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on An Eye of the Fleet (Nathaniel Drinkwater, #1)
was referred to Woodman by my Goodreads friend, David, I am a big fan of stories of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, This book starts in thes,
The book is well written and researched, The author obviously was a wealth of knowledge about sailing warships of theandth century, The book provides an excellent view of what life was like in a RN sailing ship in thes, I enjoyed the bits of history Woodman tossed into the story, I am looking forward to reading more of Woodman, So far, I must admit that Patrick OBrian is my favorite author in this genre,
I read this as an ebook downloaded from Amazon to my Kindle app for my iPad, The book ispages. The book was originally published in,
I recommend this to any reader who enjoys nautical fiction, One of the best writers in this genre, Excellent. A decent tale
An enjoyable tale in the midst of a period more or less forgetten by all but Alexander Kent.
Will red the next Fans of nautical age of sail fiction will very much enjoy this series, A gritty look at life on board a British frigate, The story centers around Nathaniel Drinkwater, the selfeffacing hero, who matures into a lieutenant under trying conditions, Similar is style and detail to O' brien
Seamanship is excellent and the characters are well developed, The use ofrd person narrative only enhances the tale, Enjoy Action in Admiral Rodney's dramatic Moonlight Battle of, when Cyclops' capture of the Santa Teresa plays a decisive part, is the start of Nathaniel Drinkwater's life at sea.
HMS Cyclops is involved in pursuing American privateers who are a danger to British trade and Drinkwater finds himself part of a prize crew when initiative and courage in a critical situation enable him to survive a dangerous encounter.
The writing is mostly easy to read and follow with a few hiccups, A lot goes on in the book, so much so that I have to refresh my memory by going back to the book to remember what I read.
Summary/Spoilers ahead:
The books starts off with Drinkwater as a new onboard midshipman on the frigate Cyclops, The captain is an old, almost over the hill Captain Hook who is a good captain, Somewhat kindly but run down in life due to his late promotion and lack of patronage and money, Fortunately the ship is also blessed with an elderly but competent Master who likes Drinkwater and two capable and friendly officers: Devaux, the aristocratic first officer and Wheeler the marine lieutenant.
The other lieutenants are basically fillers, The antagonist is the senior midshipman Morris, an older but still young man, a bully, tyrant and sodomite,
The action starts with the Moonlight Battle off Cape St, Vincentwhere the Calypso attacks and defeats a Spanish frigate and then saves it from going on to a lee shore, The next significant thing that happens is not a battle but when ND Drinkwater finally has enough of Morris and his bullying ways with the others and challenges him to a duel with sticks.
He beats Morris handily and Morris relents for awhile,
Next the Calypso captures an American privateer the Algonquin and ND is sent on board as part of the prize crew with Lt.
Price. However the Algonquin, with a heavy crew for prizes, manages to recover the ship, Price is killed and the British are locked up with a bleak future in a French hulk, ND is prompted by Hagen the marine sergeant to turn the tables and retake the prize, It is successful and they recapture the prize and land at Falmouth,
There is an interlude here where ND meets Elizabeth, the daughter of a poor rector, She is apparently going to be ND's love interest going forward, The Cyclops is away at sea so the crew have to wait on a hulk in the harbor,
While waiting, ND is volunteered as a temporary replacement mate to a Trinity House cutter which is going to make a short trip to check on the lighthouse at St.
Agnes in the Scilly Isles off Cornwall, He does a great job, shows initiative and gets along with the master of the ship and a captain who is to inspect the lighthouse.
When the ship returns he is deposited at Falmouth again together a certificate that he had passed the test for master's mate andguineas.
He spends some more time with Elizabeth where he cements their relationship,
Finally he rejoins the Cyclops which returns to her station, There is a chance meeting with another frigate, The captain of the frigate is Edgecumbe who is also to be a Tory MP, He bribes Captain Hook withto take over his task, which is to take a chestful of fake money to Cornwallis in America.
I'm not even sure it's possible for another captain, even an MP, to take Hope away from the local admiral's command and send him on a trip thousands of miles away.
Nevertheless Hope gets his change of orders in writing,
Next the Cyclops meets another American/French privateer La Creole near the American coast, They get into a slugging match which La Creole almost wins by boarding because they have huge numbers of militia on board.
