HONOUR THIS DAY [Hardcover]

ALEXANDER KENT (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: HEINEMANN (1984)
• ASIN: B000S9GZDY
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Fun, But No O'Brian, March 30, 2001

By 

Stephen P. Jones (Los Angeles, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Honour This Day (The Bolitho Novels) (Volume 17) (Paperback)

When I was younger, I picked up "Sloop of War" after I had run out of Hornblower novels. With the death of Patrick O'Brian, I returned to the Kent novels which I had stopped reading at "Signal -- Close Action !"

Bolitho hasn't changed. Sentimental -- brave -- generous -- loyal -- self-critical -- larger than life. Whereas Gene Roddenberry pictured Kirk as a 23rd century Hornblower, reserved, self-doubting, internally tortured, brilliant, and brave despite himself, Kent writes Bolitho the way William Shatner played Kirk.

The results are usually entertaining, as here. Kent draws ship-to-ship, cutting-out, and fleet actions as expertly as anyone who writes in this genre, plus he slips in an amount of sentiment that would make O'Brian or Forrester cringe, but it works because we know what a softie Bolitho is underneath. Kent draws the relationship between Bolitho and his officers, especially his nephew Adam, his flag captain Keen, and his cox'n Allday, affectingly (although the conflict with his old friend Herrick, now also a flag officer, seems contrived). The return of Catherine Pareja is a great move, as it allows Kent to write himself out of the hole he got into when he killed off Cheney, Bolitho's great love, then brought back her shadow in the form of Belinda, her look-alike cousin. Catherine brings back a little danger and spunk in the female lead.

But Kent's problems show between battles. There are occasional non-sequiturs in the writing. The dialogue can be stiff. Characters can act inconsistently with the way they were originally drawn, when it serves the plot. The final plot twist this time is awkward and falls flat. Kent handles ships, lines and sails well, but his knowledge of the rest of the history of the period seems sketchy, and his research regarding the workings of the Royal Navy at the time is nowhere near the level of Forrester or O'Brian.

If you're interested in the period and great characters, start with those two. If you love action, start with Bernard Cornwell. If you've read all of those, despite the flaws, Kent is well worth reading -- but we miss ye, Jack and Stephen !

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honour This Day, May 5, 2000

By 

Barbara Buhrer "bookworm" (Bayonet Point, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Honour This Day (The Bolitho Novels) (Volume 17) (Paperback)

Unwilling to take a desk job at the Admiraltry in london,Vice Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho asks for sea duty,always a frigate captain at heart. He asks for the Hyperion, the first ship of line he had ever commanded. He is still having trouble with his eyes;he is partially blind in his left eye,blinded by sand from a bucket an enemy ball had blown apart. He has difficulty adjusting to staying aloof of the day-to-day running of his ship' He is estranged from his wife,Belinda. Arriving in Antigua in 1804 his orders are to capture a Spanish treasure ship. In Antigua he meets again Catherine Pareja,his love of seven years ago,now married to Viscount Somervell,Inspector General. They find their love has not diminished despite the years of separation. He leads his small fleet to LaGuaira where the Spanish treasure ship laden with gold and silver destined for Spain is harbored. His mission is to capture this prize which Britian sorely needs. After this mission he returns to London where he is ordered to th Mediterranean to intercept and destroy the Spanish fleet which is to join the French to invade England. the sea battles are extremey realistic.This reader had the sense of being there feeling the pain,the chaos,the tension, viewing the carnage.This book is an education of that period of history,the geography of the area involved,the social and political order of the day. It is a lesson in the intricacies of seamanship. It is a model for the management of men. The people are real with the relationsips between the officers and crew, with the ideals of honor, duty and loyalty. The regular characters have become friends to me. This is the 17th book depicting the life of Richard Bolitho. If you haven't read any others, don't miss the opportunity to do so.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A visit with a dear old friend, November 6, 2010

By 

Nina M. Osier (Randolph, ME USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Honour This Day (The Bolitho Novels) (Volume 17) (Paperback)

Vice-Admiral of the Red Sir Richard Bolitho arrives at English Harbour on the island of Antigua in his flagship, the 32-year-old Hyperion, with a flag captain who baffles him and a new squadron to lead. It's 1804, and the long war in which England faces both France and Spain continues. Bolitho needs rest and medical care, especially for a damaged eye in which his sight sometimes fails. Both the state of his marriage and his real passion for his calling have him insisting, though, on this new command instead of the shore posting that he has earned and that his estranged wife would much prefer. In English Harbour he encounters an old love, and he soon finds himself once again personally leading men into battle.

That's the start of the seventeenth novel in Alexander Kent's fine series, which first captured my imagination many years ago when I was a young schoolteacher who loved European history. I still do, but it's been a long time since I picked up a Bolitho book. Somehow I lost track of the series, and encountering it again now has proved to be a great pleasure. I see the writing's flaws now, as I did not see them before; for one thing, the plotting doesn't always work. But Bolitho remains a sympathetic and mostly credible hero, and Kent can write a sea battle in the great age of sail with the very best of them.

--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of 2005 EPPIE winner "Regs"