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4.0 out of 5 stars
Essential volume in the series, Feb 6 2002
For readers of the Ramage series this is a critical volume. Captain Lord Ramage finally realizes that marriage to his long-time love, the Marchesa of Volterra, is not going to happen. A fragile peace has come to Europe. The Marchesa has decided to return to Italy despite the fact her enemy Napoleon still rules there. Ramage is off to the American Tropics again on a secret mission to survey a South Atlantic island. He finds a mix of surprising, deadly, and lovely discoveries. The novel is very slow starting. It focuses on people more than action. An unprecedented amount of informal conversation between crew and captain is a hallmark of this series, but this volume is more reliant than usual on dialogue and repartee. This story is best for how Ramage has to deal with civilians on his desert isle, and with the Marchesa, the IDEA of the Marchesa, and with a new woman in his life. This is almost a romance novel for men. For once his fierce reputation works against him, as he is manipulated by pirates. As usual the writing is smooth, although a great stretch of the book lacks the tension of others due to it being peace time. Pope makes use of an expedition artist to describe the beauty of tropical skies and waters. You'll find interesting vignettes on shipyards, the Hydrographic Office ("Who knows, one day we might be able to print our own charts..."!), the despicable peace treaty of Amiens, shipboard chaplains, ship's books, and tropical clouds. An excellent map is included.
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