The Horizon [Import] [Mass Market Paperback]

Douglas Reeman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 2005

Set in the years 1914-1918, this is the third book in the Blackwood saga. For three generations, members of the Blackwood family served the Royal Marines with distinction. With the outbreak of World War I, at last comes Jonathan Blackwood's turn to carry the family name into battle. But as the young marines embark for the Dardanelles, and a new kind of warfare, it dawns on them that the days of scarlet coats and an unchanging tradition of honour and glory have gone forever. First in Gallipoli, and two years later at Flanders, comes their horrifying initiation into a wholescale slaughter for which no training could ever have prepared them. Caught up in the savagery of a conflict beyond any officer's control, Blackwood's future rests on the 'horizon' - the dark lip of the trench which was the last fateful sight for so many.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Douglas Edward Reeman, a contemporary British writer, joined the British Navy at 16, serving on destroyers and small craft during World War II and eventually rising to lieutenant. He also has taught navigation to yachtsmen, and has served as a script adviser for television and films. Under the pseudonym Alexander Kent, Reeman is the author of the best-selling 25-volume "Richard Bolitho Novels." His books have been translated into nearly two dozen languages. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Douglas Reeman did convoy duty in the navy in the Atlantic, the Arctic, and the North Sea. He has written over thirty novels under his own name and more than twenty bestselling historical novels featuring Richard Bolitho under the pseudonym Alexander Kent.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 210 pages
• Publisher: Arrow (October 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099484439
• ISBN-13: 978-0099484431
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,960,466 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent treatment of little known aspect of World War One, August 17, 2003

By 

Paul Sayles (Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Horizon (The Royal Marines Saga) (Paperback)

The Horizon is the third volume of the Blackwood series. In this book we meet Jonathan Blackwood as he and the Royal Marines learn to adapt themselves to the new ways of war in World War I. Jonathan is a Royal Marine from a long line of Royal Marines - two of whom have won the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for valor in combat in the British awards scheme. His family is known throughout the Royal Marines it is sometimes something of a disadvantage.

Jonathan has been an observor on the Western Front but his experiences are not always appreciated by Royal Marines senior to him and without his experience. 1915 finds Jonathan and his men are on the beach at Gallipoli fighting the Turks in a no quarter given or asked for war. The Royal Marines are clinging to scraps of ground, loosing men constantly to snipers, booby traps and fruitless battles. Jonathan is wounded as he tries to prevent his own ships from shelling is men and is returned to Great Britain.

He recuperates and meets a young woman as he does so. The wrinkle is that this woman loved his older brother who died early in World War I. Yet they both learn to love one another in a world that is turned upside down.

After he is recovered from his wounds, Jonathan is sent to a newly activated battalion of Royal Marines bound for the Western Front. Now it is 1917 and the vast majority of the British Army is located in France and Flanders. Here is the real war now that the running sore of Gallipoli has been ended. The Royal Marines are mixed in with the British Army and both need to adjust to the forced marriage. Here on the Western Front the same problems face Jonathan as at Gallipoli - the losses of men due to enemy snipers, raids and assaults that are expected to gain miles of ground and end up gaining only yards, if that. It is as if the generals have gotten to the point where all they can do is throw more men into battle - that is all they seem to know.

Reeman has captured the grinding despair of Gallipoli and France. You can almost feel the heat of Gallipoli and the smell of rotting corpses (British, ANZAC and Turk). You can hear the sound of sniper shot and flies. You can almost feel the penetrating cold of the mud of France as the men stand in it day after day. As they assault prepared positions with little hope of success.

Few probably know of the exploits of the Royal Marines and Royal Navy in the trenches of France and Flanders during World War I - they have been overshadowed by the sheer weight of numbers of the British and Commonwealth Armies. Yet serve they did with great distinction. They Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve had many more men than ships and so created a division of sailors who served as infantrymen from 1914 through to the end of the war - The Royal Naval Division. They traded in thier blue bell bottom trousers and ships for khaki and mud.

I recommend this book as a must read for those involved in the story of the Blackwood family. It is also an excellent book on it's own as a book about World War I by a very special segment of the British forces. It is an excellent work giving great detail about the campaings in Gallipoli and France. It is well written with exceptional charecters - from generals down to newly recruited Royal Marines who have barely learned how to shave. It is a powerful book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Royal Marines in WW One., August 13, 2007

By 

EricS "Eric Scott" (Schenectady, NY USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Horizon (The Royal Marines Saga) (Paperback)

A very convincing account of the Gallipoli campaign, and trench warfare in France. This should be read by every schoolchild, to fix in their minds the horrors of military combat.