Gather A King's Cutter (Nathaniel Drinkwater, #2) Authored By Richard Woodman Readable In Version

isand Nathaniel Drinkwater is back in the Royal Navy, this time appointed to thegun cutter Kestrel, commanded by the inscrutable Madoc Griffiths, With the gathering menace of the French Revolution, he is involved in secret and dangerous operations off the French Coast, including the rescue of migrs and the landing of agents.
As Europe plunges deeper into war, Kestrel takes part in the struggle for supremacy in the Channel and Drinkwater has some sinister encounters with Edouard Santhonax, a man who is stirring up interest with British government agents.
Through Drinkwater's initiative the network of intrigue is discovered, but the Royal Navy is paralyzed by mutiny, Will Kestrel have to stand alone between

the Dutch Fleet and disaster Events come to a climax at Camperdown, and in the aftermath of the bloody battle Drinkwater and his opponent come face to face.
After a tremendous experience with S, Thomas Russell's Under Enemy Colours, my appetite was whet for some more fighting sail novels, At my local library, I stumbled across what appears to be the entire series of Woodman's Nathaniel Drinkwater novels and, though I remembered the Eye of the Fleet as only being mildly engaging, I eagerly searched out the second book in the series, A King's Cutter and found it to be solid.
I was not quite as impressed as with the new hero on the quarterdeck from Russell, but I was satisfied,

I should note for those who do not devour this subgenre of historical fiction as I do that it is customary for protagonists to start out as midshipmen or lieutenants on a man o' war and be gradually promoted to Master amp Commander of a smaller vessel until reaching postrank and through much derringdo usually, consisting of the events of several books and passing through the period of French Republicanism leading through the Napoleonic Wars an exception would be the James Lester series told from an American protagonist's perspective to reach eventual flag rank.
Most of these protagonists, whether Kent's Bolitho, O'Brian's Aubrey, Parkinson's Delancey, Pope's Ramage, or Lambdin's Lewrie have some kind of socioeconomic disadvantage working against their possibility of promotion and, of course, all of these are much more competent as seamen and commanders than those who are in authority over them.
Drinkwater is no exception.

As a result, every time our hero makes a command decision which involves risk, the ante is raised over a person with "influence" making that same decision, And, in some cases, the careers of the officers seem so like Horatio Nelson's complete with hubris that you cannot help but both smile and groan at the parallels, At least, early on, Drinkwater doesn't share this burden of emulating Nelson, but he is remarkably fortunate in leading boarding parties and involved in spying on French shores through providing transport for a master spy and counterespionage unintentional thought it is on his home shore.


Suffice it to say that this novel has engaging sailing scenes and character intrigue interspersed with its modest of necessity actions with the cutter that the reader will not be disappointed with its pacing.
The second Drinkwater edition carries our hero twenty years after the affairs of the first volume, Drinkwater is first lieutenant on a small cutter that tangles with a French provocateur and ends with the battle of Camperdown as viewed from the deck of a very small cutter.


Again, fabulous characterization, gruesome action, and dark nuance, The gap in years since the first Drinkwater story and the second threw me for a lurch, It is refreshing to have a character who is not awarded instant fame, promotion, and professional success the absurdly infallible and successful Ramage and meteoric rise of Kydd come to mind it does make me sad to follow a character whose professional achievement seems to have passed him by I like the fellow and wish the Navy had been kinder to him.
The nauticals were very interesting, and this series has a more realistic view of life on ship at that time, the hard life that it was and the hard cases in the crew who are not instantly overcome with slathering heroworship the instant our protagonist steps abord.
The story is wellcrafted and also gives a good picture of the historical and political influences of the time, and the battles are very gory but well done, I wasn't very enthusiastic about the first book in the series, but it appears that the author's skill advanced quite a bit by the time he wrote this one, the second.
There are fewer asides to the reader, more skillful use of dialogue and description to show us what is happening, and overall a much more polished book, This is the second in a series I certainly intend to pursue, I am a fan of the Age of Fighting Sail genre and this author and his work are a welcome addition, A good second book for the series

I like the act that everything just doesnt happen for the hero, that it is up and down, just like normal life.


And yet, he triest t keep his honor and does so I really liked bookbut unfortunately this one was very boring,

Spoilers ahead:
The problem wasn't with the writing, it was to do with the plot, After being made acting lieutenant in the first book, I had expected Drinkwater ND to be promoted here, maybe even made captain of his own cutter! Instead, it'syears later and he's acting status was not confirmed when Captain Hope died and he spent most of the intervening timeyears as a second mate on a Trinity House yacht.


When the book starts, he is offered a post by his old friend Lt, Devaux, now Lord Dungarth to serve on the armed navy cutter Kestrel for special service with an acting lieutenant's commission and second in command, The cutter is to serve as a spy ship to shuttle spies back and forth from the French mainland and do any other clandestine work,

Later on, the cutter is seconded to Admiral Duncan's fleet where it does busy work that cutters are built to do, i, e. acting as dispatch cutter, ferrying personnel, acting as eyes, etc, None of any of the above is exciting and is frankly a bit boring and depressing,

The next big happening in the book is the mutiny at Spithead and Nore, Again, the author tries to include history in the book but I didn't come here to read history, I came here to read historical fiction,

There is a bit of action towards when the Kestrel participates in the Battle of Camperdown against the Dutch, But since the Kestrel is a mere cutter, she doesn't participate in the main action, Nevertheless she does fight against a brig and defeats her, At the end, ND's acting commission is confirmed, End spoilers.

A lot Hornblower clone series have included a spy segment/book but I've found all of them boring, mainly because none of the authors have done as good a job as CSF of imbuing personalities into their characters.
This series is more of an action driving series rather than a character driven series so when there is no action it becomes boring, I mean, ND is pretty much your run of the mill naval fiction hero material,

And it is depressing when your hero is in a dead end job because most of us live vicariously through him when reading the book for me anyway.
The wife is also referred to regularly throughout the book but mainly as a reminder that he's married, just like us when we're out doing male bonding as a reminder that we are married and we have to be home sometime.


Other things that I haven't mentioned is that the author does a good job of describing relationships in the small cutter, As it is a small ship, all the officers have to work closely together and get quite a bit of text time, There is a bit of hero worshiping, I hope it doesn't get as bad as the Ramage books,

There is also a big thread running in the book about the French spymaster Capitaine Santhonax, I don't like antagonists but to cop a phrase from another reviewer, he is added to provide an element of conflict and antagonism, I always feel that if your plot is done well, you don't need an antagonist,

Anyway I certainly hope the next book is better,
Not as actionpacked as the first in the series yet, I have ordered, Richard Woodman became an indentured midshipman in cargo liners atand has sailed in a variety of ships, serving from apprentice to captain, He remains a professional sailor and inwon the Marine Societys Harmer Award, Richard Woodman became an indentured midshipman in cargo liners atand has sailed in a variety of ships, serving from apprentice to captain, He remains a professional sailor and inwon the Marine Society's Harmer Award, sitelink.