With the Lightnings

Last updated
With the Lightnings
With the Lightnings.jpg
Author David Drake
Cover artist David Mattingly
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Series RCN Series
Genre Military space opera
Publisher Baen Books
Publication date
1998
Media typePrint (Paperback)
Pages323 pp (Paperback edition)
ISBN 0-671-87881-6
OCLC 38856076
Preceded byNone (first in the series) 
Followed byLt. Leary Commanding 

With the Lightnings is a 1998 science fiction novel by David Drake. It is the first part of the military space opera RCN Series.

Contents

Development

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. [1]

Plot

During a war between a Republic of Cinnabar and the Alliance of Free Stars, a coup d'état takes place on a neutral planet of Kostroma, with both factions becoming involved. Two Cinnabarian protagonists – a navy lieutenant and émigré librarian – find themselves in the center of the unfolding events.

Related Research Articles

Michael A. Stackpole Science fiction author

Michael Austin Stackpole is an American science fiction and fantasy author best known for his Star Wars and BattleTech books. He was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, but raised in Vermont. He has a BA in history from the University of Vermont. From 1977 on, he worked as a designer of role-playing games for various gaming companies, and wrote dozens of magazine articles with limited distribution within the industry. He lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Andre Alice Norton was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name Andre Norton, but also under Andrew North and Allen Weston. She was the first woman to be Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy, to be SFWA Grand Master, and to be inducted by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

David Drake American author of science fiction and fantasy literature

David A. Drake is an American author of science fiction and fantasy literature. A Vietnam War veteran who has worked as a lawyer, he is now a writer in the military science fiction genre.

Charles de Lint is a Canadian writer of Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese ancestry. He is married to, and plays music with, MaryAnn Harris.

The Aubrey–Maturin series is a sequence of nautical historical novels—20 completed and one unfinished—by Patrick O'Brian, set during the Napoleonic Wars and centring on the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy and his ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin, a physician, natural philosopher, and intelligence agent. The first novel, Master and Commander, was published in 1969 and the last finished novel in 1999. The 21st novel of the series, left unfinished at O'Brian's death in 2000, appeared in print in late 2004. The series received considerable international acclaim, and most of the novels reached The New York Times Best Seller list. These novels comprise the heart of the canon of an author often compared to Jane Austen, C. S. Forester and other British authors central to English literature.

<i>The Path of Daggers</i> 1998 novel by Robert Jordan

The Path of Daggers is a fantasy novel by American author Robert Jordan, the eighth book of his series The Wheel of Time. It was published by Tor Books and released on October 20, 1998. Upon its release, it immediately rose to the #1 position on the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list, making it the first Wheel of Time book to reach the #1 position on that list. It remained on the list for the next two months. This book is the shortest book in the main Wheel of Time series, consisting of a prologue and 31 chapters.

<i>A Second Chance at Eden</i> Short story collection by Peter F. Hamilton

A Second Chance at Eden (1998) is a collection of short stories by British writer Peter F. Hamilton, set in the Night's Dawn universe.

The Lightning Seeds English rock band

The Lightning Seeds are an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1989 by Ian Broudie, formerly of the bands Big in Japan, Care, and Original Mirrors. Originally a studio-based solo project for Broudie, the Lightning Seeds expanded into a touring band following Jollification (1994). The group experienced commercial success throughout the 1990s and are well known for their single "Three Lions", a collaboration with David Baddiel and Frank Skinner which reached No. 1 in the UK in 1996, with re-worked versions also reaching the top spot in both 1998 and 2018.

<i>Gardens of the Moon</i> Book One of Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steve Erikson

Gardens of the Moon is the first of ten novels in Canadian author Steven Erikson's high fantasy series the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

<i>Something Wicked This Way Comes</i> (novel) 1962 dark fantasy novel by Ray Bradbury

Something Wicked This Way Comes is a 1962 dark fantasy novel by Ray Bradbury. It is about two 13-year-old best friends, Jim Nightshade and William Halloway, and their nightmarish experience with a traveling carnival that comes to their Midwestern home, Green Town, Illinois, on October 24th. In dealing with the creepy figures of this carnival, the boys learn how to combat fear. The carnival's leader is the mysterious "Mr. Dark", who seemingly wields the power to grant the townspeople's secret desires. In reality, Dark is a malevolent being who, like the carnival, lives off the life force of those they enslave. Mr. Dark's presence is countered by that of Will's father, Charles Halloway, the janitor of the town library, who harbors his own secret fear of growing older because he feels he is too old to be Will's dad.

