At the start of Lord Hornblower, the tenth book in the excellent series by C.S. Forester, Horatio Hornblower has been ill and has spent a long time onshore. Finally, he is better and receives new orders. This time Lord St. Vincent sends Commodore…
Once again we follow the exploits of Captain Jack Aubrey, a British naval officer, and Stephen Maturin, Aubrey’s particular friend, ship surgeon, and spy. The Far Side of the World, an excellent navy fiction novel by Patrick O’Brian, is the book that gave…
This is the second book in Richard Woodman’s trilogy about William Kite and the sequel to The Guineaman. The action in The Privateersman takes place at the beginning of the American Revolution. William Kite is now a widower, a ship-owner, and exiled from Liverpool,…
Ramage and the Renegades is a great historical fiction book and important in the Lord Ramage series. In this book, the Marchesa of Volterra, who has been Lord Ramage’s love through the series so far, realizes that marriage is not going to…
Commodore Hornblower (UK title: The Commodore) was the fourth Hornblower book to be written, but in the internal chronology of the Hornblower saga, it is the eight. It is among the best books in the Hornblower Saga, It is now 1812, and Hornblower…
The Admirals’ Game is the fifth book in David Donachie’s series about John Pearce. It is 1794, and John Pearce is now a Lieutenant. He has recently returned from the Atlantic. As usual, he gets caught up in power struggles between…
Galleon is the third book in the Ned Yorke series. In Jamaica Ned Yorke, the leader of the buccaneers, and Sir Thomas Whetstone, his second-in-command, begin to build homes on their plantations. They are now both extremely rich men. But…
In this installment in Alexander Kent’s excellent series about Richard Bolitho, the action takes place in 1798. Napoleon is concentrating his forces in the Mediterranean. He is preparing to annex Egypt. And now the newly promoted Commodore Richard Bolitho is sent…
The Lord Ramage series by Dudley Pope is one of my favorite series. It is very, very entertaining and full of clever naval action. A very imaginative and interesting series! In Governor Ramage, the fourth book in the Ramage series, Lieutenant…
I like this series better and better. I thought the first book I read was good, but not in any way exceptional. But this book, actually the eleventh in the sequence I think, more or less blew my mind. To…
