunately, Some Golden Harbor did not appeal to my senses. The plot, characters, and battle scenes were monotonous and bland. The political complexities ended up being linear. A has problem with B, so shoot both A and B and C wins.

Very sad considering I have enjoyed the Lt. Leary series up to this book.

I felt that the problem began when the majority of the focus ended up on Adele with her anti-social behavior and robotic outlook on life. You know what you get with her and because she is devoid of emotions, the book followed suit. Also, the excessive use of "a Mundy of Chatsworth" or "my word as a Mundy of Chatsworth" was very distracting.

Definitely read the first 3 books, maybe the fourth, but skip this one.

This is the fourth in David Drake's Lieutenant Leary series. After reading the first book (With the Lightnings) I became hooked and look forward to subsequent follow-ups as Drake churns them out.

Each book so far has followed the same formula: the protagonists are on a planet doing stuff and there is minor violence. Leary goes on a mission in a spacecraft with the same old crew and his "special friend" Adele, who is a spy, a whiz with computers and also a dead shot with a pistol. There are raids on shore and the finales involve battles in space with missiles, etc.

(Readers familiar with Patrick O'Brien's "Master and Commander" series may note an eerie resemblance even though his books are set around 1800 and involve a frigate in the British navy.)

Maybe not in the league of, say, Larry Niven, the Leary books are a fine read -- good characters and lots of action.

The Lieutenant Leary series started out well with lots of action. The latest entry is a snooze. Little action, and the characters are starting to be wooden and one-dimensional. Adele Mundy is turning into a robot, and how many times do we have to hear that a hint of a smile is all she can do because of her emotional state? All Lieutenant Leary seems to want to do is hang out on the ship's surface in matrix space. The supporting characters have even less depth. They all have hard looks on their faces, but everyone knows that they mean business. I'll give this series one more try with the next one. I hope it's better, or I'm done.