Customer Reviews

What Distant Deeps (Lt. Leary)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have to say I've enjoyed the entire Leary/Mundy series, including this latest. The books are a good light read, nothing particularly profund, but well-written, an engaging plot and characters that I personally enjoy. "What Distant Deeps" is no exception to the rule altho there's perhaps not quite as much outright action as in some of the other books. The first half's rather slow, mostly plot development and setting the stage for the action in the last half of the book. And the last couple of pages do a good job of setting the stage for the next book in the series. The only real con for me was, I do enjoy Mundy in action shooting people down and there wasn't quite enough of that for my tastes in this book. But it's not a complaint, just a personal preference and hey, I'm not writing the book - I'll take whatever Drake comes up with and enjoy it.

A pro - I do like the way Drake takes historical, largely classical historical, events and places and uses them as the basis for a plot. In this case Palmyra, which was a desert principality located between Rome and Parthia that was more or less aligned with Rome.

All in all, if you've enjoyed the other books in the series, you should enjoy this one. If you haven't read any of the other books in the series, I'd more or less recommend not starting with this one as it does assume a little background knowledge.

Peace has broken out between Cinnabar and The Alliance. Good news for most, but trouble for beached naval officers trying to get by on half pay. Still, the war has nearly destroyed Cinnabar's economy--and it looks as if this peace, unlike past truces, may actually survive.

Daniel Leary doesn't have to worry about half pay. One of the navy's most successful young officers, he's flush with prize money. Still, a charter to take an envoy to a distant planet is an attractive offer, especially as Leary's communications officer (who's also a spy with Cinnabar intelligence) has work there as well. What Leary finds, however, is that a Cinnabar ally has ambitions in the area that just may break the peace and launch Cinnabar and the Alliance into a new war that neither of them wants. Even allying with the local Alliance navy, however, doesn't give Leary nearly the naval might needed to confront the ambitious Palmyrens.

Author David Drake continues his Daniel Leary series with another enjoyable story. The relationship between Leary and his comm officer, Adele Mundy, continues to develop, but with neither admitting that anything close to sexual attraction exists. Drake does an excellent job both with political intrigue and with intense naval battles.

Maybe it's just me, but I found I was hit over the head with Adele's otherness. We know she's a bit of a sociopath, but I'd like to see this expressed in different ways, not by her repeatedly wondering whether her 'contentedness' equates ot other people's 'happiness.' And spare me another of Adele's smiles. This seems to be the only expression she has... I was particularly amused by a mention that she rarely smiled. Uh, read over the text, Drake. I also expected Drake to do more with the alien dragon race found on the planet Zenobia. Shouldn't evidence of other races traveling between stars have been a huge deal? Instead, it was mentioned, then forgotten.

Overall, WHAT DISTANT DEEPS is an enjoyable read. Fans of this series will certainly want to add it to their reading list.

Drake is best known for military SF - The Leary series is devolving into political SF, with little action. These books are no longer military SF - not even close. What action we find is cloned from his earlier books. The hostage stand-off was an almost identical copy from the hostage stand-off a couple of books earlier.

Drake is also known for basing his books on actual events. This particular story is based on, to quote Drake "the crisis that overtook but did not-quite-overwhelm the Roman Empire in the 3d century AD. The extremities of the empire went through striking (and strikingly different) convulsions" - in other words, politics.

Note to author: just because an event occurred in ancient history does not mean it will make a good story-line! What's next "A brick-layer in ancient Carthage decided to wall-up the local spring in an effort to drive out his Roman neighbors... Rome sends a book-keeper to negotiate using financial and political pressure." Hey, it's the next Leary plot "What Well Runs Deep" - "Cinnabar is in trouble. A neighboring star-empire has discovered a way to close off access to the sidereal universe, thus trapping ships in their own bubble universe. What will the RCN do?!" Probably send in a fleet of negotiators that Leary shuttles back and forth between planets, occasionally taking time off to get drunk, rescue a hostage, and destroy some anti-ship missile emplacements.

