The King's Coat: The Naval Adventures of Alan Lewrie (Thorndike Core) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Dewey Lambdin (Author)

Book Description

Series: Thorndike Core | Publication Date: February 1999

In 1870 Alan Lewrie was a precocious seventeen-year-old living in London. Found in bed with his half-sister, he was sent off to the navy to be out of sight -- and perhaps lost at sea. Much to his surprise, Alan took to the sea, and before long proved himself as a seaman. The King's Coat is a novel of adventure and self-discovery, of breathtaking sea battles and awakening maturity. It introduces Midshipman Alan Lewrie on his premiere voyage and sees him off to a brilliant naval career at the height of the American Revolution.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Comparisons will be made between Midshipman Alan Lewrie and Forester's Horatio Hornblower, but this auspicious beginning of a series has a very modern sensibility. In 1780, at the age of 17, our hero, bastard son of Sir Hugo Willoughby, is already a practicing rake in London. Caught in flagrante with his sluttish half-sister, he is banished to the Navy in a nasty ploy by Sir Hugo to rob the boy of his inheritance. During Alan's year on the 64-gun Adriadne , on the American-built schooner Parrot and on the frigate Desperate , he becomes an adept, even valiant sailor. There are foes at sea (a snotty fellow midshipman, a sanctimonious captain, American rebels) and ashore (Sir Hugo and minions), but there are also friends, notably Lt. Kenyon, skipper of the Parrot , and Lucy Beauman, beautiful niece of an admiral. Lambdin's crisp, gory action scenes possibly are marred for landlubbers by heavy nautical jargon, but graphic ribaldry involving a couple of older ladies needs no translation.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Lambdin's Alan Lewrie stacks up well with C.S. Forester's Hornblowe r and Alexander Kent's Bolitho as a fictional naval officer. In this first novel, Lewrie, at 17, is unwillingly made a midshipman in the British navy of 1780. He sails first in a ship-of-the-line, later in a schooner, and finally a frigate. Storms, battles, duels, and difficulties begin to change him from a spoiled fop into a competent officer who is slowly coming to take pride in his hard service. Lambdin makes his character very human and believable. Questions about his background and prospects are left intriguingly unanswered. Lambdin also demonstrates a good enough grasp of sailing and 18th-century sea warfare to satisfy readers of this genre, who are quick to catch any mistakes. A good yarn that promises to become a good series.
- C. Robert Nixon, M.L.S., Lafayette, Ind.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 539 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (February 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0783804407
• ISBN-13: 978-0783804408
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #806,721 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kudos for King's Coat, November 14, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The King's Coat (Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is a great read! The battle scenes are comparable to Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series. This book is fastpaced and action packed. Alan Lewrie is the opposite of Hornblower and Jack Aubrey which is completely refreshing, even if he is a lecherous rascal. The dialogue is fresh, quick witted, salty and to the point. I love this character and can't wait for the next book in the series. The fact that the author is a sailor makes the sailing lingo understandable and he includes information about ships and sailing points that helps the reader (sailor and non-sailor alike) understand the business of sailing that takes place in this book completely. Mr. Lambdin has given us in The King's Coat an excellent beginning to a wonderful series and a very rememberable rogue in Alan Lewrie.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Harold Robbins meets C.S. Forester, August 18, 2000

By 

Frank J O'Connor - See all my reviews

This review is from: The King's Coat (Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures) (Mass Market Paperback)

If you like nautical fiction of the great age of sail (e.g. Forester, O'Brian, Woodman, Marryat), you will enjoy this opening volume of the action-packed, fast moving and realistic adventures of our tarnished hero, Alan Lewrie. While on water, this book is as good as any of the above writers, excepting of course the incomparable O'Brian. However, our author founders on land with trashy sex scenes more appropriate to a Harld Robbins potboiler. The author trying to model his protagonist on Fraser's Flashman, or Fielding's Tom Jones comes badly ascupper. These humorless sex scenes are perhaps why this nautical series is not as popular as many others. However, once back on the high seas, this book recaptures its pace and becomes highly exciting and enjoyable. One day, however, I hope to open a book with a handsome, brave, cunning and feisty hero in possession of a small penis. It will, however, not be written by the otherwise entertaining Mr. Lambdin.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The King's Coat -Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures, February 1, 2006

By 

Gary Gelzer "GNC Railway Supt." (Goodyear, AZ, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The King's Coat (Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the first book in a 12 plus book series, about the tales of Alan Lewrie, who goes from midshipman in the British Royal Navy to Captain during the 1780's to the Napoleanic Wars. The adventure is very good, the character development is excellent, we really get to know the midshipman and his thought process. Our hero is not the eagar young person wanting to join the navy, but a privledged (...)son of a Lord, who is 'pressed' into naval service by the trickery of his father. The nautical settings are accurately presented, however, the old english, and the foreign tongues that are part of the story are sometimes a little hard to understand. No need for a dictionary, but prepare to comprehend some passages that are not easy reading.
Lastly, while many of our nautical heros do not seem to have a sex life, our hero has a good and vividly portrayed one. He seems to have almost as much fun in bed as he does on the decks of a fighting ship. Overall a great start to a series, I am currently reading book 7 and look forward to the rest of the series.