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 Cinnabar Navy (RCN), and Adele Mundy, a librarian and spy. Drake has written about the literary ancestry of his series:[1]
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 antecedent of With the Lightnings.[2]
The various stories of the series are based on classical conflicts from antiquity, usually those documented by Ancient Greek historians, though also including Ancient Roman ones.[3]
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The RCN Series focuses on the intertwined lives of two primary characters. Daniel Leary is a Lieutenant in the Republic of Cinnabar Navy, a brilliant strategist, charismatic leader, charmer of women, and also the estranged son of Speaker Corder Leary, a feared, revered, and respected member of the planet of Cinnabar's government. Adele Mundy is a librarian with a deep-rooted passion for information and knowledge, which has fueled her unparalleled talents in the areas of hacking and systems infiltration. A former member of the Cinnabaran aristocracy, Adele also is an expert shot with a handgun, a skill honed by the aristocratic necessity to defend herself in pistol duels.
During an attempt by the totalitarian Alliance of Free Stars to stage a takeover-by-proxy of a Cinnabaran ally, Adele and Leary are pressed together by circumstance in order to serve the interests of their shared homeworld. Complicating matters is the fact that Adele is living in exile from Cinnabar, having left the planet only to be unable to return after her family were executed for their part in a nearly successful treason plot against Cinnabar—a string of executions ordered by Daniel's father, Speaker Leary. Nonetheless, Daniel and Adele reach an understanding and eventually a friendship, and along with an extensive cast of characters continue their travels together in service of the RCN, defending against threats from the Alliance and others.
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 atmosphere 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 and vehicle 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. In addition to point defense, the ship-mounted plasma systems are used for close range or atmospheric ship-to-ship combat. In atmosphere, the kinetic missiles are unusable, due to their utilization of the matter-antimatter High Drive.
As of 2011, the series consists of eight novels, with a ninth to be published April 2012[4]:
| With the Lightnings | 1998 | ISBN 0-671-87881-6 |
| Lt. Leary Commanding | 2000 | ISBN 0-671-57875-8 |
| The Far Side of the Stars | 2003 | ISBN 0-7434-7158-X |
| The Way to Glory | 2005 | ISBN 0-7434-9882-8 |
| Some Golden Harbor | 2006 | ISBN 1-4165-2080-5 |
| When The Tide Rises | 2008 | ISBN 1-4165-5527-7 |
| In the Stormy Red Sky | 2009 | ISBN 1-4165-9159-1 |
| What Distant Deeps | 2010 | ISBN 1-4391-3366-2 |
| The Road of Danger | 2012 | ISBN 978-1451638158 |
As of July 2011 the first three titles are available as free ebooks from the Baen Free Library. The first six titles are also available via a free CD image hosted on Baen's The Fifth Imperium website.[5]