Tag Archives: thomas kydd

Pretty much entirely devoted to Nelson’s chase of Villenueve, with enough context to explain the importance of Trafalgar. Ends where all such novels end: In London, shortly after the great battle, with everyone not knowing how to handle the conflicting emotions generated by Nelson’s victory and Nelson’s death.

Continue reading →

There’s more story here than the earlier LT reviewers seem to acknowledge. For maybe the fourth time in the series, Kydd takes stock of his life and decides to gain control of his destiny. This time the effort seems more convincing, though I confess it’s a bit rushed. He has a serious intellectual disagreement with Renzi; before they’ve mainly disagreed about social issues, with Renzi pretty much an unquestioned conscience on morality (except when he goes silly on us). The encounter with Robert Fulton is both entertaining and frustrating, and a fairly convincing portrait.

Continue reading →

There are some absolutely delightful descriptions of life along the Cornish coast; especially interesting are contrasting views of the Polperro fishing village from the perspectives of Kydd and his man Toby Stirk.

Continue reading →

A fine addition to this series, despite the lack of major naval action, as both major characters face major collapses of morale (Renzi actually has two crises, despite not appearing in this story until mid-book). It’s starting to look like they’ll find a way to continue their relationship, despite their changes in fortune.

Continue reading →

At heart, this is a novel about the events around the Battle of the Nile, which occurs around mid-book. Kydd meets Nelson a couple times, Renzi finally has the inevitable run-in with his father, and in the last pages Sidney Smith holds off Napoleon at Acre. But mostly Nelson chases the French fleet around the Mediterranean. Oh, yeah: Kydd’s sister, Cecelia, makes a brief appearance, mostly to fill us in on the impact the Battle of the Nile had in London.

Continue reading →

First we take a little tour in the Med, where Kydd gets in over his head with a married lady at Gibraltar, then visits Venice. This is followed by a vivid portrait of the Nore mutiny, where Kydd works closely with lead mutineer Dick Parker. Finally we make a quick voyage to Camperdown, and watch the battle from inside–nicely executed chaos. There’s a lot of story packed into this novel, and a surprise development at the end.

Continue reading →

Then things lighten up and get pretty complicated. There’s enough story here for a much longer novel; rather wish the author’d split things in two. In particular, Renzi goes off on a fully separate adventure around mid-story, which could have been fleshed out better.

Continue reading →