Another vivid adventure with a tumultuous historical backdrop—not to be missed by fans of pirates and naval strategy or by...
Captains courageous, ambitious and resolute do furious battle on the high seas in the midst of the French Revolution.
This U.K. export reaches American shores to continue the adventures of Capt. Charles Hayden and his unlucky frigate, the HMS Themis. Russell (A Battle Won, 2010, etc.) has the advantage this time, having already established Hayden’s background and his dual nature as a British officer with a French mother. This allows him to throw the reader right into the action, as Hayden and his motley crew intercept intelligence about a plot to invade England. But before the Captain can return to Portsmouth with the news, they’re outmaneuvered by a wily French captain named Lacrosse—as fascinating a character as Russell has conceived and an absorbing counterpoint to the nobly flawed Hayden. But a sudden shipwreck shifts the ground between the warring crews, leading to a remarkable rescue for Hayden and his men. Meanwhile, back in England, a misunderstanding has left Hayden estranged from his lady love, Henrietta Carthew, who is being courted by another man. Her absence is a particularly cruel blow for Hayden, as tentative in romance as he is bold in battle. Nevertheless, the newly promoted Post Captain soldiers on in his new charge, the 64-gun ship Raisonnable. The crew is tasked with delivering dispatches to Adm. Lord Howe, who is cruising the English Channel in pursuit of a French convoy. Russell is no slouch at writing adventure, having crafted a host of sci-fi/fantasy novels under pen names, but he is becoming incredibly skilled at crafting these seafaring adventures. Hayden makes for a rich character whose internal turmoil lends credence to his role as master and commander, while his crew is as varied and interesting as any of Patrick O’Brien’s lot.
Another vivid adventure with a tumultuous historical backdrop—not to be missed by fans of pirates and naval strategy or by history buffs.Pub Date: May 16, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-399-15896-4
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A deeply satisfying novel, both sensuously vivid and remarkably poignant.
Norwegian novelist Jacobsen folds a quietly powerful coming-of-age story into a rendition of daily life on one of Norway’s rural islands a hundred years ago in a novel that was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.
Ingrid Barrøy, her father, Hans, mother, Maria, grandfather Martin, and slightly addled aunt Barbro are the owners and sole inhabitants of Barrøy Island, one of numerous small family-owned islands in an area of Norway barely touched by the outside world. The novel follows Ingrid from age 3 through a carefree early childhood of endless small chores, simple pleasures, and unquestioned familial love into her more ambivalent adolescence attending school off the island and becoming aware of the outside world, then finally into young womanhood when she must make difficult choices. Readers will share Ingrid’s adoration of her father, whose sense of responsibility conflicts with his romantic nature. He adores Maria, despite what he calls her “la-di-da” ways, and is devoted to Ingrid. Twice he finds work on the mainland for his sister, Barbro, but, afraid she’ll be unhappy, he brings her home both times. Rooted to the land where he farms and tied to the sea where he fishes, Hans struggles to maintain his family’s hardscrabble existence on an island where every repair is a struggle against the elements. But his efforts are Sisyphean. Life as a Barrøy on Barrøy remains precarious. Changes do occur in men’s and women’s roles, reflected in part by who gets a literal chair to sit on at meals, while world crises—a war, Sweden’s financial troubles—have unexpected impact. Yet the drama here occurs in small increments, season by season, following nature’s rhythm through deaths and births, moments of joy and deep sorrow. The translator’s decision to use roughly translated phrases in conversation—i.e., “Tha’s goen’ nohvar” for "You’re going nowhere")—slows the reading down at first but ends up drawing readers more deeply into the world of Barrøy and its prickly, intensely alive inhabitants.
A deeply satisfying novel, both sensuously vivid and remarkably poignant.Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77196-319-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Biblioasis
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
In Clavell's last whopper, Tai-pan, the hero became tai-pan (supreme ruler) of Hong Kong following England's victory in the first Opium War. Clavell's new hero, John Blackthorne, a giant Englishman, arrives in 17th century Japan in search of riches and becomes the right arm of the warlord Toranaga who is even more powerful than the Emperor. Superhumanly self-confident (and so sexually overendowed that the ladies who bathe him can die content at having seen the world's most sublime member), Blackthorne attempts to break Portugal's hold on Japan and encourage trade with Elizabeth I's merchants. He is a barbarian not only to the Japanese but also to Portuguese Catholics, who want him dispatched to a non-papist hell. The novel begins on a note of maelstrom-and-tempest ("'Piss on you, storm!' Blackthorne raged. 'Get your dung-eating hands off my ship!'") and teems for about 900 pages of relentless lopped heads, severed torsos, assassins, intrigue, war, tragic love, over-refined sex, excrement, torture, high honor, ritual suicide, hot baths and breathless haikus. As in Tai-pan, the carefully researched material on feudal Oriental money matters seems to he Clavell's real interest, along with the megalomania of personal and political power. After Blackthorne has saved Toranaga's life three times, he is elevated to samurai status, given a fief and made a chief defender of the empire. Meanwhile, his highborn Japanese love (a Catholic convert and adulteress) teaches him "inner harmony" as he grows ever more Eastern. With Toranaga as shogun (military dictator), the book ends with the open possibility of a forthcoming sequel. Engrossing, predictable and surely sellable.
Pub Date: June 23, 1975
ISBN: 0385343248
Page Count: 998
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1975
BOOK TO SCREEN
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