All the technical details and swashbuckling action scenes readers have come to expect from Dewey Lambdin are present in this eighth installment in the Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures series. Fresh from his successes along the French coast, Commander Alan Lewrie is dispatched to the Adriatic to patrol the shores of Italy and intercept any French ships trying to reinforce Napoleon's armies. The four ship squadron the HMS Jester has joined emerge victorious from the first few skirmishes, but it soon becomes evident, even to Lewrie, that the British forces need reinforcements. The aid they receive, however, might be the most terrifying aspect of the war yet...and a lethal mistake. Expertly weaving late eighteenth and early nineteenth century naval and military history into a believable and engaging plot, Jester's Fortune will transport readers to the exciting period of history when Brittania ruled the waves.
| ||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The eighth title in the Alan Lewrie adventure series (after The King's Coat) finds our hero in 1796 the commander of the sloop HMS Jester, one of four Royal Navy ships patrolling the Adriatic. Napoleon has been marauding in Northern Italy and the squadron's duty is to maintain the Alliance's shaky ties with Venice. Feeling shorthanded, the flotilla's leader decides to enlist, sub rosa, some Balkan pirates on the English side. Lewrie is justifiably hesitant about this ploy and, as events ensue, he's proven right when the Serbian pirates engage in an orgy of gut-churning brutality. The face of ethnic cleansing has rarely looked so ghastly. Lambdin offers views of new places here (Corfu, the "fabulist sham" of Venice); exotic history (someone calls the feral feuds of the Serbs, Croats, Greeks, Turks, Albanians, Catholics, Orthodox, Muslims "rather complicated"?British understatement raised to a new level); and inner workings of a craft (sailors' life, aboard and ashore). There are successful sea actions (and prize money), a bloody denouement with the Serbian pirates and, for the "bit unconventional" Lewrie, who is somewhat of a scamp, a new romantic entanglement. Readers of the series will not be disappointed in the ending, although Lambdin should lose his annoying tendency to mimic phonetic speech, which seriously slows the plot (e.g., an Austrian officer/translator remarks, "He asks me, are we de British Royal Navy vich hezz so vahry much silver to buy brat unt sheep"). But fans will find plenty to like in this colorful adventure.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Amiable rakehell and thorough professional Alan Lewrie undertakes his eighth adventure, and he still hasn't made it through 1796. At this rate, his saga will surely be the next multivolume Napoleonic naval epic, sailing in the wake of Forester and O'Brian. In command of H.M.S. Jester, a sloop of war, Lewrie sails to the Adriatic as part of a squadron in support of Britain's allies in the area. Unfortunately, Napoleon invades Italy at the same time, Britain's allies are beset or intimidated, and the British must ally with Serbian pirates to make up for their lack of strength for operations against French supply vessels. The uneasy alliance brings the action-packed novel to a gripping if gruesome climax. Lewrie sails away with his reputation enhanced and another willing woman in hand. Lewrie is not always appealing company, except possibly to cat lovers, but his adventures present a vivid, well-researched, thoroughly readable portrait of the rough-and-tumble side of the Royal Navy, at its best and its worst, during the days of sail. Roland Green
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Dewey Lambdin is the author of fourteen previous Alan Lewrie novels. A member of the U.S. Naval Institute and a Friend of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, he spends his free time working and sailing (he's been a sailor since 1976). He makes his home in Nashville, Tennessee, but would much prefer Margaritaville or Murrell's Inlet.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lambdin/Lewrie have done it again!,
By Anna K. Anderson (Chester, Virginia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Jester's Fortune: An Alan Lewrie Naval Adventure (Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures) (Hardcover)
I have just finished Jester's Fortune. It is typical Alan Lewrie stuff, except that he somehow avoids any signifcant female interation. For Alan Lewrie, this is more than a change, it is bizarre. In this regard, I liked the old Lewrie better. I hope this is a one time hiatus. Other than that it was GREAT. A visit to the history of the Balkins and how they got so screwed up that they are still killing each other today!!!! It was either excellent timing or stupendous coincidence. In any case, you learn much, certainly more than you will ever learn from a newspaper, about why there is such a mess in the Balkins, and why there is no real reason to hope that it will improve. AND our hero Alan Lewrie is right in the middle of the history making!!!! Alan's "friend" Napolean Bonaparte is unleashed on the world and the world will never be the same. Great story superbly told.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another account taking Alan Lewrie into a new arena,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Jester's Fortune: An Alan Lewrie Naval Adventure (Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures) (Hardcover)
Like Dewey Lambdin's previous books, this tale takes British Naval Commander Alan Lewrie into an area seldom covered by other novels related to this historical period. Commander Lewrie takes Jester into the Adriatic as part of a naval squadron sent to intercept French trade. The book provides a good account of the situation, including the troubles between ethnic and religious groups in the area. The present troubles in the Balkans are taken back 200 years, with the Serbs as the villains, and background material on some of the origins. With graphic descriptions of atrocities, this is not a children's book. The account is interspersed with details of Napoleon's campaigns in Italy and his rise to power. An old love of Lewrie's reappears, along with a couple of old school chums from Harrow, and a new woman leads him into temptation while he is far from home and family.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Jesters Fortune a big disappointment,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Jester's Fortune: An Alan Lewrie Naval Adventure (Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures) (Hardcover)
I am a HUGE Dewey Lambdin fan, own all his books, and even hunted down out-of-print copies for my library a few years back before they all became available. But I found Jester's Fortune to be a big disappointment. The setting and location are interesting, and as usual Mr. Lambdin has done his homework on the history. But almost nothing happens in the first 280 pages! The last 80 pages are typical of both Lambdin and Lewrie, and were fun and exciting. But it took me almost a month to wade through the first 280, as it never held my interest.Still, if you've read the rest of the series, you'll want to read this too. (Is that faint enough praise?) Three stars ONLY because the ending was good. Otherwise two.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