Only ND's quick thinking to separate the ships saves them and La Creole limps away,
Cyclops goes to find Cornwallis but their destination is deserted, They land a party who is almost killed by enemy cavalry, And while waiting, La Creole chances on them again, attacks the waiting Cyclops but is defeated, There is another desperate ship to ship action and where they finally sink it, The butcher's bill is high and ND is promoted to acting Lt,
Meanwhile Admiral Graves loses the Battle of Chesapeake Bay, Cornwallis is abandoned and the Brits lose the war,
Spoilers end:
I found the writing easy to read, The action was exciting, the characters easy to like and I liked ND's progress and how he dealt with adversity, We all live our lives vicariously through the characters and I felt good every time ND did something well and got noticed.
I'm very happy to have finally found a HH I can enjoy, Now on to the next book,
Un libro que entretiene, la historia de Nat es interesante y permite ver la evolución del personaje a través del viaje del héroe.
Por momentos de vuelve tedioso por los tecnicismos marítimos, que de en cierto modo son excesivos para quiénes no somos conocedores de los mismos.
The basic elements of the story were fine, but I found the author's habit of occasionally speaking directly to the reading audience to be offputting and unnecessary.
For example, at one point he has Drinkwater meet Wilfred Collingwood, who coughs persistently OK so far, He then tells us that Wilfred Collingwood will subsequently die of tuberculosis, and is not to be confused with his brother Cuthbert who would gain renown with Nelson.
Thanks!
There are many other examples like this,
There is a subplot involving a nasty character which was obviously written to introduce an element of conflict, The author tells us that Drinkwater feels disgust it would have been much better to show us instead,
As the first of a series, the author has to introduce a number of characters who will be important later in the series.
He also has to introduce a few who will be important in this book but not survive, One of these is referred to as "the handsome sailor" for about half of the book, thus telegraphing to the reader that he was thethcentury equivalent of a Star Trek Redshirt, someone who wouldn't make it out alive from an away party.
I will read a couple more books in the series to see how they go, since this one does have some promise, but I am not committing to the whole series at this point.
A decent ageofsale adventure story, Drinkwater is an eminently human character not possessed of extraordinary wealth, strength, intelligence or superhuman aspects with which the "heros" of such stories seem inevitably to be
blessed, and I like that combat affects him and is not just a "guts and glory" swashbuckler.
.stars. Weird jumps in time and sections are straight non fiction narrative where main character isnt present at all, Not the best nautical fiction, Read part of second book in series, same reaction, so Im giving up on this author, May go back and reread Hornblower instead, tbd I enjoyed this quite a bit, Been wanting to read a similar series after finishing O'Brian and this filled the need, A fourteen book series by Richard Woodman and in this book we are introduced to his character Nathaniel Drinkwater, It's Octoberand Daniel is a young midshipman on HMS Cyclops, agun frigate captained by Hope, a veteran of the Seven Years War.
Nathaniel encounters typical midshipman events and deals with a bully of his group all the while attempting to learn his duty and do the right thing both as a gentleman that he aspires to be and as a human being.
Quite a lot happens in a shortpages as we even reach Yorktown by the end of this book, so without looking ahead I am curious where the nextgo.
This will probably end up having me reread O'Brian or perhaps take a dip in Forester as I have never read the Hornblower series somehow.
Nathaniel Drinkwater is a midshipman in the Royal Navy during the American Revolution, He has to deal with the daily problems of life in a sailing ship, and the dangers of combat, and on top of all that, a bullying senior midshipman.
This makes for an exciting story and it is exciting, I must confess that I can't sympathize with Drinkwater's efforts, since I'm an American, but the author is English, and so I don't expect him to take my side.
I do have to criticize a couple of things, First, Richard Woodman seems to have some eccentric notions regarding the comma, There are places where one is necessary, but he doesn't use one, and it makes for odd dialogue if you read it as written.
And second, he switches point of view without warning, which is confusing, But this is a good book, and if I hadn't come down with a bad cold and had to let the book alone while the illness mess with my memory, I'd be able to say more about it.
Where Midshipman Quinn targets the young adult audience Woodman's Drinkwater series decidedly does not, Also, even though it's my first foray into the Drinkwater saga, An Eye of the Fleet seems much edgier than any Hornblower entry.
Es una novela atractiva para quienes gusten de temas navales, Woodman es un experto escritor en la materia, I only discovered this author through the use of Goodreads, I am a fan of books from the Age of Fighting Sail and this book is a delightful addition to that genre.
Interestingly it is a much grittier addition to the genre than usually found and deals with subjects generally only alluded to in other works.
I will attempt to find other volumes in this series to see if the quality endures, .
