Any Approaching Enemy: A Novel of the Napoleonic Wars

Excellent second effort in, hopefully, a long series. Edgemont is married and off to sea; seeking Nelson, seeking the French. We meet the Hamiltons prior to Nelson's amorous connection with Emma. And Penny, Charles' Quaker wife arrives on the scene with Molly, her fallen woman rescue as her companion. Her intention is to fulfill her conjugal commitment and to get his approval for her business plan for his estate. He enjoys the former but has serious reservations about her involvement in the "manly" aspects of business. The counterplay between his conventional and her enlightened views of female capabilities are unusual for this age but add a touch of modernity.

Edgemont's good insights into training and managing his crew are similarly show more unique for that era but enables his little frigate to do prodigious nautical feats while turning a "Nelsonian blind eye" to unwanted commands from senior officers. Technical nautical terms abound but do not inhibit a good story seasoned by enough facts to stretch but not break the story line. show less

Captain Charles Edgemont is off again in pursuit of the French in this sequel to Sails on the Horizon. The story begins with his ship being separated from Admiral Nelson's fleet and continues through many adventures as he searches for Nelson. The story culminates with Edgemont, having found Nelson, participating in the Battle of the Nile.

As with his previous book, Worrall did a fine job overall and showed improvement in his writing over the previous novel. The characters are believable. The plot moves at a nice pace. The story includes some twists and turns that are unusual and interesting. The tension created with British navel captain married to a Quakeress was a major theme of the book. Again, he kept the sailing terms to a minimum show more in most section, although several times, he did include a lot of details concerning setting of sails, almost as if he was told to add more technical sail terms. The dialog was improved and seemed more interesting.

While I enjoyed the book, I did have a few problems with it. First, the story had a few unbelievable events. For example, Edgemont disobeyed direct orders, knew he was disobeying direct orders, but since things turned out fine, no one cared. Second, the book focused more on non-naval things (such as Penny's views) than on general naval matters. While it is evident from his writing that Worrall is more interested in the human conflict posed by Charles and Penny, he missed a great opportunity to explore the conflict between Captain Edgemont, his First Lieutenant, and his friend the Second Lieutenant. Third, the ending, at the Battle of the Nile, felt like it was written almost as an after-thought. The main plot line (Charles/Penny) had been resolved, but there were still some loose ends to tie up -- namely Nelson and the French fleet. The action was not particularly gripping (nor believable) and may be a strong reflection on Worrall's personal views on war and fighting.

And again, I was disappointed with what may turn out to be his standard 'cute' trick. In the previous novel, Horatio Hornblower made a brief appearance. In this one, Jack Aubrey (Patrick O'Brien's famous captain) came aboard briefly. Aubrey's appearance was more seamless and didn't strike me as something added later (like Hornblower's), but still...I could easily have done without it.

Overall, I liked the book, I will read it again someday, and I will look forward to more novels in this series. show less

I thought that this book was a great sequel to Jay Worrall’s “Sails on the Horizon”. Edgemont is on the move again; sailing his frigate in search of Lord Nelson’s fleet. Along the way he finds his enemy; the French fleet at Alexandria. Eventually, he locates Nelson’s fleet and joins in the action to do battle with the French in one of the most famous sea battles: The Battle of the Nile. The author kept my interest with his writing of this historical period and he did it in such a way that I could understand just about everything he wrote.

If you have read the Hornblower series, I would think that you would enjoy “Approaching Enemy..”. Highly recommend.

Newly married, but off to sea with his brig Louisa, Charles Edgemont becomes separated from Nelson's fleet on the Mediterranean after receiving intelligence about a great French fleet massing around Toulon.

Where is Nelson?
Where are the French?
And what's his wife mean by saying she will "soon visit"? Doesn't she know there's a war going on?