In the Stormy Red Sky by David Drake
Cover art by Stephen Hickman
Published by Baen Books
Reviewed by Leigh Kimmel
If the "elevator pitch" for David Weber's Honor Harrington series was "Star Wars as written by C.S. Forester," David Drake's Republic of Cinnabar Navy series would be "Star Wars as written by Patrick O'Brian." Of course there's not quite a one-to-one translation of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin into the principal protagonists of this series. Although Daniel Leary is a bluff and hearty womanizer who tends to eat and drink too much and puts on weight if he's not careful, rather like Aubrey, he's also the naturalist who notices the native wildlife of whatever planet he sets down on, like Maturin. While Adele Murphy has many parallels with Maturin -- she's an outsider who got her position as a warrant officer because of a specialized skill, and she does Intelligence work on the side -- she's far more austere in temperament and interests, and asexual and aromantic, having no interest in any kind of eros, only philos, being quite satisfied to have the respect of the crew and a sense of family and belonging in the RCN.
As this novel, the seventh in the series, begins, Daniel Leary has been promoted to the rank of captain. He will be commanding a cruiser, the Milton, formerly the Alliance ship Scheer, which was captured in his action in the Jewel Cluster. He's now in command of a much larger crew, which means that he's got a lot of new people who know him only by reputation. However, he's made sure to put his own people in key positions, people who've been with him from the beginning. And that includes Adele Mundy as his Signals Officer, who's worked with him so long and so closely that she can pretty much anticipate his wishes before he articulates him.
Their relationship has come a long way since their initial meeting back in With the Lightnings, when Adele came very close to challenging Daniel to a duel. Of course she has never forgotten that Daniel's father, Corder Leary, the long-time Speaker of the Senate, ordered her family exterminated in the Proscriptions that followed the unmasking of the Three Circles Conspiracy. But she also is keenly aware that Daniel is on the outs with his father as a result of a quarrel about the propriety of remarriage to an established mistress after the death of one's lawful wife -- and Daniel paid a heavy price for that breach, having never learned how to manage his money because he hadn't needed to until that point.
Prize money for capturing enemy vessels has made Daniel wealthy, and his sister Deirdre now handles his finances, allowing him a face-saving avoidance of the fact that his estranged father is in fact the bank's principal owner. Deirdre is also their father's heir-designate, and will become Leary of Bantry after their father's demise, since Cinnabar aristocrats do not have any set primogeniture and apparently choose whichever child is best suited for the role.
However much Daniel would prefer to avoid matters political, his latest assignment is to deliver an ambassador to a key ally. Senator Forbes had been the Minister of Finance until shifts in the balance of power in the Senate resulted in her being put out to pasture. Presumably she is being given this new position in order to both give her an apparent honor and get her away from Xenos so she can't cause trouble now that she's out of power.
On the way to her new posting, they have a layover on Paton, where Daniel gets some interesting information about what appears to be a form of penal slavery on nearby Fonthill, the sole source of shinewood, a much-prized material for fine cabinetry and the like. This will become important, particularly when they arrive on Karst and discover that the new Hegemon is a foolish youngster who is not apt to be useful to the Republic of Cinnabar until he is taught wisdom, something far beyond the mandate of either Ambassador Forbes or Captain Leary.
However, they get some troubling news -- the RCN has experienced a significant defeat at New Harmony, caught by surprise while still in harbor. Adele gets confirmation of it by her own special channels, and when Ambassador Forbes wants to flounce in response to the young Hegemon's disrespect, Daniel calls a private meeting on the bridge of the Milton, just himself, Forbes and Adele, to break the news of just what is going on, and what this means. Yes, they can indulge the Ambassador in her desire to flounce and return to Xenos with the bad news. However, that will only give the Alliance time to consolidate their victory in the Montserrat Stars, to the point that it will take a far larger fleet to dislodge than the RCN has available. The Milton is a formidable ship by itself, and they are close enough to get there in time to relieve the besieged fleet at Cacique before the Alliance admiral can come back to finish the job -- if Forbes can set aside her personal pride for the greater good of the Republic.
With a little flattery, Daniel is able to convince Forbes that it is to her advantage to participate in his plan to go to Bolton, the Alliance's sector capital in the Montserrat Stars, and strike while the Alliance Navy is still overextended. But first they need troops, and Forbes' status as a Senator of the Republic will stand them in better stead than what Daniel could achieve by himself.
It involves some intricate maneuvering and some rather iffy dealings with a group of traders who are little better than pirates, but they go to Fonthill and relieve William Beckford of his runaway slave problem -- and of his entire penal slavery racket in the process.
With a suitable force to take ground, they head off to Bolton to do battle with the Alliance. And in true David Drake fashion, it's quite a spectacular battle. However, the victory that they have achieved is not complete, and Daniel knows that leaving Alliance forces is just asking for trouble down the road. So he gives his makeshift fleet just enough time for critical repairs, and then it's once more into the breach, to an even fiercer fight than the first time around. Furthermore, he has a special request from Ambassador Forbes -- that he be brevetted to a rank suitable for the size of force he is temporarily commanding, so that he will be able to command effectively.
It's a battle fierce enough that the Milton takes a direct hit to her stern, one that would have obliterated the Princess Cecile, Daniel's first command. As it is, a number of his trusted officers from those days die when the secondary command center, the BDC or Battle Direction Center, is destroyed. Although the bridge retains integrity, the impact is sufficient to break loose a jumpseat, which strikes Daniel on the head and knocks him out cold. As a result, Adele has to jump into the breach and take command of the entire fleet, using her mastery of information to provide the necessary solutions.
It's a spectacular finish to a stunning fight, and yes, Daniel does pull through, even if he's lost a number of his most trusted people. And at the end there's a suitable reward for Adele for that moment of heroism when she had to assume responsibility far beyond her normal duties.
Once again, it's interesting to notice just how much David Drake must hate Charles Platt, given that yet another repellant character is given the man's name. The sort of character who, rather like Pavel Young in the Honor Harrington 'verse, doesn't even rise to the level of meriting the description of "villain," for that would imply a certain grandeur of evil, a level of wrongdoing that inspires a certain quality of awe even in one's moral condemnation of the character's acts. Instead, this character, like so many others, inspires only revulsion and contempt. However, given the nature of the offense that appears to have inspired the enmity in the Primary World, it would seem that such an enduring detestation is justified. On the other hand, I'm not sure exactly what beef Mr. Drake has with Tom Disch, to have another particularly disagreeable character given the name of Disch.
Buy In the Stormy Red Sky from Amazon.com
Review posted December 12, 2020
