Band of Brothers [Import] [Hardcover]

Alexander Kent (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2005

The 26th, and final, Bolitho novel in this phenomenally successful and well-loved series.

In this, the long-awaited conclusion of Alexander Kent’s midshipman trilogy, the new year of 1774 seems to offer Richard Bolitho and his friend Martyn Dancer the culmination of a dream. Both have been recommended for promotion, although they have not yet gained the coveted lieutenant’s commission. But a routine passage from Plymouth to Guernsey in an untried schooner becomes, for Bolitho, a passage from midshipman to King’s officer, tempering the promise of the future with the bitter price of maturity.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“One of our foremost writers of naval fiction.”
–Sunday Times


From the Trade Paperback edition.

About the Author

Douglas Reeman (Alexander Kent) has written over thirty novels under his own name and more than twenty best-selling historical novels featuring Richard Bolitho under the pseudonym Alexander Kent.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: William Heinemann (October 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0434010103
• ISBN-13: 978-0434010103
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,451,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Terrific series -- but a really really bad, really really short entry in it!, August 14, 2006

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Band of Brothers: A Midshipman Bolitho Novel (The Bolitho Novels) (Hardcover)

This is the most recently published of the more than two dozen novels in the Richard Bolitho naval series, but by the internal chronology, it comes third. It's here that Midshipman Bolitho is examined for promotion to lieutenant, and also here that he loses his best friend, Martyn Dancer, in a very minor action against a smuggler's brig. The problem with this extremely brief "novel" (a mere 113 pages, not counting the glossary and the selection from the next book in the series) is that the narrative and plot line are both as thin as muslin. It's almost a sketch of what ought to have been a full-dress novel three times its length. I found myself stopping to go back and reread a couple pages, thinking I'd missed something. And I kept checking the printed page numbers, in the suspicion that two had been glued together. The lieutenant's exam, for instance, has only just begun, maybe two or three basic questions asked, when suddenly it's over and Bolitho is being congratulated on having passed! When it becomes apparent Richard and his small party are going to have to capture a lugger on the beach in order to interrupt the loading of smuggled cases of muskets -- at least, I think that's what they're attempting to accomplish, it's never really clear -- the narrative jumps from the beach, to a moment in their own boat, to a few minutes after they take the smuggler's boat. If this were a movie, it would be littered with scene cuts and pages ripped from the screenplay. The whole thing seems to be a ploy on the author's part to bring in some extra dough without having done anything to earn it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read, July 10, 2008

By 

Dr J (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Band of Brothers: A Midshipman Bolitho Novel (The Bolitho Novels) (Hardcover)

This is the third (chronologically speaking), but number 27 or so written, of Alexander Kent's Richard Bolitho series. It's an easy read, can be knocked off in one evening, as it's only about 100 pages. Bolitho and his buddy go up for promotion to lieutenant and engage in a battle or two. This one is not quite as action packed as the earlier novels, but it answers some questions and ties up some loose ends that were skipped over when Kent wrote the series. I am not sure why he waited so many years to fill the gap. It's a necessary read for anyone who has read the other bolitho novels.

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Band of Brothers, April 11, 2007

By 

Sue "Bookaholic" (Mississippi) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Band of Brothers: A Midshipman Bolitho Novel (The Bolitho Novels) (Hardcover)

I thought that this was a good but sad story. The continue adventures of Richard Bolitho, midshipman. This time he and his friend have been assigned to fight smugglers.