In each of Drake's books there's usually a secondary character we're supposed to empathize with. In this case it's a wimpy, henpecked, unlikable accountant. Yep. An accountant.

This will be the last RCN novel I purchase in hardcover. From now on it's the library or paperback. The first couple of books were original nail-biters. Tense, battle-packed, fast-moving, gripping action with original characters. Now it's boiler-plate, slow-moving, yawn-fests. Literally. I found myself yawning several times.

So, what we have is really well written and executed book - with a poor plot, unremarkable characters (with the exception of the main four - and they are interchangeable) and totally predictable outcomes. Need examples of boiler-plate?

1) A life-form will catch Leary's attention and that Adelle will have researched for him.
2) A hostage situation where Leary, Adelle, Tovera and Hogg save the day.
3) A child will be in danger and saved.
4) Big guns / anti aircraft / anti ship emplacements will need to be disabled.

And that's just from memory. Seriously. Check the previous books. Oh yea, the book cover will have little to do with the story.

I was really looking forward to this book in the series. There is a lot of back story, so I would start with the first book and work your way forward.
Our two heros, Daniel the super combat naval officer shiphandler, and Adele the super hacker and info librarian and pistol shooter, are sort of out on the beach after the recent war turned into peace.
They are sent on a trip to deliver a new commissioner to a world on the border, through Adele's contacts, by means of Daniel's private corvette (he is from a rich powerful family, and got much richer because of prize captures).
The first half of the book drags. There are some class based scenes that explore the social structure of the setting more, something that goes into each book so far. However, most of the first half seems to be a way for the two heros to be dicks.
Daniel, in past books, had as his faults seducing and leaving women quickly, and overindulging. Drake seems to have dropped the overdoing it and made Daniel a one woman man (with the woman off screen this book)--and instead brought in a stiff necked hatred of former enlisted men serving as officers. It is not a good change up, and drives Daniel downward in my eyes. It is odd that this trend just seemed to have jumped out of nowhere. In past books Daniel had issues with former Land Forces NCOs who are not good officers in third world services, but he just jerks out here for no good reason. Daniel is still the super ship handler who does the greatest things to win great victory, though.
Adele is just as messed up in the head as ever because of the deaths of her family many years before, and her great skill--which she uses a lot--at killing by means of her pistol. Here in this book, though, Drake started telling us about her issues instead of showing. Also, she seems to have gotten the same 'I hate the lower classes' illness as Daniel. There is a scene where low status intel staffers on a nearby planet try to brief her into something being wrong, and she is so busy being socially chilled towards them she doesn't do anything. The character who loves info so much she steals data invoices for buildings and organizes how many people are living there based off the comsumption rate--just lets it go? Really? Nice work, Drake.
Also, Daniel's big love (other than loose women, food, and booze) has always been natural history. Drake drops him in the middle of a complete natural history puzzle, that may involve an alien race with super powers that existed thousands of year ago--and Daniel yawns and trashes the site. Really?
The rest of the book is still so good that I left it at three stars, but these are big cracks.

I just finished "What Distant Deeps." I truly enjoyed the reading. David Drake is perhaps best known for the Hammer's Slammers. Yet in my opinion, the RCN series (i.e., the Leary-Mundy books) are Drake's best work. I look forward to reading future books.

The inevitable comment on Drake's books is the use of history as a basis for the story. Yeah, yeah, yeah ... He just writes interesting stories. Stories I look forward to reading. Keep up the good work.

What Distant Deeps tells of Captain Daniel Leary and his friend, spy Adele, who have been involved in an ongoing conflict against the totalitarian Alliance. Even peace won't keep the struggles at bay, and the two find themselves immersed in the aftermath of war and threats to the new galactic alliance. Another gripping saga military sci-fi readers will appreciate!

