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Form Line of Battle! (The Bolitho Novels)

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Unbelievable action and intrigue
What I've Come to Expect from Kent...
War With France
Haul Open Gun Ports! Avast! Loosen T'gallants! Huzzah!
Three cheers for Bolitho!

Form Line of Battle! (The Bolitho Novels)
Alexander Kent
Manufacturer: McBooks Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0935526595

Book Description

The year is 1793, and England is once again at war. For Richard Bolitho, the renewal of hostilities with France means a fresh command and the chance for action after months of inactivity.

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Unbelievable action and intrigue.......2006-07-20

The French Revolution is tearing France apart, the British are trying to influence the battle and therefore Bolitho gets command of a new ship and is asked to go fight for his country again. By now, Bolitho is a full Captain and he has been promoted to the command of a Ship of the Line - a 74 gun double decked behemoth. Unfortunately for him, this advanced status also means that he must serve under much closer scrutiny of higher ups in the ranks rather than enjoying his relative independence as a Frigate Captain.

Early in the book he gets to almost meet another captain by the name of Nelson. He is also sent to act as the flag ship of a small flotilla that is supposed to take over a Spanish island in adjacent to France in concert with a couple of Spanish ships. The interesting kicker is that an Admiral is appointed to command the whole mission and that Admiral happens to be a career officer with precious little real command experience. When it turns out that the French already occupy the island and lay a trap for the British flotilla things turn ugly and the Admiral is killed.

Bolitho, of course, manages to take over and heroically conquers the island with the help of a few handfuls of his own shipmates. Then, he hunkers down to wait for reinforcements. When they fail to come and he is in desperate need of water, he arranges a local truce with the French ... only to be usurped by another Admiral who arrives then to take command.

If this is not fantastic enough, we are now treated to an even more bizarre turn of events: it turns out that this new admiral was actually the commander from which Boliho took over command of the Pharalope and its ensuing mutiny was due to this particualr officer. Since Bolitho rectified the situation, the now-Admiral resents him immensely and treats him as a servant and sends him to pick up his bride. In the course of the passage - punctuated by a naval battle against superior odds, Bolitho falls in love with the Admiral's bride even though he only speaks to her for one evening ... and she, of course, fall in love with him.

One thing leads to another and after many bloody battles fought by cartoon characters, Bolitho ends up winning the girl, the Admiral is killed, Bolithos uses his ship like a frigate, and actually takes over command of the whole battle fleet even though he is not the most senior officer, and he even unknowingly escorts his brother (thought dead) to a prison ship.

The descriptions of shipboard life and battles are the heart and soul of these types of novels and Alexander Kent does an excellent job of generating all kinds of excitement around them. In this novel he goes a little deeper into the ways that Richard Bolitho commands his men and wins their loyalty and support although it is very very sketchy. We also get a better taste of what naval medicine was like with Bolitho's first visit to the surgeon's station.

Unfortunately, the rest of the book is not as well executed. The romance between Bolitho and the Admiral's betrothed is absolutely unbelievable. The dialog is stilted and it is very hard to believe that she fell in love with a ship Captain and decides to marry him over her familial obligations after only spending one evening speaking with the man.

Of equal preposterousness is Bolitho's actions. He obeys the first Admiral who is killed at his side - then he saves the day by taking action on his own initiative which the French do not anticipate and the Spanish gladly join in. Then he manages to convince a whole French town to express their monarchist loyalties and help him out. Then, he fights a battle against vastly superior odds and wins it by pulling a Frigate manuever in a ship of the line that has been in the water so long that its barnacles and "beard" can be seen from above. If this was not enough, he then attacks a French town and destroys its French revolutionary force, and finally, he saves the lives of many soldiers by taking decisive action and command over a force that was essentially abandond by his own Admiral and whic had more senior officers who readily acquiesce to serve under Bolitho.

The final absurdities involve the reunion of Bolitho with his old time friend and underling Herrick who is somehow miraculously promoted to full Captain from Lieutenant at the end of the book while Bolitho himself is left in simple command of the Hyperion. Huh?

So, while the story is patently ridiculous, the passages detailing the ship's life and battles and the completely secondary characters and their fates are of enough interest to keep me reading this book and the series.

What I've Come to Expect from Kent..........2004-08-20

I started reading Alexander Kent's Bolitho novels because I had exhausted Forester's and O'Brian's respective series, and in doing so I had developed a strong appetite for age of sail fiction. Kent's series, by comparison to the former two, is sadly lacking.

