Customer Reviews

Captain Kilburnie: A Novel

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

What utter dreck! The only reason I finished this wretched work was because I paid full retail for it (and then only succeeded by skipping large tracts, which did not diminish from the story one wit.) Admiral Mack may be good with fictional accounts of modern destroyer operations, but in a genre dominated by the late (lamentably) and superb Patrick O'Brian, Mack has no place. His story is plodding. To call his characters "cardboard cutouts" is to insult cardboard. He has absolutely no feel whatsoever for the Age of Fighting Sail and has concocted some of the lamest, modern colloquilism-laden dialogue I have ever read. He handles nautical details with the aplomb of a third grade textbook. The book jacket says (warns!) that the author is working on a sequel. The admiral would be better advised not to waste his time. The US Naval Institute, his publisher, should spare the trees which a sequel will needlessly consume. An utter disappointment -- stick with Aubrey and Maturin, Horatio Hornblower or even Ramage, if you must, but don't waste your money on Kilburnie.

The author had a good plot and enough basic knowledge of sailing ships to write a decent book. Unfortunately, he apparently lacked a strong editor to send the book back for a second draft. The vapid dialog needed re-writing and his characters could use a little more depth. In addition, there were several places in the book that read like a paragraph or more was accidently left out. For example, Kilburnie is suddently a captain, but the book doesn't tell us how he found out about his promotion. Finally, Mack's description of how the British Navy operated (for example, how Captains were assigned to ships) is very different from how every other author I've read has descripted it. Overall, there are many better choices to choose from if you want to read about 18th & early 19th Century sailing ships.

This book is similar in style to the great books of Captain Frederick Marryat. The writing is simple in style and straight forward. The main character starts low and ends high. Not one of the greatest of this genre that I have read, but I loved this book. Angus Kilburnie is a young Scotsman that is caught with the daughter of an Irish lord and banished. He decides to make his life at sea as did his Grandfather. With the aid of his naval veteran Uncle, he is assigned to a "good ship" and does well. He is promoted from the ranks to midshipman and through good service to lieutenant. As lieutenant on a new ship, he has a foul captain and is pawned off by the bad captain to serve as First Lieutenant on a transport (a converted 74). He goes on to do great deeds on this ship and beyond. To disclose more would spoil the fun. Filled with good characters and sharp actions. If you love books about the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, this one is not to be missed. I anxiously await the sequel. Be sure to check out the excellent WWII Destroyer books by Adm. Mack. Especially don't miss "South to Java", one of the greatest works of fiction I have ever read in any category!

A very thinly fleshed out novel, with a bare minimum of the details needed to make it a novel worth reading. Mack's attempt to cover a period of Kilburnie career from before the mast to Post Captain didn't allow room to develope the book properly, making the book read more as a synopsis or outline instead of a stand a lone novel. Mack needs to do much more research about the Royal Navy of that period. His ending was a prime example of the lack of a serious attempt to write a seafaring novel worthy of O'brien and his peers. Capt. Kilburnie has his command sunk and he merrily goes to Scotland with no effort to get to the Admiralty or stand trial for the lost of his ship, which was standing proceedure for the time if all the other top authors of the gernre are to be believed. I suggest that Adm. Mack stick to novels of the 20th century Navy, with which he is more aquainted, also a new publicist couldn't hurt.

This sea story is suitable for youth or adults new to the "Fighting Sail" genre. W.P. Mack, a retired U.S. Admiral, writes of an impetuous Scot lad who advances to command through unusual maritime situations during the War of the French Revolution. Amid typical shot, storm, and stupidity, Kilburnie wins through to command and love, but fails to charm me. This book is notable for including family, social, and hospital scenes, and is particularly good at showing how political "interest" (patronage) could work to advance a young man's naval career, despite his alleged handicap of Scottish ancestry. At several points Mack helpfully instructs in basic seamanship and jargon, but by and large sail handling is not critical to the story, which is shaped more as a biography of Kilburnie. Withal, Kilburnie rises rather easily in the author's hands and is on the way to achieving his goals with less sweat and conflict than usually depicted in novels of this type. He is always loved by his men (without convincingus us), and gets on with garrulous subordinates as if they were buddies. These contemporary American values are expressed in prose that is best described as "in ordinary:" flat, a bit simplistic, emotionally sanitized, and lacking dialogue in British dialects. Thus Mack also misses the flavour of the better historical novels of English naval warfare two centuries ago. Only if your appetite is whetted here and you thirst for more naval cant, lore, adventure, and atmosphere should you try that paragon of obscure and inexplicable prose and period, Patrick O'Brian, by way of C.S. Forester's Hornblower saga.

While Mack disappoints me in his shallow characterization and awkward style, this could be a good start for beginners in the genre--a quick overview--and is a quality large paperback. Although this will have a sequel, I am much more excited about the hugely promising new KYDD series by Julian Stockwin, a true British captain.

I have a collection of hundreds of tall ship volumes, and have read all the greats, but this one stands alone. It reeks like rotten seaweed! This author demonstrates for us a virtually encyclopedic lack of knowledge of the tall ships era. He also treats us to an overlayment of the modern American navy ethos and personnel relationships onto the tall ships British navy. This lends the same verisimilitude as would cast-iron sails. The critic who called this utter dreck was too kind by half, and I felt constrained by a system that apparently has no rating below one star.

The writing here might win first prize at a high school's annual creative writing contest, but it certainly does not merit serious publishing. The plot is sketchy. In some ways it is barely plausible. Some specific problems: The captain spends way too much time away from his ship. After his ship is sunk, he skips, la-dee-da up to his estate in Scotland, leaving his crew to God knows what end. One of the main characters tells her husband of an affair she has had, and the whole matter is settled, amicably, in the course of a two-minute conversation.

The dialogue is terrible. Everyone speaks the same proper English and the language is drab and stilted. There is no hint of idiom, folk sayings, or even much naval jargon.

The character's relationships with each other are unlikely. With few exceptions, everyone likes and gets along with each other. All of the tars are happy with their work. All of the officers are fair, honorable and intelligent. The captains and admirals are jovial mentors, quick to promote and give credit. There is one exception, but even this is not resolved and quickly forgotten.

I think the author, William Mack's, biggest problem is that he fell in love with his main character. Fergus Kilburnie must be the luckiest man alive. There are no cliff-hangers in this book, and very little conflict. When there is a problem, Kilburnie side-steps it or overcomes it as easily as crossing the street. Mack seems to loathe putting his character, his "child" if you will, into harm's way. As a consequence, by the end of the book, instead of sympathizing with the main character, I hated him. If Captain Kilburnie had been my commanding officer, I would have fragged him.

Captain Kilburnie is the tale of a young man of great ability and ambition. Fergus Kilburnie is a younger son and knows there will not be a place for him on the family estate in Scotland, so he decides to go to sea. Although he enlists as a seaman, he already knows seamanship and navigation and quickly masters gunnery, for which he will always retain a passion. He is quickly promoted to lieutenant and is posted to a captaincy at a young age. There are issues with this book -- the dialogue is a bit flat and Fergus is larger than life, quickly mastering every new skill he turns to -- but it is an engaging, action-filled read. Mack was a career naval officer and his love of the service and the sea is evident in his book. If anything, he waxes a little pedantic as he tries to share his knowledge. There is no suspense here; this is a straightforward tale of the career of an exceptional young man who pursues a naval career and the woman he loves. Still, it is chock full of the stuff that makes historic naval fiction fun to read.

After reading Patrick O'Brien, Richard Woodman, and the Bothlio series, don't think Vice Admiral Mack cuts the mustard. Wondering if author did any research into the period. The relationships between master and servant are totally skewed, the conversations could be taking place during the 20th century, and VERY few women would tottle off to their gynecologist, much less even know one existed. All in all I felt the book totally lacking in character, and not well written - even boring.

Discovered Mack's Captain Kilburnie after C.S. Forrester's Hornblower. A delight.