King's Captain
Following the footsteps of Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey, whose ripping adventures capture thousands of new readers each year, comes the heir apparent to the mantle of Forester and O'Brian: Dewey Lambdin, and his acclaimed Alan Lewrie series. In King's Captain, Lewrie is promoted for his quick action in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, but before he's even had a chance to settle into his new role, a mutiny rages through the fleet, and the sudden reappearance of an old enemy has Lewrie...
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Following the footsteps of Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey, whose ripping adventures capture thousands of new readers each year, comes the heir apparent to the mantle of Forester and O'Brian: Dewey Lambdin, and his acclaimed Alan Lewrie series. In this latest adventure Lewrie is promoted for his quick action in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, but before he's even had a chance to settle into his new role, a mutiny rages through the fleet, and the sudden reappearance of an old enemy has Lewrie fighting not just for his command, but for his life.Publishers WeeklyThe ninth book in Lambdin's Alan Lewrie series (The King's Coat, etc.) begins rousingly enough with the famous British defeat of a Spanish armada at Cape Saint Vincent in 1797. Lewrie comes in for some glory by trusting Nelson and participating in an apparently foolhardy maneuver that ensures victory for the English. After a short visit at homeDdreaming all the while of anticipated prize moneyDLewrie is made captain of the brand-new frigate Proteus. Before he sets to sea, though, Lewrie and his officers are ensnared in the mutinies at Spithead and Nore. The tars are petitioning for fairer wages, medical care and shipboard treatment. Lewrie faces a fierce enmity from a seaman he isDerroneouslyDsure he has never met before and spends most of the book planning to wrest HMS Proteus away from the mutineers. Eventually, of course, he does, and again, of course, Lewrie comes out on top. The delivery of a last-minute anonymous letter detailing Lewrie's extramarital escapades acts as a teaser for the next book. It is impossible not to compare Lambdin's Lewrie adventures to Patrick O'Brian's dazzling Aubrey-Maturin seriesDand the comparison does not favor Lambdin. O'Brian would probably have dealt with the Nore mutiny in a chapter or two: Lambdin takes considerably more pages. There is less seamanship here and practically no memorable characters. Language veers from the quaintly archaic to the brashly anachronistic: "Do-able, d'ye think?" Despite efforts at painting Lewrie as a forerunner of Flashman, there's no real humor. Also, Lambdin's afterword explaining doings at the Nore should have been a foreword. Readers desperate for an O'Brianesque fix may squeeze some enjoyment out of Lambdin's latest, but they will perhaps not be surprised to discover that Alan Lewrie is no Jack Aubrey. (Dec. 15) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
Off Jester's lee bow, down to the Sou'east, there were about eight or nine Spanish ships of the line, with accompanying frigates, and coming up slowly to merge with another pack. And that pack, Good God! Seventeen, at the last, tall-sided, ugly brutes there were; two-decker 68's, 74's and 80-gunners; some of them 3-deckers, and one monstrous 4-decker flying more admiral's flags than sail-canvas, it seemed. And so stuffed with guns that every time she lit off a broadside, it looked like a mountain blowing up!\ "I can make out, sir..." Lt. Ralph Knolles attempted to say, as he took off his hat and swiped both forearms of his coat at his hair and brows. A bad sign, that; usually, one nervous hand over his blonde locks was sufficient sign of nervousness.\ "Aye, Mister Knolles?" Commander Alan Lewrie replied, sounding almost calm in comparison.\ "Beyond, sir." Knolles pointed towards the Spanish fleet. "It may not be a convoy. About eight or nine more rather large ships over yonder...to the West-Nor'west. Do they all assemble, sir...Well!"\ "Two-deckers, d'ye think, sir? Lewrie frowned, stepping to the starboard side of his quarterdeck, leaning on the bulwarks, and raising his telescope for a look-see.\ "Cah-rrisstt!" Was Lewrie's sudden, un-captainly comment. And a rather loud comment it was, too.\ In his telescope's ocular, he'd just discovered the fore-end of a ship of the line which wasn't crossing right-to-left, sailing obediently in the battle-line. He was looking at the beak-head and figure-head, the cutwater and frothing bow-wave below an out-thrust bowsprit and jib-boom of a warship - pointing right at him!
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\ Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly\ The ninth book in Lambdin's Alan Lewrie series (The King's Coat, etc.) begins rousingly enough with the famous British defeat of a Spanish armada at Cape Saint Vincent in 1797. Lewrie comes in for some glory by trusting Nelson and participating in an apparently foolhardy maneuver that ensures victory for the English. After a short visit at homeDdreaming all the while of anticipated prize moneyDLewrie is made captain of the brand-new frigate Proteus. Before he sets to sea, though, Lewrie and his officers are ensnared in the mutinies at Spithead and Nore. The tars are petitioning for fairer wages, medical care and shipboard treatment. Lewrie faces a fierce enmity from a seaman he isDerroneouslyDsure he has never met before and spends most of the book planning to wrest HMS Proteus away from the mutineers. Eventually, of course, he does, and again, of course, Lewrie comes out on top. The delivery of a last-minute anonymous letter detailing Lewrie's extramarital escapades acts as a teaser for the next book. It is impossible not to compare Lambdin's Lewrie adventures to Patrick O'Brian's dazzling Aubrey-Maturin seriesDand the comparison does not favor Lambdin. O'Brian would probably have dealt with the Nore mutiny in a chapter or two: Lambdin takes considerably more pages. There is less seamanship here and practically no memorable characters. Language veers from the quaintly archaic to the brashly anachronistic: "Do-able, d'ye think?" Despite efforts at painting Lewrie as a forerunner of Flashman, there's no real humor. Also, Lambdin's afterword explaining doings at the Nore should have been a foreword. Readers desperate for an O'Brianesque fix may squeeze some enjoyment out of Lambdin's latest, but they will perhaps not be surprised to discover that Alan Lewrie is no Jack Aubrey. (Dec. 15) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ Kirkus ReviewsThundering guns shiver the Atlantic to open the ninth Alan Lewrie British naval yarn (Jester's Fortune, 1999, etc.) set during the Napoleonic Wars. This will be Lewrie's last adventure aboard the Jester, since in the opening battle against the Spanish fleet at Cape St. Vincent, Lewrie and Jester handle themselves so well that he's promoted to commander and, with Jester in dry-dock, given a new frigate to command. When Lewrie returns home to wife Caroline to see to his lands and business affairs, taxes are high, wages low, and the Industrial Revolution has been jump-started by England's war needs. The industrial upheaval indeed accounts for scary mutineers, who run a red flag up ships at dock, and a call for higher wages. Lewrie discovers that even gathering a crew for His Majesty's Ship Proteus is a huge problem. With a Damme and a twinkle, Lambdin's chewy prose demands the reader parse echoes of an earlier day. Rich fun.\ \
