Lt. Leary Commanding **Signed**

In a fast-paced novel of deep-space adventure, the crew of the corvette Princess Cecile wages war on bureaucrats, turncoats, desert winds, and cabin fever. Original.

No one who read Drake's first account of Lt. Daniel Leary's adventures in With the Lightnings will be surprised at the appearance of this sequel; that novel clearly launched a series. What is surprising, however, is the wonderfully strong quality of the follow-up. Although Drake starts off on an odd note (with a panoramic view of a military-SF hierarchical society), his Dan Leary and Signal Officer Adele Mundy prove an uncommonly engaging pair of protagonists. Mundy in particular is something of a novelty in the fieldAnot particularly attractive, she's not only older than Leary, but she's also a formidable pistol shot, a genius with electronics (albeit something of a klutz otherwise) and not romantically involved with Leary (or anybody else). Finding themselves aboard the Royal Cinnabar Navy ship Princess Cecile, the two plunge into a multilayered sequence of adventures. They survive bureaucratic pettifogging as well as the machinations of charming and unscrupulous political exiles trying to get home, peril in space, attempted assassinations and an encounter with a den of pirates they hope to make into allies against Cinnabar's enemies. The suspense on the way to the climactic battle is genuine, and the action scenes are up to the author's very high standard. To top that off, Drake has also managed to rein in his sometimes tedious cynicism, replacing it with dry wit. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Military science-fiction specialist Drake continues the series he began with With the Lightnings (1998). For the uninitiated, the heroic Republic of Cinnabar is at war with the evil-empire Alliance of Free Stars. Last time out, disgraced aristocrat and data-whiz Adele Mundy teamed up with Lt. Cassian Daniels to throw a spanner in the empire's works. This time, Adele teams up with the lieutenant of the title, another veteran of the previous episode, now in command of his own space corvette. As always with Drake, you take the politicking along with the action, though the proportions vary from yarn to yarn. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Drake fans will be neither surprised nor disappointed by the sequel to With the Lightnings (1998). Brilliant, pudgy, womanizing Royal Cinnabar Navy Lieutenant Daniel Leary and his unromantic partner, cybernetician and expert pistol shot Adele Mundy, now become embroiled in a political crisis on a distant planet, where one faction has called in Cinnabar's enemies, the Alliance, to assist it. In the process of bringing the machinations of Cinnabar's enemies to nought, Leary, Mundy, and the RCS Princess Cecile survive assassination and kidnapping attempts, refittings, assaults on enemy strongholds, perilous interstellar voyages, negotiations and alliances with space pirates, and finally a hair-thin victory. A fair amount of Drake's world building continues either at or above his standard, and maybe a mite over the top, but he couldn't write a bad action scene at gunpoint, and his sense of humor infuses the characters here with agreeable qualities not always found elsewhere in his work. Grand fun for lovers of action in high space. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Given command of the Princess Cecile, a space-faring corvette of the Republic of Cinnabar Navy, Lt. Daniel Leary receives an assignment to travel to the planet Strymon to reinforce that volatile world!s alliance with Cinnabar. Instead of a routine voyage, however, Leary contends with an unwelcome passenger, political sabotage, and an attempt to maroon him on a backward planet. Drake!s sequel to With the Lightnings continues the saga of a brash and brilliant young man determined to make his way by his own merits. Filled with battle scenes on the ground and in the far reaches of space, this sf adventure should appeal to fans of military sf. Suitable for most libraries.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.