<i>More Than Honor</i>

More Than Honor, published in 1998, was the first anthology of stories set in the Honorverse. The stories in the anthologies serve to introduce characters, provide deeper more complete backstory and flesh out the universe, so claim the same canonical relevance as exposition in the main series. David Weber, author of the mainline Honor Harrington series, serves as editor for the anthologies, maintaining fidelity to the series canons.

<i>Black Gate</i> (magazine)

Black Gate is a fantasy magazine published by New Epoch Press. It was published in glossy print until 2011, after which it shifted online.

<i>The Pirates of Malaysia</i>

The Pirates of Malaysia is an exotic adventure novel written by Italian author Emilio Salgari, published in 1896. It features his most famous character, Sandokan, and is a sequel to The Tigers of Mompracem.

<i>Percy Jackson & the Olympians</i> Childrens fantasy adventure series

Percy Jackson & the Olympians is a pentalogy of fantasy novels written by American author Rick Riordan, and the first book series in the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles. The novels are set in a world with the Greek gods in the 21st century, and follows the protagonist Percy Jackson, a young demigod who must prevent the Titans, led by Kronos (Cronus), from destroying the world.

The RCN 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 described it as "an SF version of the Aubrey/Maturin series" by Patrick O'Brian. In contrast to the hardcore military science fiction bent of Drake's Hammer's Slammers series, these novels are more character-driven and feature political intrigue as well as battles.

Camp Half-Blood Chronicles is a media franchise created by author Rick Riordan, encompassing three five-part novel series, two short-story collections, two myth anthology books, a stand-alone short story, three crossover short stories, an essay collection, multiple guides, seven graphic novels, two films, a video game, a musical, and other media. Set in the modern world, it focuses on groups of demigod teenagers, and features many characters from Greek and Roman mythology. The first series, Percy Jackson & the Olympians, follows the adventures of a teen named Percy Jackson at a summer camp for Greek demigods. The second series, The Heroes of Olympus, introduces several more lead characters and a second camp for Roman demigods named Camp Jupiter. The third series, The Trials of Apollo, follows the now-mortal god Apollo, with appearances by many characters from the first and second series.

Jayme Lynn Blaschke is an American journalist and author of science fiction, fantasy and related non-fiction. Primarily known for his genre-related interviews with authors and editors, he published a collected volume of 17 interviews, Voices of Vision: Creators of Science Fiction and Fantasy Speak, through the University of Nebraska Press in 2005. In 2016 he published an extensively-researched history of the infamous brothel that served as the inspiration behind The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas titled Inside the Texas Chicken Ranch: The Definitive Account of the Best Little Whorehouse.

David Duchovny American actor, writer, producer, director, novelist, and singer-songwriter

David William Duchovny is an American actor, writer, producer, director, novelist, and singer-songwriter. He is known for playing FBI agent Fox Mulder on the television series The X-Files and writer Hank Moody on the television series Californication, both of which have earned him Golden Globe awards. Duchovny appeared in both X-Files films, the 1998 science fiction-thriller of the same name and the supernatural-thriller The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008). He executive-produced and starred in the historically based cop drama Aquarius (2015–16). Duchovny earned a B.A in English literature from Princeton University, and an MA in English literature from Yale University, and has since published four books: Holy Cow: A Modern-Day Dairy Tale (2015), Bucky F*cking Dent (2016), Miss Subways (2018) and Truly Like Lightning (2021).

This is list of works by American military science fiction and fantasy writer David Drake.

References

  1. "David Drake's FAQ". www.david-drake.com. Archived from the original on 2000-08-18.