Talk:RCN Series

January 2013

I've just reworked the lede, trimming it down a bit. I also moved the story of how David Drake came to create the RCN novels into a new section and trimmed it down a lot. For discussion:

• I had some trouble thinking of a good title for that new section. In the end, I went with "Creation". Please come up with something less sucky and edit it into the article.
• Drake has written about the origins of the RCN series in several places. Here are the ones I've cited:
  • "The Roads to the RCN Series", Baen.com non-fiction feature for (I think) March 2012
  • Prologue to With The Lightnings
  • What’s the connection between the novella A Grand Tour and the RCN series?
• The "Creation" section is now a synthesis of those three sources, but does not quote any of them. Feel free to pick a sentence or two from one and use it as a pull quote.
• I retained the unsourced sentence about the RCN novels being "more character driven" etc because it is true. Can anyone find a source for it?
• At Baen's request, Joe Buckley has removed the individual books from baencd.thefifthimperium.com (you can still download entire .iso files or the corresponding zips), so I removed the "read online" links for books 4-6 and edited the first para of the "Bibliography" section.
• I was very tempted to add links to the baenebooks.com page for books 4-9, but that is probably too close to advertising. What do other editors think?
• I did rewrite the first EL to link to Baen EBooks page for the RCN series instead of baencd.thefifthimperium.com. I probably should have removed it entirely.

Cheers, CWC 14:49, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

April 2013

"Bibliography" needs to be updated, as the 2nd and 3rd books are no longer available in the Baen Free Library. Zuka547 (talk) 20:50, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

Comment on summary for books 11 and 12

I don't believe that "Contemporaneous timeline with Though Hell Should Bar The Way" is accurate. One way to see this is to remember which ship Leary commands for most of the novel. Chapter 3 of "Death's Bright Day" sees him hired to take the Princess Cecile (Sissy) as a purportedly private mercenary to the Tarbell stars. Chapter 2 of "Though Hell Should Bar the Way" sees Leary organizing the departure of the Sunray on what purports to be a trade mission. Behind the scenes, the planning at the start of the Sunray mission takes advantage of a deal made with the Alliance as a result of the success of the Princess Cecile's mission. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.127.96.245 (talk) 18:38, 18 May 2020 (UTC)

Notability

I am having trouble finding sources that show that this series is notable. A passing mention here and there is all I get. I've added some sources (review) to the first book in the series (With the Lightnings), I'd expect few more books from the series may have borderline notability (also even IFSDb is not very promising: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-22656-5_10 ) , but what makes the series notable? It seems to have zero visiblity in academia (one passing mention in https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-22656-5_10 ) or anywhere else I looked :( @Cunard @Daranios _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 08:09, 19 May 2023 (UTC)

Hi Piotrus (talk · contribs). Here are some sources about the series:

1. Sams, Amanda D., ed. (2007). Contemporary Authors New Revision Series: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Non-Fiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television, & Other Fields. Vol. 158. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-7876-7912-5. Retrieved 2023-05-21 – via Internet Archive.

   The book notes: "Drake tells the story of Royal Cinnabar Navy Lieutenant Daniel Leary and his involvement in a political predicament on another planet in Lt. Leary, Commanding, which is the sequel to With the Lightnings. Along with his "cybernetician" partner Adele Mundy, Drake helps a local princess fight off factions wishing to overthrow her family. Booklist contributor Roland Green commented that the author's "sense of humor infuses the characters here with agreeable qualities." A Publishers Weekly contributor noted "the wonderfully strong quality of the follow-up." The Far Side of the Stars also features Leary and his partner Mundy, who this time are on the search for the last known map of Old Earth. Booklist contributor Roland Green noted: "Readers who have been entranced by the previous adventures ... will sigh with relief to see them again." Some Golden Harbor also features Leary and was called a "rousing old-fashioned space opera" by a Publishers Weekly reviewer."

2. Husband, Janet G.; Husband, Jonathan F. (2009). Sequels: An Annotated Guide to Novels in Series. Chicago: American Library Association. pp. 236–237. ISBN 978-0-8389-0967-6. Retrieved 2023-05-21 – via Google Books.

   The book notes: "II. Another military SF series, referred to as the RCN series, is somewhat lighter in tone. It features Daniel Leary and Adele Mundy, officers in the Royal Cinnabar Navy. Leary commands the space corvette Princess Cecile, and former librarian Mundy is the Princess Cecile's signals officer and resident computer wizard. They aid the Republic of Cinnabar in its fight against the tyrannical Alliance in a series of space-opera adventures." The book then lists the six books in the RCN series (that had been published by 2009) with a summary of each.

