RCN Series

The RCN Series (also known as the Lt. Leary series) is a sequence of stand-alone science fiction novels by David Drake. They center around Daniel Leary, an officer in the Republic of Cinnibar Navy (RCN), and Adele Mundy, a librarian and spy. Drake has written about the literary ancestry of his series: [http://david-drake.com/lightnings.html] :I've read Patrick O'Brian's novels and I love them. Some reviews have referred to my Leary/Mundy series as an SF version of Hornblower. That's not correct; I did an SF version of the Aubrey/Maturin series, Patrick O'Brian's superb knockoff of Forester's Hornblower.

In contrast to the hardcore military SF bent of Drake's Hammer's Slammers series, these novels are more character driven and feature political intrigue as well as battles.

The style and character dynamics trace their lineage back to "A Grand Tour" by David Drake from More than Honor, a story in the Honorverse setting. Although the setting universe is entirely separate. Careful reading may reveal similarities to the first novel in this series. Both were published in 1998. Indeed Drake confirms that "A Grand Tour" is the conceptual antecendant of "With the Lightnings". [http://www.david-drake.com/faq.html]

General plot

The books center around the lives of the above mentioned Adele Mundy, originally a librarian, and Daniel Leary, a rising officer in the RCN. They are thrown together on a provincial planet, which Daniel arrives at as part of a diplomatic party, while Adele is serving as resident librarian for the planet's current rulers.

An early point of conflict between the two main characters centered around the fact both came from highly political families within the government of Cinnabar. However, the Learys, led by Daniel's father, had uncovered a conspiracy involving the Mundys, leading to the latter's essential extermination, except for Adele, who at the time was studying off-planet.

Technology of the RCN universe

Interstellar travel is accomplished through the use of advanced sails on the hull of starships, which take advantage of a fictional pressure to move the crafts outside of the sidereal universe, allowing faster-than-light travel. Sub-lightspeed travel is driven by a matter-antimatter annihilating "High Drive". Use of the High Drive in an atmopshere results in catastrophic reactions with unspent antimatter from the drive, so for intra-atmospheric operations, ships use plasma motors that vent reaction mass (water) from the fusion engines into rocket nozzles.

Hand weapons are generally based on electromagnetic acceleration of projectiles, while space weaponry consists of kinetic energy missiles accelerated to a high fraction of "c" (thereby rendering any warhead superfluous) and point defense plasma systems.

Bibliography

As of 2008, the series consists of six novels shown here with the year and ISBN of first publication.: