Customer Reviews

The Fox and the Fortune

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Fans of the historical nautical yarn of sailing ships at war will find this book, latest in a series, somewhat interesting. However, in all honesty, I believe that the Hornblower novels and the relatively recent Aubrey/Maturin series routinely breathe far more character, plot, and life into a book. If you've exhausted those and similar, by all means move onto Parkinson's Fox series. The time period of this series (early parts of the American Revolution) is interesting, and I enjoyed the ambivalent attitude of many Americans in this book toward the war. That had a nice ring of reality, and was a welcome relief from the usual give-me-liberty-or-give-me-death heroes you find in this era. Unfortunately, the characters are simplistic and shallow, the villains ridiculously villainous, the plot glued together mainly by wild coincidence, and the technical details at times suspect. For example, I don't think American privateers and warships of the era normally shipped long rifles instead of muskets. Not that many people on the mid-Atlantic coast even HAD long rifles! The book portrays a frigate using heated shot from a stern chaser, which is awfully hard to swallow. It also has a number of ships reduced to kindling with a few broadsides. This grossly contradicts one of John Keegan's salient points in the sailing ship warfare part of "The Price of Admiralty." That respected military historian points out (quite correctly, I think) that wooden warships were virtually never sunk in battle on the high seas. Oh yes, I've encountered one other nautical wartime yarn series that I consider significantly superior and worthy of your attention: David Weber's Honor Harrington novels. Despite the SciFi setting, they are Horatio-Hornblower-style adventures that hold their own against traditional sailing ship yarns. - Arnold Hendrick

The Fox and the Fortune, first published in 1992, is Dan Parkinson's final contribution to the Patrick Dalton series. A shame, that. Not only will I have to forgo more of Parkinson's sparkling writing, but he leaves several plot elements unresolved. Perhaps he planned another volume that has not been delivered.

I certainly enjoyed all aspects of the book -- the action, DP's writing and the humor. Dalton, still searching for his place in the world-turned-upside-down of 1778, finds himself in conflict with pirates who use the confusion of war to prey on merchant shipping. The pirates are appropriately treacherous and bloodthirsty and the action is compellingly written. Parkinson's delightful humor (as usual) centers around the ill-assorted groups of people that seem to stick to Dalton -- a couple of Frenchmen, a band of castaways and a group of lubberly and locust-like English colonists. A quibble: I could wish that Parkinson's French were better. He puts errors in the mouths of characters who are not likely to have made them. He seems sometimes to be spelling French phonetically, as if he learned it by ear. All well and good, but please, get a copy editor who can fix the French! (I'm afraid this is a problem for a number of authors of Historic Naval Fiction, including some currently writing.)

Dalton continues to be surrounded by the impressively-drawn supporting characters from the earlier novels, including the irrepressible Duncan and the lovely Constance Ramsey and her "whim of iron." Constance manages to bully her way into the male-dominated action, although Parkinson misses a chance to integrate her fully into the plot.

Knowing this was the last published book of the series, I expected Parkinson to settle Dalton's crisis of conscience, but I was disappointed not to get a final resolution. The pleasure that Parkinson's story-telling gives is as much a reason to desire another book as the need to see Dalton find his fortune, his flag, his faith -- and his girl. Alas, Dan Parkinson passed away in 2001, leaving a rich four-book legacy to readers of Historic Naval Fiction, not to mention his works of adventure and Science Fiction.

This is an average book in this genre. It has an original copyright of 1992, but was recently reprinted. It is written in the style of Errol Flynn motion pictures, i.e., good guys chasing and pounding on bad guys, with a female role added in (it would do for a B grade motion picture). There is considerable violence but no real sexual content.

It is part of the continuing Patrick Dalton Saga, as Dalton sails as "a man without a country," claiming allegiance to no particular country, but looking for opportunities. He is a man given a noble purpose, fighting pirate ships, and claiming salvage for profit when he can. The story is a little unrealistic from the historical standpoint (people were more inclined to put profit ahead of good deeds) but illustrates the confused state of things along the Atlantic seaboard in 1778. The story is somewhat like the Perils of Pauline, left unfinished with a villain not brought to justice, apparently as a lead in to a sequel. While not great literature, it can provide an interesting story to read on a rainy day, and is probably better than watching summer reruns on TV.