2008 military SF, sixth of this ongoing series. Another small war,
another planet.
Well, yes. We know going in what's going to happen in broad
outline, because it's what usually happens: Leary and Mundy are sent
to a trouble spot to turn a bad situation for the Republic into a good
one. This time there's system A that's under siege, and nearby system
B that's having a conflict with the enemy Alliance that's so
low-intensity it's practically non-existent, but talking it up is good
politics for them. So Leary gets sent to B and brews up the small war
into a big one, attacking isolated posts and taking prizes so that the
Alliance will have to shift forces to retaliate. (Against the locals
who were having that low-intensity conflict, but they're only allies
of the Republic so that's all right.) This is Drake, so Realpolitik
predominates, but this one's a bit less cheery space action and a bit
more focused on the toll in death and injury.
It helps that Mundy, the Maturin-like outsider in this pairing, got
involved in some intense combat in the previous book and is still
working through the trauma. But what I'm reading this series for,
beyond more of the same space and ground action done well, is the
gradual development of the people in it, not just the principals but
the other sailors of Leary's crew. And that's done well here: some go
through major problems physical or mental, others just get on with
doing their jobs, some come to their limits, others exceed them, and
if a newcomer is perhaps a bit too "Mundy, only in a different body
so that she can be in two places at once" he may get more interesting
with repeat appearances.
It's still fluff, but it's good fluff with something serious to say.
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