The Bolitho series is a serial in the literal sense. This is the ninth novel I have read, and so far they have all followed the same general boilerplate plot. In some of these novels, even the sub-plots repeat themselves: the romance in this novel is a straight carbon copy from "Passage to Mutiny." In this respect, the Bolitho series is very similar to Cornwell's Sharpe series.

This would be acceptible, for a good story can be repeated dozens of times if you develop the characters and keep it fresh with new twists. New twists he does offer on occassion, but Kent fails miserably in character development. There are few continuing characters in the series, and none of them are better than two dimensional. This is a sin he shares with Forester: the only continuing character in the Hornblower novels is William Bush, who is not much more than Hornblower's shadow throughout the series. Stockdale, Herrick and Allday are all mere ciphers. After nine novels, even the tertiary characters in O'Brian's series have received more attention.

Kent also stretches credulity at times, and makes a number of historical errors. This book shows Bolitho in command of a 74 gun ship of the line, supposedly armed with 18 and 24 lbs cannon. The two deckers of the late 18th Century, however, usually carried 18 and 32 pounders as their primary armament, a fact that Kent is well aware of because he says so in his own newsletters. It is reminicent of a similar blunder in "Sloop of War," where Kent mounts 32lbs cannon as chasers on an 18 gun sloop, HMS Sparrow. I doubt very much that any sloop ever commissioned ever carried armament even remotely as heavy as the Sparrow. In this novel, the connectionless Herrick is promoted from lieutenant to full captain, skipping commander entirely. While not outright impossible, given that Herrick is utterly lacking in political influence such a promotion streches credulity to the breaking point. Kent's clumsy historical blunders wound the well-informed and alert among his readers.

Where Kent is strong is in his depiction of battle aboard an age of sail warship. The cannons roar, the timbers shudder, the splinters fly, and a fierce boarding action is never far in the offing. However, after several novels, his strongest point loses its luster because of his repetative style and lack of invention.

Overall, I am deeply disappointed in what I now perceive as Kent's systemic problems. I have read nine of these novels, and I feel like I have wasted enough time on them. I'll now be looking for another author to satisfy my age of sail appetite.

War With France.......2004-01-16

Bolitho is ordered to take his command, the 74-gun ship-of-the-line Hyperion to join Admiral Hood in his attempt to take Toulon. He is seconded, however, to another admiral who has orders to take a small island in the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, it is already occupied by the French. In the ensuing battle, the admiral is killed and eventually he is placed under the command of yet another, in Gibraltar; an old acquaintance--one whom he had once replaced as commander of a frigate--and, unfortunately for his present situation, outshone.

This is an intricate story, but easy to follow, with lots of action and excellent character development. After reading a few of these Bolitho books the characters seem to live and breathe.

Alexander Kent is surely, as they say on the cover, "One of our foremost writers of naval fiction."

I hope you enjoy his stroies as much as I do.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre, USN (Ret)

author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books

Haul Open Gun Ports! Avast! Loosen T'gallants! Huzzah!.......2001-12-25

Another slendidly written masterpiece from Mr. Kent. Bolitho again sets his sails into thundering actions, a bit of romance, some nefarious villains, crisply-written battle scenes that almost deafen the reader. The age of sail is clearly defined in this ninth Bolitho adventure that is one of the best in the series. Plenty of historical flavor, the workings of a British warship (HMS Hyperion) at sea are marvelous to read. Wonderful character development and splintering decks and freezing sea spray for the nautical buffs. An outstanding addition to the series.

Three cheers for Bolitho!.......2001-06-13

Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray! The feel of the deck, smell of the gunpowder, the roar of the cannon. Makes you feel like you were on the HMS Hyperion. Richard Bolitho rocks! This is set during the Wars of the French Revolution. Bolitho gets command of the Hyperion, a British two-decker. The Revolutionary forces of France had just beheaded Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Toulon is under attack and British and allied forces are in full retreat. Bolitho and Hyperion are blockading Toulon while evacuating the French port. This book is reminiscent of Vietnam. The evacuation of Toulon's like the evacuation of Saigon in 1975.

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Form Line of Battle!

Manufacturer: G. P. Putnam's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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En Linea de Combate / Form line of battle!

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En Linea de Combate / Form line of battle!
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Form Line of Battle!
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Form Line of Battle!
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Form Line Of Battle - Richard Bolitho Novels, No. 9

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Form Line Of Battle - Richard Bolitho Novels, No. 9
Alexander Kent
Manufacturer: Mcbooks Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000RLQYIY

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Form Line of Battle
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Manufacturer: ARROW (RAND)
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