The Guineaman, by Richard Woodman

May 13, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: book review, historical fiction, naval fiction, Richard Woodman 

Guineaman, Richard WoodmanThe Guineaman is the first book in Richard Woodman’s William Kite trilogy. It is set in the middle of the eighteenth century. The main protagonist is a young man, son of a town apothecarist, who is forced to flee the scene of a crime, and heads to the coast of England where he is offered a position as surgeon on a ship involved in the slave trade.

William Kite takes it the job and thereafter endures the perils of the slave trade and his repugnance for it; yellow fever and the rapid promotion its toll among his shipmates brings him; the terrible treatment of the slaves by the slavers; the rapes of the female slaves; and in the end falling in love with a slave girl he names Puella.

Finally he lands in the West Indies, at the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War. He has enough of the slave trade already. And now he insists on quitting his job, and goes ashore with his beloved Puella.

There he is befriended by Mr. Mulgrave, a wealthy, civilized, rather Dickensian merchant, and offered a job in his trading company as his clerk. He does his job admirably, and soon becomes a wealthy man – a merchant, ship captain, and a trader. And eventually he sets his course for England with his black bride to attempt to clear his name and start a new life.

This is a well-written and in many ways good maritime fiction book. Richard Woodman knows naval history and he obviously has studied the slave trade as well. The Guineaman is an interesting book, with an interesting protagonist. The plot is intriguing. Also, I founds it interesting to read a martime fiction book where the hero is not a navy officer. This is a book I recommend for fans of Richard Woodman and readers interested in historical maritime fiction.

Links to books by Richard Woodman at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

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Audacity, Privateer Out of Portsmouth, by J. E. Fender

March 12, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: book review, historical fiction, J. E. Fender 

This is an interesting nautical fiction novel by J.E. Fender. This is the second volume of the Frost Saga, the story of one Geoffrey Frost, a mariner from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who is a great navigator,Audacity, Privateer out of Portsmouth, by J.E. Fender excellent naval commander, and a fierce armed combatant. He is also a gentleman, somewhat philosophical and learned in history, philosophy, and other fields. And, finally, he is a businessman. He does not like to waste time – time wasted is business lost for Geoffrey Frost, regardless of whether he employs himself as a trader or as a captain of a privateer.

Geoffrey Frost has entered the American Revolution on behalf of the colony of New Hampshire, commanding a captured British sloop o’ war and sailing out of Portsmouth to harass the British fleet. And as Frost doesn’t like to waste time, the story about him too moves fast, with little time spent ashore and lots of nautical action compared to most of the novels about naval warfare in the age of sail.

The story in Audacity, as in the first book in the series, is set during the American Revolution. Here Frost and his crew engage an English frigate very smartly, destroy another English Navy ship, and capture several British trading and supply ships. For Frost and his crew, that means a very nice sum in prize money, and it also serves to enhance Frost’s reputation and influence.

Audacity is very entertaining, rich on historical detail, and has great descriptions of the naval actions the ship engages in. The weakest part of the book is in the exceedingly conceited manner of behavior of the some of the characters, most notably Frost himself. He speaks as if he was reading from a government document or the small print clauses in an insurance policy. I think it is fairly unlikely that anyone ever stood on a quarterdeck and emitted any of the pompous speeches that Geoffrey Frost is guilty of.

Overall, I view Audacity as a very nice read, entertaining, and quite interesting as it deals with the Civil War and the emerging navy of the US. And I enjoy ther hero, the smart and brave Geoffrey Frost a lot!

Praise:

“This entertaining novel .. offers historical detail .. plenty of action, and unforgettable characters.” —Booklist

“The battle scenes are plentiful, the historic references neatly woven in ..”—Concord Monitor

“A seafaring yarn of the American Revolution, Audacity plunges into action and claps on sail.”—The Historical Novels Review

Links to books by J. E. Fender at Amazon US, Amazon UK, and Amazon CAN.

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Dead Reckoning, by C. Northcote Parkinson

November 13, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: book review, C. Northcote Parkinson, historical fiction, Richard Delancey 

Dead Reckoning is the fourth book in the Richard Delancey  series by C. Northcote Parkinson, and a very good one at that. We have now reached the year 1805, during The Napoleonic wars. Richard Delancey has Dead Reconing, by C. Northcote Parkinson married a former actress, Fiona, and is very happy. He is made post, brought back into the service, and given command over the old 32-gun frigate Laura. He is happy to be given command. However, his orders are not exactly what he would prefer as a recently married man. He has been assigned service in the Far East. He must part from his young wife for an unknown period of time.

There is a lot of naval action in this novel. There is convoy escort, a special assignment to chase down a French privateer that disturbs trade, an attack on Mauritius, as well as a bloody fight against two French frigates. In several instances Richard Delancey shows both courage and intelligence. His ingenious strategies while escorting a convoy of East Indiamen is very entertaining. So is the demonstration of pure willpower in the attack against a French privateer.

Delancey is a creative, solid, smart and very likeable officer in Her Majesty’s Navy. Dead Reckoning is thick with excellent plots and smart thinking. It is perhaps the best in the series so far, and certainly one that increased my interest in C. Northcote Parkinson’s series! Being a fan of nautical fiction, I rank this series highly!

Links to C. Northcote Parkinson’s books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

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The Wicked Trade, by Jan Needle

October 17, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: book review, historical fiction, Jan Needle, William Bentley 

This is the second book in the continuing story of Midshipman William Bentley, in Jan Needle’s realist and grim naval saga. The story of William Bentley is set in the early 19th century. The Wicked Trade is The Wicked Trade, by Jan Needle quite different from A Fine Boy for Killing. We catch up with William Bentley, survivor of the bloody Welfare mutiny, as a midshipman on the press tender Biter, a ship tasked with recruiting sailors to the Royal Navy – which mostly meant sending out press gangs and capturing able or not so able men.

William’s earlier experiences have stripped away his last traces of innocence, but his service in the London River-surrounded by corruption and greed-teaches him new lessons about the darker side of city life. When Biter is reassigned to combat the “wicked trade” of smuggling, Bentley and his fellow midshipman friend, Sam Holt, are soon drawn into a complicated conspiracy after two customs men are brutally murdered by a well-organized smuggling gang. Greed, corruption and betrayal reach high levels in the navy and the government, and the two midshipmen soon are way over their heads in a cesspool of savagery and duplicity.

The story is multithreaded, and mostly very well told. It is a book about smuggling, press gangs, whores, and love and class relations in England at the time. The books is not for the soft reader – it has some very brutal scenes (some nasty amateur dentistry for instance). As Jan Needle says, his project with this series of books is:

“What I am trying to do in my books is to get behind this myth, to show an age of desperate, ruthless struggle. In the eighteenth century, the British Navy carved out, with blood and violence, a huge portion of the world. The losses were enormous – but not from warfare, mainly. Firstly came disease, then accident: the peril of the sea.”

And he does manage to get behind the myths. In many ways The Wicked Trade is an outstanding book, even though I thought the ending was somewhat lacking and much too “lucky”. I to some extent feel Needle should concern himself a little bit more with the plot and the story, and a little less with gruesome details. Also, the plot, while exciting, doesn’t have the gripping quality of the first book in the series. However, for the most part, the characters are strong, vivid and well drawn.

Overall, The Wicked Trade is an entertaining but gruesome swashbuckler, albeit without the glory of a Hornblower, the class of a Ramage or the naval action of the Alan Lewrie series. Instead Needle gives a thoroughly grim and accurate portrayal of naval existence and the life of the poor. Prepare to be horrified!

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