Alexander Kent (1) (1924–2017)

This omnibus contains three novels that chronicle the early stages of Richard Bolitho's career.

Richard Bolitho, Midshipman begins in Portsmouth as Richard joins the warship Gorgon and befriends another midshipman named Martyn Dancer. Richard, at 16, is already an experienced seaman and has a strong seagoing history in his family, so this book establishes his personality and gives him some early heroics.

Midshipman Bolitho and the Avenger takes place in Falmouth, Bolitho's hometown, in the show more lead-up to the Christmas season. The crew of the Gorgon has been given shore leave while the vessel undergoes refitting in Plymouth, so Bolitho and Dancer visit the Bolitho homestead. And of course they end up in an adventure of sorts with the ship Avenger, commanded by Richard's brother, Hugh.

Band of Brothers sees Bolitho, Dancer and some of the crew on the Gorgon being tasked with sailing the newly built Hotspur to Guernsey, where it will be patrolling the English Channel. Adventures ensue, and the two midshipmen also take their exams in hopes of eventually being promoted to King's officer.

Overall, these were comfortable, undemanding reads. I particularly enjoyed the time period (just before the Revolutionary War) and the setting (southwest England, at least in parts). I was less fond of the third book in the omnibus, finding it a bit disorienting, and in all of the books I never really got over the feeling that the characters were fictional. For some reason the names just sounded unreal, especially Martyn Dancer, which sounds like a book name and not a real person name. And in the first book I found there were too many instances of "Bolitho saw that this person was feeling…" or "Bolitho knew by looking at the sails that a storm was coming" instead of informing the reader of the person's mood or the weather another way. But I zipped through the whole omnibus in just a few days, so I'll keep the series on my list for whenever I'm in need of a brain vacation. show less

This review contains spoilers.

****

Richard Bolitho's squadron is sent on manoeuvres in the Baltic Sea and to participate in what would later be known as the Battle of Copenhagen (1801). It proves to be a dramatic series of events battle-wise and personally for this newly promoted rear admiral: he nearly loses his leg to a shrapnel wound that becomes infected, he fights a duel on behalf of his nephew, and he meets a young woman who is the spitting image of his dead wife (and immediately tells show more her this, which isn't weird at ALL).

I read a few of the early books in this series back in 2015, so catching up with this particular book now (reading massively out of order, at least chronologically) was a bit jarring. "Wait a minute, he had a WIFE? And she DIED?" It's like when you lose touch with someone for 15 years and then catch up and you're like "last time I saw you, we were just graduating university, and now you're a director and have three kids, what the heck".

I deemed those first three books "comfortable" and "undemanding". That's largely true of this installment, because I read it fairly quickly for a historical novel, but Kent does not shy away from describing the physical trauma of these naval battles. (For those who, like me, are squeamish about eyes, one poor soul has his eyes blasted out of his head.)

The main criticism I have of this book is that many of the female characters exist to be leched upon or made fun of. Even Belinda, Richard's not-at-all-awkwardly-met new girlfriend, is rescued from a carriage wreck with much sexier description than is warranted for the circumstances. Like I get that when the ships are at sea, there aren't many women around, but on shore I'd like to see some more well-rounded female characters.

Overall, this book was fine (and it was neat to see Copenhagen from the sea after having been there in 2024), and I'll probably read the series wildly out of order some more. show less

Good old-fashioned British navy adventure, in the style of C. S. Forester. While I had a good time reading it, there was something that prevented me from enjoying it fully. The story is told in a rather disjointed manner. Instead of going from scene to scene seamlessly and letting the reader see the logical consequences of each action, we sometimes jump from scene to scene. The problem was not bad enough to make me despair, but it did dampen my enjoyment.

I am a fan of naval fiction and plan on reading this series in chronological order. After completing the book I thought it was pretty good but after considering it for a while, I just think that Kent could have done much more to have developed the story. It's sort of like when you see a movie after reading a book, you think the book was always better because you had a much more detail and background to the story. This book feels as if it was the movie to some other better book. Suddenly at show more the end you are informed that there was a traitor within the midst of the ships company yet throughout the journey you were never led to believe that he existed. There was so much more that could have been done with that subplot. Yet time is devoted to a romantic subplot which is beyond unbelievable. Now that I write this, I think the book almost feels like it was a rough draft. It was OK as I like naval fiction but I'll continue to read the series with hopes that it gets better. show less