Most helpful customer reviews
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Equality Dick wins again, Feb 13 2002
Kent has promoted Richard Bolitho an admiral earlier in the full series than do most other authors of nautical fiction, and with 14 long years to go before Bonaparte's defeat. Frigate captains have all the "fun," while admirals are involved in remote command decisions for masses of big slow ships. So how does Kent keep Bolitho busy and his readers excited? Will we see more of his nephew, Pascoe, already a first lieutenant? As a new rear-admiral in Book 13, Bolitho precipitously jumped aboard a frigate for a pursuit. Here Kent makes it so that nothing of Bolitho's squadron, after its pummeling in the Baltic, is initially available for the Biscay blockade BUT frigates! (And after the usual complaining about the perennial scarcity of frigates.) Once on station everyone is upset about the reappearance of the ancient Phalarope, Bolitho's first command long ago, and now with his nephew aboard as well. I was never clear just why its presence is so ghastly; nothing bad seems to happen. The fact her captain is a suspected coward is a separate theme made much of at first—Bolitho and his loyal Acting-Commodore Herrick almost fall out over dealing with him—but then peters out in late scenes. The story features two battles, the failed first setting up the sacrificial second, separated by soulful anxiety over the unreliable captain and the beloveds of several captains. Bolitho's squadron is racing to complete a secretive mission on which the Admiralty in general seems to frown, adding to the general malaise. One point of interest is to compare Bolitho's admiral's perspective on coastal and shore battles with the similar attack enthusiastically made by a junior Horatio Hornblower. Since we don't actually get to hear the Admiralty's final orders, it's unclear whether Bolitho actually ignores them? Another aspect of the novel is the parallelism established between Bolitho and his opposite number, a wiley French admiral. The French want to move an invasion fleet into the Channel and Bolitho wants to prevent that. Each has a parallel problem to solve, namely the presence of the other with an equal squadron. Maybe I've been reading this series too rapidly, for I didn't enjoy this voyage as much as most. As Bolitho has aged, approaching 50, he seems to be more concerned with positive personal and family relations. Bolitho is now regularly torn between duty and desire, his mind often wandering to insecure thoughts of his Belinda and home. I found the good times comradery and pining for loved ones among old series friends repetitive and rather tiresome (if not also unrealistic, and as if they have their own private and ongoing war). He, or the people around him, have become more explicit about his hero status equivalent to Lord Nelson's, and Kent makes more of Bolitho hero worship as a plot element. Destroying 300 boats with just a few broadsides, as Kent alludes in one battle, is quite fantastical, or an editorial error. Although much is made of the significance of the secret French semaphore system, and the importance of breaking it, actually so doing has no tactical effect on attacking French boats or encountering the French squadron. As usual, there's no map.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Tough Going for Bolitho in the Bay of Biscay., Dec 14 2000
. In the months before the Peace of Amiens provides a short breathing space, Richard Bolitho takes command of a blockading squadron off the Loire Estuary and, as always, is soon in the thick of action, launching attacks on French harbours and shipping. Napoleonic information technology, in the form of land-based semaphore signalling, provides a significant complication and Bolitho not only loses a ship, and a friend, but falls prisoner to the enemy. At this point one feared a repeat of the plot of Forrester's classic "Flying Colours" but Kent knows better and provides a satisfyingly different twist. The story is full of the usual action and accurate period detail. As with all the Bolitho books, much pleasure is also provided by the steady development of the other familiar characters such as Herrick, Allday, Pascoe and Inch. Now in his mid-forties, Bolitho has aged convincingly through the series and the relationships between himself and his long-time friends are depicted with considerable realism and charm. Another thoroughly enjoyable read for aficionados.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
It's going to be tough to see Bolitho go., Sep 22 2000
Another superb volume in the series that outshines all others in the nautical fiction genre. What makes this one special is that the reader is brought deeper into the inner selves of Bolitho, Herrick, Allday, Browne, and Pascoe. The result is the type of character development that the Aubrey/Maturin series has been primarily known for. Kent/Reeman is possibly nonpareil in taking his characters and making the reader feel that they are known as old friends and comrades would be. There are the usual great action scenes and crisp descriptions of shipboard life. It will truly be a sad day for me when I read of Bolitho's demise.
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by Alexander Kent
by Alexander Kent
by Alexander Kent
by Alexander Kent
by Alexander Kent
