With the Lightnings

With the Lightnings, David Drake (Baen Books, 1998, ISBN 0-671-57886-3, cover by David Mattingly).

(Read the book online or download it for free at Baen's Free Library.)

2007 was the year that I expanded my reading of David Drake beyond the Hammer's Slammers tales. This novel was a most enjoyable addition to the reading I did.

The story seems to be an outgrowth of the short work that Drake contributed to the More Than Honor collection of short works. There are some similarities with the main character and one of the main secondary characters (a kind of Jeeves and Wooster relationship, without the master being a clueless idiot). The book grew out of Drake's love of (hey, another reason to like the guy!) the sea-faring tales of Patrick O'Brian. Another source is Poul Anderson's tales of Dominic Flandry. Toss in some Horatio Hornblower and stir well...

The two main characters are quite the mis-matched pair. Daniel Leary is serving in the Republic of Cinnabar's Navy. He could be home, getting ready to run the family estates, but quarreled with his father. So a career in the Navy seemed like a good idea. He runs up against Adele Mundy, a woman who can massage a database to get amazing results. Alas, she has it in for Leary ever since his family was involved in the massacre of her family (they were conspiring against the government of Cinnabar at the time).

They come together on a backwater planet that just happens to be the site of an invasion by one of Cinnabar's enemies. With little resources other than their wits and several members of Leary's crew that did not get swept up in the invasion, they must either escape or defeat the invaders.

A fun tale. Most definitely a fun tale. Let me tell you how much I enjoyed it: during the summer, I worked on the home improvement task from heck, stripping off the old "water treatment", cleaning and then re-"water treating" our deck and fence.

We have a large fence. It is six foot tall. Why six foot tall? Well, one of our dogs proved able to jump over anything less than six feet tall. It goes around the yard, most of the yard. The sides are "slotted", but the back is a solid "privacy" fence, so the amount of wood along the back probably is the same as the amount of wood employed on the two sides.

Strip, clean and paint. With carpal tunnel syndrome. Man, there were some days when I would come in, covered from head to toe with dirt, mold, mildew, old "water treatment", with my hands, fingers, wrists, arms, elbows and shoulders screaming from the abuse.

One day my wife and daughter went out while I was working on the project. They inadvertently locked the back door as well as the door between the garage (which leads into the cellar) and the kitchen. I discovered this when I finished for the day, cleaned the power washer and went to go inside to relax. Hmmmm...can't get into the house to clean up and relax!

I went to a neighbor's, used their telephone to leave a message for my wife (they were at a baby shower, so could not hear the cellphone) and then went downstairs to get a warm drink (since the cellar is lacking in refrigeration) and a book.

The book I picked up was With the Lightnings. Despite being covered from head to toe in grime, despite the pain from the CTS, I managed to lose myself in the book for a few hours before my wife returned. Any book that manages to get me past the joy of CTS is one well worth reading. I had bought the paperback version second-hand. I then proceeded to not only pay for the electronic version that is available for free at Baen's Free Library, but bought a hardcover copy as well. Then...electronic and hardcover copies of the other installments of the series. March 2008 will bring another installment; maybe by then I'll be "caught up"!

(Read again in 2008...)