_What Distant Deeps_ is the eighth book in the Lieutenant Leary novels. I've read most of the rest of the series, although I think I missed the sixth or seventh book. At any rate, _What Distant Deeps_ is a great book, and one I'd highly recommend. But it's not for the faint of heart.

A brief rundown of the characters: Daniel Leary is an officer in the Cinnabar Navy. Adele Mundy is his signals officer. Daniel's father is Speaker Corder Leary, a high-level politician in the Republic of Cinnabar. Daniel has not spoken to his father for years because Daniel chose to go into the Navy when his father wanted him to go into politics. While Daniel likes to party & socialize with the best of them, he is too straightforward, principled & honest to really play high-level politics very well. And Daniel is aware of that. He is a Navy man to the core, Cinnabar, the Navy, and his crew being the most important things to him. Adele Mundy's family was also once active in high levels of Cinnabar politics too, until they got caught up in a conspiracy years ago and the entire Mundy family was put under Proscription by Speaker Corder Leary. Adele was off in a distant part of space at the time, training to be a librarian (her first love always was & still is information), which is the only reason she was not killed with the rest of her family. She & Daniel have a chance encounter in the first book of the series & have been inseparable friends ever since.

Daniel & Adele's friendship is a change of pace for both of them. Daniel is a ladies man, but does not generally have a lot of platonic female friends. Prior to meeting Daniel, Adele did not really have friends period -- books & data are much more logical & easier to deal with than people and their endless (and usually unnecessary and mostly self-inflicted) emotional problems.

Daniel's personal manservant is Hogg, a game warden (and very experienced poacher) who mentored Daniel as a young boy on the Leary family estates on Bantry. Adele's servant is Tovera, a bodyguard, assassin and sociopath. At the end of the 1st (or possibly 2nd) book of the series, the Alliance political operative Tovera was assigned to protect was killed in a conflict with Daniel & Adele. Tovera approached Adele about a position guarding Adele, hoping that Adele would be perceptive enough yet also unemotional enough Adele could see Tovera as a useful tool without getting caught up in worries over Tovera's not-quite-human mental state. And she was correct. (Adele does not question Tovera's loyalty at all because both Adele & Tovera know that Tovera really has no option besides Adele -- she failed in her job as bodyguard yet knows too much to be left alive by Alliance intelligence agencies, so would not be welcome back in the Alliance, and is so unable to relate normally to other humans she would not be able to find any type of employment she could tolerate on her own.)

A character arc of the entire series has been Daniel & Adele, who are both loners in their own ways, becoming closer friends & learning to trust & rely on each other more. There are risks Daniel takes now that he wouldn't have before because he'll ask Adele about the risk first & know that he will get as full a rundown of both the available data & interpretations of the available data as would be possible to ask of anyone. Adele finds herself with a reason to push herself besides just mere intellectual curiosity and in a way, her friendship with Daniel is a reason to actually live life in her own way, not just endure it. But that also is a bit disconcerting for Adele - in the book preceding this one, Daniel is almost killed by a piece of flying shrapnel and having to consider what life would be like if she lived but her friend did not is not something Adele is handling well. Daniel is also grimly aware that if Adele ever passes away, it will leave a very empty & unfillable hole is his life. Although it's not a romantic relationship in any way, Daniel & Adele truly love each other.

Which brings us to _What Distant Deeps_. Daniel & Adele have gone through seven books worth of fighting at this point. They've seen a peace treaty signed between Cinnabar and the Alliance. They're both very tired and they're both by nature people who are straightforward & not too patient with idiots.

And while it might not look like it to the people playing the game, a lot of high society, politics, and polite society in general involves very arcane & complicated maneuvering that can carry really high risks for very little gain. In other words, it involves people who arguably should know better acting like idiots.

