2006 military SF, fifth of this ongoing series. Dunbar's World is
being invaded from Pellegrino, and the RCN is called on by their
allies to help. But they don't really care that much, so they send one
underarmed ship and Daniel Leary.
Given how well Drake usually delineates worlds, I was surprised
to find myself a little lost here (or perhaps I was just tired); we
visit all three of the planets that are involved, including Bennaria
that regards Dunbar's World as its possession and has called for RCN
help, but for me at least Pellegrino tended to blur into the others.
Which is a pity, because it's the new worlds and new people that make
each book different from the previous ones even as they tend to follow
basically the same plot.
There are some jugglings of authority: for technical reasons Leary is
a passenger aboard his own ship, so he gets to train up someone else
in the art of captaincy. People make mistakes, perhaps more then usual
on the side of the good guys. A relayed signal is treated as deep
technical magic but mostly Mundy's abilities to break into all the
computers remain just helpful rather than a universal plot-solving
ticket. Descriptions do get quite repetitious: fair enough if we're
inside someone's head and they're mulling over something repeatedly,
not so good if it's someone's single personality trait being expressed
in nearly the same words again and again.
It's all right; nothing special, more of the same, but more of the
same is what I was in the mood for.
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