3. Herald, Diana Tixier; Stavole-Carter, Samuel (2019). Genreflecting: A Guide to Popular Reading Interests, 8th Edition (8 ed.). Santa Barbara, California: ABC-Clio. p. 375. ISBN 978-1-4408-5847-5. Retrieved 2023-05-21 – via Google Books.

   The book notes: "Drake, David. RCN Series (a.k.a. the Lt. Leary Series) (1998–). Daniel Leary is an officer in the Republic of Cinnabar Navy (RCN). Lady Adele Mundy is a librarian and a spy. These clever novels of political intrigue and battle action are Drake's SF homage to Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin Series; 12 volumes, with the most recent published in 2018. Most of the titles are available as audiobooks too." The book lists the 12 books in the RCN series that had been published by 2019.

4. Moyer, Jessica E.; Donaldson, Christy; Wilson, Cassie (2010). "Everything Science Fiction". In Moyer, Jessica E. (ed.). Integrated Advisory Service: Breaking Through the Book Boundary to Better Serve Library Users. Santa Barbara, California: Libraries Unlimited. p. 238. ISBN 978-1-59158-718-7. Retrieved 2023-05-21 – via Internet Archive.

   The book notes: "Lt. Leary, David Drake, With the Lightnings (1998) BK, UAB. Drake's Lt. Leary series draws on the same historical inspiration as Weber's Honor Harrington books, but is more upbeat and presents less-serious issues. Leary is an easygoing officer with an amazing ability to land on his feet, and his sidekick is Adele, a deadly librarian and information officer. Many of Leary's crew are regulars and appear in each of his adventures."

5. Bourke, Liz (2012-04-03). ""I forget you have a sense of humor, Mundy." David Drake's The Road of Danger". Tor.com. Archived from the original on 2023-05-21. Retrieved 2023-05-21.

   The article notes: "The Road of Danger is the ninth novel in Drake’s Republic of Cinnabar Navy series, after 2010’s What Distant Deeps. The series as a whole is an excellent example of space operatic military SF, and The Road of Danger proves no exception. ... For me, though, the working out of the plot isn’t the real attraction of this novel. The characters and the worldbuilding are what bring me back to the RCN series book after book (all of which, fortunately, succeed quite well as standalones as well as in series), and The Road of Danger lives up to its predecessors. ... I’m entirely too fond of this series, which begins with 1998’s With the Lightnings — though to my mind the best place to start is with the second volume, Lt. Leary Commanding, where Drake really finds his speed with the characters and the setting. The Road of Danger is a solid instalment, with meaty character interaction and plenty of excitement."

6. Tillman, Peter D. (2004). "The Far Side of the Stars". SF Site. Archived from the original on 2023-05-21. Retrieved 2023-05-21.

   The article notes: "The Far Side of the Stars is the third in David Drake's RCN series, light space opera books starring Lt. Daniel Leary, a young starship captain in the Republic of Cinnabar Navy, and his faithful and deadly Signal Officer Adele Mundy. I liked With the Lightnings, the first book of this series, a lot, but didn't much care for Lt. Leary, Commanding, the darker sequel. This one's an improvement, I thought, but still.... The RCN series is Drake's SF tribute to Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin Master & Commander series -- itself a knockoff of Forester's Hornblower stories1. The sfnalization of Jack Aubrey's Royal Navy is a bit too literal for my taste ... Leary and Mundy (the fighting librarian!) were a fresh, fun combination in With the Lightnings. In this book, they, and their supporting cast, seem a little shopworn. One of the pleasures of a good series is watching the characters and background develop and grow richer from book to book. So far, Leary, Mundy and their universe seem pretty static -- and I'm starting to think that they aren't really very likeable, or very interesting, people."

7. Lardas, Mark (2019-08-03). "'To Clear Away the Shadows' a fusion of societies". The Daily News. Archived from the original on 2023-05-21. Retrieved 2023-05-21.

   The review notes: "David Drake's RCN (Royal Cinnabar Navy) series is a set in the far future. Faster-than-light space travel exists. Two major star-faring nations with holdings in multiple star systems, the Republic of Cinnabar and the Alliance of Free Stars, are contending for supremacy. "To Clear Away the Shadows," by David Drake, is the 14th novel in the series. ... The earlier books in the series featured Daniel Leary and Adele Mundy, Cinnabar aristocrats, in a pairing similar to that of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series. Both have become senior enough that when they appear the fates of multiple star systems change."

Cunard (talk) 01:18, 21 May 2023 (UTC)

@Cunard Thanks. I'll use the content you found to expand the article shortly! _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 02:23, 21 May 2023 (UTC)