Truth be told, With The Lightnings — David Drake’s first entry in the Leary-Mundy space opera series — is available for free. But it’s still a fun series, not least because Drake has no intention of producing a happy-shiny spacefaring culture that has learned to get beyond those things that divide us and all the other anodyne proclamations. Nope! Leary and Mundy work for a star nation that can be rather obnoxious at times, amazingly culturally chauvinistic, and often cheerfully indifferent to corruption and the two don’t try to do anything about that. And why should they care about the way this might come across to their distant ancestors (i.e., us)? We’re practically barbarians ourselves! I don’t know if I’d want to read nothing else besides this series, but it usually serves as a decent bracer.
And so, adieu to Silverlock.