A good example is the scene that begins at the end of Chapter 2. Daniel and his crew from the Princess Cecile are at a local party on Bantry. Hofmann, another estate owner on the island, is at the party with his new wife Bertie, a widow from one of the more cosmopolitan planets in the Republic of Cinnabar, and Bertie's son Platt. Bertie is looking for Adele Mundy because Bertie wants to do some social climbing by saying she hobnobbed with a Mundy of Chatsworth. Platt has a pair of dueling pistols and having convinced himself he's a manlier man than any of these backwater rubes on Bantry, is looking to pick a fight with someone in the Navy to prove how much of a manly man he is. Platt tries to pick a fight with a drunken Navy officer named Cory (not knowing or caring that by dueling with him, Cory would be effectively resigning his commission in the Navy), finally grabbing the local girl who's been dancing with Cory and being physically unpleasant to the girl while telling Cory that Navy wimps like Cory don't deserve the attention of pretty women. Daniel is running towards the fray, yelling for a couple of the Princess Cecile crew to restrain Cory from assaulting Platt (who richly deserves it but Cory is too good a member of the Navy to be worth losing to a duel) when Adele Mundy walks up & slaps Platt in the face for the very grave insult he gave to the girl he grabbed from Cory. A couple of the heftier crew members from the Princess Cecile come up and quietly restrain Platt from doing anything even more stupid. Hofmann apologizes for Platt's behavior & promises that he'll make whatever amends are needed to both people Platt insulted. Daniel asks Adele to take the pistols & shoot a couple of circling ocean birds that he finds very annoying. With two pistols, one shot each, and no hesitation Adele hits two birds that are flying at least 100 feet away, head shots both times. Platt - FINALLY realizing that his little measuring contest would most likely have gotten his stupid self killed, if not publicly in a duel with Adele, then privately by a couple of the crew of Princess Cecile had he succeeded in provoking Cory into a career-ending move - throws up & collapses in his own vomit. Hofmann bundles both Bertie & Platt into their car for a flight back to his estate, with the very solemn promise to Bertie & Platt that there will be some very serious discussions at home very shortly. Adele tells Daniel "I'm ready to leave Cinnabar for a place where the rules are simpler." and Daniel responds "Yes. Though with the Peace of Rheims in effect, we can't hope to find a war zone."

In that general state of mind, Daniel & his crew head out into edges of space, carrying an accountant whose most recent promotion includes a move to Zenobia (and his wife who on the one hand pushed him to get more promotions but is now very unhappy when she finally realizes that promotions come with new responsibilities, and their four-year old daughter who is actually a pretty decent kid but isn't happy about the move either), along the way encountering various backwater officials who are so used to being big fishes in their respective small ponds they feel it necessary to abuse their authority with everyone and Navy officials who want to be seen with Daniel because he's a war hero (never mind how very much he hates petty politics and how to him each of his awards came with crew members & friends who were killed in the fighting), and various plots carried on with various degrees of competence. They also manage to avert a restart of the war between Cinnabar and the Alliance, which is a good thing.

A couple of side notes.
* Drake loves history & as he explains in the Author's Note at the beginning of this book, large countries with far-flung interests waging proxy wars -- and locals thinking the presence of proxies means a lot more official approval & support for all of the local endeavors than the large countries ever intended -- is something which actually occurs in history. It occurred with the Roman Empire, and it occurred with American military forces. The story in _What Distant Deeps_ isn't a direct match for any one historical event, but it's definitely based on real history.
* Another reviewer commented unfavorably on how much Drake dwells on both Adele's lethality & the emotional aftermath she deals with as a result of that lethality. I've had friends who were in various branches of the military and some of them had seen combat. From what they've said, and what I've read in various memoirs, killing someone is not something that comes easily, nor is it something that is shrugged off easily. To get to the point where it's no big deal & something to be easily shrugged off is to to become a Tovera. I'm not exactly sure what the other reviewer thought Adele's reactions (or Drake's portrayal of Adele) should be, but I'm glad Adele is Adele and not Tovera.