The book is well written and researched, The author obviously was a wealth of knowledge about sailing warships of theandth century, The book provides an excellent view of what life was like in a RN sailing ship in thes, I enjoyed the bits of history Woodman tossed into the story, I am looking forward to reading more of Woodman, So far, I must admit that Patrick OBrian is my favorite author in this genre,
I read this as an ebook downloaded from Amazon to my Kindle app for my iPad, The book ispages. The book was originally published in,
I recommend this to any reader who enjoys nautical fiction, One of the best writers in this genre, Excellent. A decent tale
An enjoyable tale in the midst of a period more or less forgetten by all but Alexander Kent.
Will red the next Fans of nautical age of sail fiction will very much enjoy this series, A gritty look at life on board a British frigate, The story centers around Nathaniel Drinkwater, the selfeffacing hero, who matures into a lieutenant under trying conditions, Similar is style and detail to O' brien
Seamanship is excellent and the characters are well developed, The use ofrd person narrative only enhances the tale, Enjoy Action in Admiral Rodney's dramatic Moonlight Battle of, when Cyclops' capture of the Santa Teresa plays a decisive part, is the start of Nathaniel Drinkwater's life at sea.
HMS Cyclops is involved in pursuing American privateers who are a danger to British trade and Drinkwater finds himself part of a prize crew when initiative and courage in a critical situation enable him to survive a dangerous encounter.
When the frigate is detached on special service to the swamps of South Carolina, grim actions are fought at sea and by a detachment of the ship's company on land, resulting in violent deaths before CYCLOPS arrives in New York inand is sent back to Spithead with the news of Lord Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown.
Through his experiences both in action and in the hard life on Cyclops, Drinkwater matures and gains the ability to stand up against the tyranny of the midshipmen's mess and the sinister and evil influence of the senior midshipman, Morris.
In overcoming his difficulties he is sustained by his growing love for Elizabeth and the contrast of home life with the brutality of naval service.
The writing is mostly easy to read and follow with a few hiccups, A lot goes on in the book, so much so that I have to refresh my memory by going back to the book to remember what I read.
Summary/Spoilers ahead:
The books starts off with Drinkwater as a new onboard midshipman on the frigate Cyclops, The captain is an old, almost over the hill Captain Hook who is a good captain, Somewhat kindly but run down in life due to his late promotion and lack of patronage and money, Fortunately the ship is also blessed with an elderly but competent Master who likes Drinkwater and two capable and friendly officers: Devaux, the aristocratic first officer and Wheeler the marine lieutenant.
The other lieutenants are basically fillers, The antagonist is the senior midshipman Morris, an older but still young man, a bully, tyrant and sodomite,
The action starts with the Moonlight Battle off Cape St, Vincentwhere the Calypso attacks and defeats a Spanish frigate and then saves it from going on to a lee shore, The next significant thing that happens is not a battle but when ND Drinkwater finally has enough of Morris and his bullying ways with the others and challenges him to a duel with sticks.
He beats Morris handily and Morris relents for awhile,
Next the Calypso captures an American privateer the Algonquin and ND is sent on board as part of the prize crew with Lt.
Price. However the Algonquin, with a heavy crew for prizes, manages to recover the ship, Price is killed and the British are locked up with a bleak future in a French hulk, ND is prompted by Hagen the marine sergeant to turn the tables and retake the prize, It is successful and they recapture the prize and land at Falmouth,
There is an interlude here where ND meets Elizabeth, the daughter of a poor rector, She is apparently going to be ND's love interest going forward, The Cyclops is away at sea so the crew have to wait on a hulk in the harbor,
While waiting, ND is volunteered as a temporary replacement mate to a Trinity House cutter which is going to make a short trip to check on the lighthouse at St.
Agnes in the Scilly Isles off Cornwall, He does a great job, shows initiative and gets along with the master of the ship and a captain who is to inspect the lighthouse.
When the ship returns he is deposited at Falmouth again together a certificate that he had passed the test for master's mate andguineas.
He spends some more time with Elizabeth where he cements their relationship,
Finally he rejoins the Cyclops which returns to her station, There is a chance meeting with another frigate, The captain of the frigate is Edgecumbe who is also to be a Tory MP, He bribes Captain Hook withto take over his task, which is to take a chestful of fake money to Cornwallis in America.
I'm not even sure it's possible for another captain, even an MP, to take Hope away from the local admiral's command and send him on a trip thousands of miles away.
Nevertheless Hope gets his change of orders in writing,
Next the Cyclops meets another American/French privateer La Creole near the American coast, They get into a slugging match which La Creole almost wins by boarding because they have huge numbers of militia on board.
