Customer Reviews

All the Brave Fellows (Revolution at Sea Saga, Book 5)

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What Patrick O'Brian did for the Royal Navy in his epic series, Maine author James L. Nelson is now doing for the fledgling American navy during the Revolutionary War. Rousing plots, historical authenticity and seafaring as vivid as a slap of salt spray or a whiff of the bilge will have readers hoping Nelson can make the American Revolution last a long, long time.

The fifth in the series featuring Captain Isaac Biddlecomb, "All the Brave Fellows," takes place during the fall of 1777. With his wife and infant son aboard, Biddlecomb sails for Philadelphia to take charge of the Falmouth, a 28-gun newly built frigate, and whisk it away from the city before General Howe's invading army can seize it.

For all Biddlecomb knows, he may already be too late. But trouble comes long before Philadelphia. In an exciting, well-constructed scene of warring strategies and over-eagerness, Biddlecomb, bolstered by the company of two privateers, takes on a lone British sloop of war. But the undisciplined privateers desert him at the first threat of British cannon and the enemy forces his beloved brig Charlemagne aground, where Biddlecomb burns it rather than let the ship fall into British hands.

Shaken by his responsibility for the danger to his wife and child as well as the loss of his ship, Biddlecomb is humbled, on foot, and stalked by his old nemesis Smeaton, (a British naval officer aboard the victorious sloop) whose career was earlier blighted by Biddlecomb and whose obsessive lust for revenge occasionally seems over the top.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, the Falmouth is endangered, with the British invasion proceeding and the Royal Navy overwhelming the hobbled-together Pennsylvania Navy. Master shipwright Malachi Foote desperately induces a band of Continental Army deserters to help him try to save the ship.

Point of view shifts between Biddlecomb and Foote with breathtaking suspense. But, while Nelson delivers plenty of action, he places it squarely in the context of history and character, involving the reader in the squabbles between factions of the former colonials' military. State navies, for instance, a bizarre concept to the modern mind, answering to an altogether different authority than the stripling Continental Navy.

And Biddlecomb's wife is a brave, spirited woman whose agenda is sometimes comically, sometimes wrenchingly different from her husband's. His struggle to balance domestic life with naval command is deftly done. "The difference between the great cabin and the quarterdeck was startling....It took genuine effort for Biddlecomb to shift his concerns from Jack's need to be burped to his ship's need to be driven into battle." And later, during an angry disagreement with his wife: "He longed to cross swords with Smeaton, or to plunge into the thick of battle, where the emotions - terror, hatred, rage - were so pure and uncomplicated."

Nelson's page-turner brings the Revolution to life on the high seas - buffeted by weather, tide and human frailty. "All the Brave Fellows" will please old fans and win new ones.

Once more James L. Nelson brings Capt Isaac Biddlecomb through one scrape after another. Hardly allowing the reader to catch his breath from one crisis to another, the Nelson style of 'no frills' and clean descriptive action plummets our hero from disaster to victory in a whirl wind of action. Never before have I been so dedicated to a story that I could not put it down before the smoke cleared from its final action. Mr. Nelson ties his fictional characters so closely to real history that sometimes it is difficult to unravel fact from fiction. I highly recommend this book to all lovers of tough living, hard fighting hero's of the high seas.

I have read all of Nelson's Revolution at Sea books, and liked them all, but All the Brave Fellows is the best of the lot. A terrific read. I also loved the first book in Nelson's new trilogy, The Guardship, about an ex-pirate. It is edgier than the Biddlecomb books, but like Nelson's others, it is a fast paced, historically accurate novel. Fans of Isaac Biddlecomb should read The Guardship as well.