The latest continuation of the RCN series, this book moves past the constant Cinnabar-Alliance warring into a setting of uneasy peace. Outright, aggressive political and strategic maneuvering between the major powers and their pawns (for example, Leary's mission to the Bagarian Cluster in a previous book, the Alliance setting up a base on Yang further back) has been replaced by chaotic situations where seemingly minor border powers pursue their own objectives heedless of the risks that renewed war might bring. Unfortunately, a lot of the wild, desperate action so beloved in previous books has been replaced by rounds of meetings between a sometimes endless array of representatives, commissioners, and displaced former royalty. Far more care is required in the reading to catch all the subtlety of the plot, especially in the first half, and even so it somehow falls a little short of the usual standards of excitement. The second part of the book, dominated by a space combat action, is reasonably exciting fare with a few of the over-the-top moments and even gives Officer Mundy an absolutely hilarious one-liner in the middle of an absurdly tense situation. You'll know it when you see it.

Although, in a broad sense, Drake makes an attempt to develop and mature his two leading characters over the arc of the last 7 RCN books, little of that is apparent here except in the negative. Leary, the responsible, womanizing, charismatic young officer, has through his long-term relationship with Dorst turned into... a charismatic, responsible young officer, minus the womanizing. It may be natural for him to grow older but it's somewhat less interesting as well. Mundy continues to be, well, Mundy- sometimes, it's hard to tell if she is slowly becoming more accepting and connected to other people, through her friendship with Leary and almost sometimes maternal relationship to Cory, Cazelet, and Tovera. Or, if she is headed towards complete meltdown via a suicidal addiction to dangerous combat actions (which seems to be the opinion of her intelligence agency mentor). To compound this lack of character development, several minor plot points, such as the possible pre-human settlement, are introduced, briefly expounded on... and then lost. The "plot twist" (that might be an Extremely Obvious segue into the next novel) comes literally out of nowhere right at the very-very end of the book, and is simply delivered straight as an "Ok you RCN types are honorable so here is this thing I heard" deal. Maybe I should have seen it coming, but then again, Mundy didn't see it either.

Like many of the other RCN books, 'What Distant Deeps" is calling to me to reread, slower, when I have more time to pick out as much of the detail rather than get to the next chapter for the immediate pleasure of What Blows Up Next. I have a feeling it will be better on a second reading at the cost of a small lack of excitement the first time through.

David Drake sure hasen't lost his touch. This latest in the Lerry books starts off slow, and just builds and builds until, you loose a bunch of sleep wondering whats on the next page. My wife got hooked and now I have to sneak around to read the book, before she clamps onto it.

As the hostilities between the Alliance of Free Stars and Republic of Cinnebar have ended due to the great victory at Cacique, RCN Captain Daniel Leary throws a party to celebrate the opening of the Jared Hogg Community Hall. Attending the gala besides the neighbors are Signal Officer Adele Mundy and the Sissies who are the crew of the Princess Cecile. Cinnabar Intelligence Chief Bernis Sand is at the celebration. She informs Adele of a new mission for her, Leary and crew. Adele is to obtain information from Posthuma "Posy" Belisande, the younger sister of the Founder of Zenobia while on escort duty.

Soon after the party, Daniel transports Commissioner Brown, whose wife and daughter accompany him, to his assignment as the Cinnabar Commissioner on Zenobia. Daniels vessel is the Princess Cecile. An easy trip turns potentially ugly especially on a yacht and not a warship when third party barbarians want the war to heat up again.

This is an intriguing Leary science fiction tale as the hero of the triumph at Cacique has a new diplomatic role until late in the plot. Although much of the first third of the well written story line is slow-paced especially for a David Drake drama as What Distant deeps is more a social-political tale rather than the military in space action of previous entries. Still fans will enjoy this discerning novel while readers (except bullet catchers and their families) accept peace lacks the excitement of combat.

Harriet Klausner