The Invasion Year: An Alan Lewrie Naval Adventure [Paperback]

"The Invasion Year" is the seventeenth, and latest, installment in Dewey Lambdin's naval adventure series set in the late Eighteenth Century and early Nineteenth Century. Like the previous addition to the series, "King, Ship and Sword", "The Invasion Year" will be of much more interest to long-time devotees of Alan Lewrie, Lambdin's roguish and entertaining hero, than it will be to readers who are new to the series.

This novel follows the pattern of its predecessor as the story again takes the form of three loosely connected story arcs, although this time two of the arcs are also broken up into their own disparate episodes. The result is a chronicle of sequential events that don't necessarily feel like they have a lot to do with each other, nor do they appear to be of much significance.

The adventure begins in the West Indies in late 1803, where Lewrie has just been part of a very successful pursuit and action preventing the French from reinforcing their recently reacquired possession of Louisiana. He participates in the interdiction of the French evacuation of Saint Domingue, then some uninspiring patrol and convoy work, before returning to England. At home, he receives some well-deserved recognition for services to the King (and a little more, due to one of George III's `wandering moments') and begins to develop a serious new romantic interest. Then, quicker than he can say "Jack Ketch", he finds himself back at sea, embroiled in a series of hare-brained schemes and adventures revolving around the threatened French invasion of England. These events are largely inconsequential, although producing enough action to keep the reader engaged for the final third of the book.

There are, as always, many amusing moments in the narrative as we see Lewrie's world from his wryly cynical perspective. Lambdin still writes for humorous effect and there are frequent payoffs. But this work bogs down in a series of relatively uninteresting events (including the opening sequence off Cap François, Saint Domingue, which appears to have been written primarily for a brief interaction between Lewrie and Lt. Josiah Willoughby, a real historical figure at the event, and their mutual discomfort at discovering a potential familial connection), with no cohesive plot worth noting, many breaks in the narrative to remind us of Lewrie's past experiences and the relevance of previous characters (some of whom are reintroduced in this work to no apparent purpose beyond, perhaps, keeping up with them), and a couple of glaring factual errors in reintroducing some of these characters. This effort is below Lambdin's usual high quality of writing.

Readers who have followed Lewrie's adventures for years should still find this a satisfactory, if uninspiring, read as we follow our hero's progress through a period of personal and plot development, knowing that some major excitement awaits in 1805. New readers of this series may find "The Invasion Year" a bit muddled and confusing, without enough in the way of entertainment to reward their investment in the story.

Dewey Lambdin has been my favorite author since I read The French Admiral. Like the other 16 books in this series, there's a lot to like: characters you love; characters you hate; fascinating history mixed into the fiction; unmatched humor; a real page-turner as far as readability...

What's missing is a climactic ending. Sadly, like several of the recent books, the story builds and builds into... nothing. Unlike the best books in this series, there are no edge-of-your-seat sea battles. There are no evil villains (like Choundas) who either get away in the end -- or get what's coming to them. There is no cliff-hanger ending. The story just ends.

Please, Mr. Lambdin, return to the formula that made this one of the greatest historical fiction series ever.

For those of us who have long been Alan Lewrie fans and who have followed his career through Dewey Lambdin's books, this was another chapter in Lewrie's life. For newcomers to the saga however, this book would probably not mean much. I would suggest starting with an earlier book, preferably the first one, and follow the story from the beginning. As always the book left me looking forward to the next one.

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