Only ND's quick thinking to separate the ships saves them and La Creole limps away,
Cyclops goes to find Cornwallis but their destination is deserted, They land a party who is almost killed by enemy cavalry, And while waiting, La Creole chances on them again, attacks the waiting Cyclops but is defeated, There is another desperate ship to ship action and where they finally sink it, The butcher's bill is high and ND is promoted to acting Lt,
Meanwhile Admiral Graves loses the Battle of Chesapeake Bay, Cornwallis is abandoned and the Brits lose the war,
Spoilers end:
I found the writing easy to read, The action was exciting, the characters easy to like and I liked ND's progress and how he dealt with adversity, We all live our lives vicariously through the characters and I felt good every time ND did something well and got noticed.
I'm very happy to have finally found a HH I can enjoy, Now on to the next book,
Un libro que entretiene, la historia de Nat es interesante y permite ver la evolución del personaje a través del viaje del héroe.
Por momentos de vuelve tedioso por los tecnicismos marítimos, que de en cierto modo son excesivos para quiénes no somos conocedores de los mismos.
The basic elements of the story were fine, but I found the author's habit of occasionally speaking directly to the reading audience to be offputting and unnecessary.
For example, at one point he has Drinkwater meet Wilfred Collingwood, who coughs persistently OK so far, He then tells us that Wilfred Collingwood will subsequently die of tuberculosis, and is not to be confused with his brother Cuthbert who would gain renown with Nelson.
Thanks!
There are many other examples like this,
There is a subplot involving a nasty character which was obviously written to introduce an element of conflict, The author tells us that Drinkwater feels disgust it would have been much better to show us instead,
As the first of a series, the author has to introduce a number of characters who will be important later in the series.
He also has to introduce a few who will be important in this book but not survive, One of these is referred to as "the handsome sailor" for about half of the book, thus telegraphing to the reader that he was thethcentury equivalent of a Star Trek Redshirt, someone who wouldn't make it out alive from an away party.
I will read a couple more books in the series to see how they go, since this one does have some promise, but I am not committing to the whole series at this point.
A decent ageofsale adventure story, Drinkwater is an eminently human character not possessed of extraordinary wealth, strength, intelligence or superhuman aspects with which the "heros" of such stories seem inevitably to be
blessed, and I like that combat affects him and is not just a "guts and glory" swashbuckler.
.stars. Weird jumps in time and sections are straight non fiction narrative where main character isnt present at all, Not the best nautical fiction, Read part of second book in series, same reaction, so Im giving up on this author, May go back and reread Hornblower instead, tbd I enjoyed this quite a bit, Been wanting to read a similar series after finishing O'Brian and this filled the need, A fourteen book series by Richard Woodman and in this book we are introduced to his character Nathaniel Drinkwater, It's Octoberand Daniel is a young midshipman on HMS Cyclops, agun frigate captained by Hope, a veteran of the Seven Years War.
Nathaniel encounters typical midshipman events and deals with a bully of his group all the while attempting to learn his duty and do the right thing both as a gentleman that he aspires to be and as a human being.
Quite a lot happens in a shortpages as we even reach Yorktown by the end of this book, so without looking ahead I am curious where the nextgo.
This will probably end up having me reread O'Brian or perhaps take a dip in Forester as I have never read the Hornblower series somehow.
Nathaniel Drinkwater is a midshipman in the Royal Navy during the American Revolution, He has to deal with the daily problems of life in a sailing ship, and the dangers of combat, and on top of all that, a bullying senior midshipman.
This makes for an exciting story and it is exciting, I must confess that I can't sympathize with Drinkwater's efforts, since I'm an American, but the author is English, and so I don't expect him to take my side.
I do have to criticize a couple of things, First, Richard Woodman seems to have some eccentric notions regarding the comma, There are places where one is necessary, but he doesn't use one, and it makes for odd dialogue if you read it as written.
And second, he switches point of view without warning, which is confusing, But this is a good book, and if I hadn't come down with a bad cold and had to let the book alone while the illness mess with my memory, I'd be able to say more about it.
Where Midshipman Quinn targets the young adult audience Woodman's Drinkwater series decidedly does not, Also, even though it's my first foray into the Drinkwater saga, An Eye of the Fleet seems much edgier than any Hornblower entry.
Es una novela atractiva para quienes gusten de temas navales, Woodman es un experto escritor en la materia, I only discovered this author through the use of Goodreads, I am a fan of books from the Age of Fighting Sail and this book is a delightful addition to that genre.
Interestingly it is a much grittier addition to the genre than usually found and deals with subjects generally only alluded to in other works.
I will attempt to find other volumes in this series to see if the quality endures, .