I love this series. I'm giving up on this one for now at about a third of the way through. It is very slow going and for some reason difficult to figure out what is going on. Adele seems to be the main character in this one and I like Daniel better. Not only that but the author is hitting us over the head with Adele's oddities and her data gathering thing and I get it already. In fact I got it several books ago. I hope to try again later.

Drake is moving fast and though he has given us the Peace of Amiens, just by that title we know that the battles between Cinnabar and the Alliance will resume momentarily. It is what happens in between that we are now concerned with and with jumps of logic that Conan Doyle would find familiar, we see a glimpse that Drake assures he has gotten from ancient sources as a guideline.

Yet our heroes Mundy and Leary seem to be able to piece together information that we do not even know about. That seems to be the fault here. That and Drake breaking apart the tale into two streams. Leary seems to have a little James T Kirk need to be the only officer to do anything, which as we know from being fans of Star Trek is very egotistical.

While Leary seems to have more development than Honor Undefeatable Herrington, still a Captain does not solo and no logic really gets around that. It is also time, being book 9, that Leary needs to see more branches from his tree. His officers seem to stick, instead of go off to do their own thing. All are rich from prize money. None have a shore life, because even with the peace, the Sissies seem to have too little down time to have lives.

That should be explored more in this series that has developed into years of in storyline time bending. And then, will the Napoleon of the series and the Britain develop allies such as Prussia, Russia, Austria so that they have large navies as well to provide balance to the Europe of the world of Lt. Leary?

Those questions need to be addressed to give better background. It seems far too much as if each book Drake decides that there is a new problem so an entire new quadrant is placed in the Universe without regard to what has gone before. At such a rate, Leary will never conclude his career, and can have a life of a thousand years before the war will ever truly finish.

That is what causes me to withhold the highest praise for the series. That the challenges may change slightly, but in the end they are becoming far too similar from book to book. ( )

In the fragile peace between Cinnabar and the Alliance of Free Stars, Captain Leary is sent to retrieve a supposed Cinnabar citizen who is leading a rebellion on Sunbright, an Alliance world. Blockade runners, corrupt officials, ambitious and unscrupulous officers, and sadistic perverts complicate matters--and that's before they even get to Sunbright. Fortunately, Officer Mundy is along to help.

The RCN series isn't showing any signs of running out of steam ( )

The Road of Danger
Republic of Cinnabar Navy (Lt. Leary) Book Nine
David Drake
Trade Paperback
(Advance Reader’s Copy)
Publisher: Baen
Publication Date: April 3, 2012
368 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1451638158
Cover Art: Steve Hickman

In the grand tradition of Golden Age Space Opera, The Road of Danger, the ninth in the Republic of Cinnabar Navy series, is an exemplary example of the genre. The series has, and rightly so, been compared to the high-seas adventures of Horatio Hornblower by C. S. Forester and the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian. Except, and this is really important so listen closely, the RCN (or Lt. Leary) books are much, much better. Yes, I said it, and I’ll probably hear all sorts of flack since both Forester and O’Brian are much beloved authors. But, hear me out. They didn’t write Science Fiction Space Opera. And, the RCN books have something you’ll not find anywhere in those classics - space ships, FTL sub-lightspeed travel, and plasma ray guns. If you’ve read any of my previous reviews you’d know by the content that I’m a long-time Science Fiction fan. So, it should come as no surprise that I place the RCN series higher than those set on the high seas. (My apologies to Forester and O’Brian fans.)

With that said, I think that Mr. Drake has an exceptional eye for developing atypical and fascinating personalities. The two main characters, Daniel Leary and Adele Mundy, are no exception and happen to work together like a well-oiled space-cruiser. Leary is a brilliant strategist, a charismatic, successful naval officer with a professional hit-man’s instincts and has an even-tempered nature even in the face of adversity. Mundy, the intelligence officer, is a self-professed information hound, is composed even under duress, has a no-nonsense attitude, and is especially competent with fire-arms. She isn’t afraid to shoot it out if the situation calls for it either. The minor characters stand out, as well. Lieutenant Vesey of the fighting corvette Princess Cecile is an able sailor who keeps her composure even during intense situations. And Leary’s and Mundy’s retainers, the sociopathic Hogg and Tovera, provide deadly, yet somehow comic relief.

Ordered to a normally peaceful sector of the galaxy to quell a minor coup and repatriate the ringleader Leary and Mundy get caught up in local politics. But life as an officer in the RCN is rarely static and they quickly discover that the rebellion is backed by a syndicate of warring merchants on a nearby world where commerce rules, profits are high, and business is conducted with coercion and by armed conflict. The situation is made worse when a rogue Alliance intelligence officer plots to rekindle the Alliance-Cinnabar war for his own gain. Leary, Mundy, and their team must find a way stop the rebellion, capture the recreant officer, and bring peace back to the sector.

All in all, The Road of Danger is, in my opinion, not the best of the nine stand-alone RCN books (Lt. Leary, Commanding is my favorite.) It is, nevertheless, a solid and entertaining addition to this fast-paced, adventure series. More importantly, it was as much fun to read as the others.

Recommended for Science Fiction Space Opera fans, military fiction enthusiasts, action-adventure buffs, political intrigue lovers, space gadget geeks, war/combat/strategy fanatics, and those who love a dose of solid throw-back Science Fiction.

File with: The Lensman Series by E.E. “Doc” Smith; the Captain Future books by Edmond Hamilton, the Known Space works of Larry Niven; Star Wars; the Culture books by Iain M. Banks, Allen Steele’s Coyote series, and, my current favorite, Jack McDevitt’s Alex Benedict series.

4 out of 5 stars

The Alternative
Southeast Wisconsin

Republic of Cinnabar Navy (Lt. Leary) Series
1. With the Lightnings (1998)
2. Lt. Leary, Commanding (2000)
3. The Far Side of The Stars (2003)
4. The Way to Glory (2005)
5. Some Golden Harbor (2006)
6. When the Tide Rises (2008)
7. In the Stormy Red Sky (2009)
8. What Distant Deeps (2010)
9. The Road of Danger (2012) ( )

The adventures of Captain Daniel Leary and his combat librarian, Adele Mundy (Lady Mundy of Chatsworth), continue. The Princess Cecile remains on the frontier, keeping the wogs in line for the Republic of Cinnabar. All the Sissies are back, including Hogg and Tovera. This is space opera at its best. Start with the first book of the series, With the Lightnings. ( )