If you have a weak heart, tire easy, or prone to sea sickness or startle easy by the sound sound of cannon fire ... dont read this or any other of James Nelson's books .. because as soon you open the book you realize you are going to sea and its going to be rough! Nelson's books (5 in the Revolution at Sea Saga series) are a truly the best sea sagas I have ever read .. including Mr. O'Brians. His close relation of history to fiction puts the reader into the history books and into the action. As a history major and amatuer historian of the period, I can find no fault or error. His charactors are depicted so completly they become real. You share thier emotions,thier excitement and thier adventure. Nelson's style of writing is
without doubt, amoung the best I have ever read. I highly recomend this as well as other books by James Nelson.

I have enjoyed all of James Nelson's books in the Isaac Biddlecomb series, but this one is the best by far. Nelson's skill at characterization is in full force here. He creates believable, riviting people put in often impossible situations and reacting the way real people will. It is just not right to say the British are portrayed as evil - they get the same even treatment that the Americans do - not good, not bad, just people. On top of that, the plot moves at break-neck speed. Great reading! Though the first three books say "Trilogy" the last two say "Saga". Nelson's web site says he hopes to finish the Biddlecomb series some day, and I certainly hope he does! Also don't miss Nelson's Marlowe novels, starting with The Guardship.

When you thought it couldn't get any better, Mr.Nelson pulls out all the stops for the finale.
Isaac and two privateers are en route for Philadelphia to take command of 'Falmouth', when they encounter a British man-o'war; what should have been a fairly easy victory is turned into resounding defeat, as the privateers decamp at the first taste of hot metal - leaving Isaac at the mercy of the bigger ship with the weather-gauge. He has no option but to beach his beloved boat, rather than be captured, especially as his sworn enemy Smeaton is aboard.

All the characters are fully-formed now and we reap the benefit of understanding their actions and their foibles; I think Smeaton is excellently portrayed - the aristo with a chip on both shoulders and an obsession with finishing Isaac off - he is pivotal in this gripping 'factional' tale of how the British were forced to abandon the occupation of Philadelphia.

Again we see Isaac's headstrong character take over and cause him trouble, as he loses two boats in quick succession (though not entirely his fault) and almost loses his wife and his life in the protracted vendetta with Smeaton.
The sub-plot of rescuing and fitting-out the 'Foulmouth' is a great counter to Isaac's stranding and attempt to find her, as the two plots run side by side, interspersed with Smeaton's gradual descent into mania.

Although this appears to be the last in the 'Revolution at Sea' saga, I suspect that there is more to come before Isaac is finished with the British - at least I hope for more...

If you have enjoyed Obrian's wonderful Aubrey series and Forester's Hornblower classics, then don't miss Nelson's fine series...

I enjoyed all the books in this series because of the characters and the time period. I find them just plain fun to read. That said, I don't think this one was the best of the lot, but I enjoyed it in any case.

I want more. I am in love with Isaac Biddlecomb, and with Jim Nelson for writing such a superb series.

More Mr Nelson please!

In the fifth book of what started as a trilogy and has turned into a saga, Isaac Biddlecomb has been given the captaincy of the United States frigate Falmouth. His ship is being built on the Delaware River below Philidelphia. What he doesn't know is that the British have taken Philidelphia and stand between him and his unfinished ship. The ship itself has been spirited away to a safe location by the shipwright who designed it and an unlikely band of deserters. As the story starts he is enroute to his new command on the brig Charlemagne, sailing with a small convoy when a British naval ship is encountered. Thinking that the British ship is no match for them, they attack. His convoy suddenly turns turtle and the battle goes against them, which leaves them beaching the brig, fighting off the British who are sent to take them prisoner and setting off over land to find a way to the Falmouth.

In the initial encounter and old enemy returns, Lt. Smeaton from the Icarus, who has lost his career in His Majesty's Navy thanks to Biddlecomb and who will die a happy man if he can kill him. Smeaton is bested in the first encounter, but the two shall meet again. (and again)

The story turns between the efforts to save the Falmouth and Biddlecomb's need to find it and assume command, all of which come to a cresendo at the end of the book. The pace of action and intrigue have not slipped in this fifth book and there is much of the Revolution at Sea to come, one thinks. That is good news indeed.