Customer Reviews

Battlecruiser (The Modern Naval Fiction Library)

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Battle Cruisers were designed to have the speed of cruisers and the firepower of battleships. The trade off was light armour which resulted in 3 of their breed being sunk at Jutland in WWI and the Hood being sunk during inital salvos against the Bismarck in WWII. Battle Cruiser features one such ship and its crew from the latter part of 1942 until the Allied landings in Sicily in 1943.

I have read several of Reeman's novels in quick succession and they are formulaic. Typically, the captain is a man of uncompromising character who, while he made have doubts, maintains a solid, calm and humane face to the crew. There is usually a second character in the ranks who is similarly heroic or is developed further as the story flows. Both usually have love interests that don't run smooth initially. In this case the second character is a Canadian pilot flying from the ship. More often he is the second in command.

Battle Cruiser is one of Reeman's most polished efforts. The action at sea and on land flows smoothly and we have few extended breaks between the battles at sea. The ocean battles are complimented by flying scenes which are as exciting as the naval clashes. The climactic scene at the Sicilian invasion is a real nail biter.

Reeman has written a lot of these stories and they are very similar. By the time Battle Cruiser was written, Reeman had polished his craft. None of his books are War and Peace but they are entertaining when done well and, with what Reeman tried to achieve in Battle Cruiser, he did well.

This is a fast-paced, entertaining story of the war at sea, and one of the few to be set on board a capital ship. Gunnery duels with a German heavy cruiser and an Italian battleship are both shown to be less one-sided than they might seem: a single 8-inch shell could pierce the battlecruiser's flimsy armour, while the battleship's greater strength may be outweighed by superior gunnery. As always in war, nothing is certain except that death or injury are only an eyelash away.

The book is by no means one-sided. The action sequences take up only a fraction of the time, leaving plenty of room for character development and even one or two romantic subplots. There is nothing two-dimensional about even the least of Reeman's people.

However there does seem to be a rather breathless quality about the book, as if it had been written in too much of a hurry. Although its technical accuracy is perhaps slightly greater than that of a more emotional novel like Alastair Maclean's famous "HMS Ulysses", it lacks the steadily mounting tension that made that book impossible to put down. Especially towards the end, some of the scenes seem to be almost perfunctory.

The author's grasp of detail and atmosphere is flawless, which is not surprising as he joined the Royal Navy in 1941 and served in the North Sea, the Atlantic and the Arctic. This is Reeman's 32nd book, not counting another 23 written as Richard Kent.

Douglas Reeman plunders history again to write this semi-documentary novel about a supposed sister ship to HMS Repulse and HMS Renown. As usual he focusses on a hero, here the Captain Guy Sherbrooke who is, of course, a man with a turbulent past. Unfortunately we also have to put up with his reflection, a Canadian pilot called Rayner who does not really capture the imagination at all. In contrast, the female interest is very well handled by the author and Sherbrook's blossoming romance really saves the book.

Although Douglas Reeman tries to play around with the chronology of the story, he is not very successful in building tension or in foreshadowing events. His writing style seems very dated and unadventurous. His attempt to give the ship a "mind of its own" is not convincing and gets in the way of the (dramatic) human issues.

What a pity that the ending is so predictable and that no attempt is made to subvert the genre. When HMS Reliant goes into action against the Italian battleship Tiberio (Littorio class), we know that quite a few of the B-list characters are going to perish. Pointedly, we never meet the foe at all and the promise of an anti-war book is not met. The book ends with an unsatisfactory epilogue that seems again to miss the point by focussing on the fate of the ship rather than the people

Historians can amuse themselves by spotting references to many real events, including the shelling of Oran and the invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky). This is problematic, as narratives of these actions are far more engaging than fiction

For all its flaws, this is still a good book. What a pity that someone of Reeman's obvious ability could not have written a great book

I have read most of this author's books under both names Douglas Reeman and Alexander Kent. I enjoy them so much that I have started a collection with the newer large size paperbacks. His characters are real and quietly heroic. It shows that people can be strong and still have a gentlness and caring for others that is saddly lacking in many of our leaders today.

I concur with the other reviewers. I've read many sea adventures and will continue to do so. I have read most of Douglas Reeman's books (including the Richard Bolitho series). While this one is not his best, it is still a good read. I'd also like to compliment the scanners. I found only two typo's in this book, both where the scanner had converted a "h" into a "b", changing "he" into "be" and "had" into "bad."

I love Reeman's books. You not only get a sense of the day to day realities of the Royal Navy there are always several 'human' story threads running parallel with naval story. A very good read. I was however a little disappointed in the 'last battle,' it seemed almost like an afterthought. However, if you had a fondness for the old Renown and Repulse you will like their fictional sister.

Douglas Reeman writes well when he's describing the machinery and the conflict of war at sea. When he tries to write about actual people and human emotions, he fails miserably. His characters, particularly the main one, are ridiculous stereotypes. Several times I wished I could grab the guy, give him a couple of dope slaps upside the head, and tell him to just go ahead and deal with the situation.

Jim Beckman