Customer Reviews

Kydd

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It seems that everyone is writing a naval series these days. I know my paperboy started one and the guy at the video store looks to be publishing his third. It would seem then that you would have to be doing something pretty special to justify a new series -- especially when you consider the works of Forester and O'Brian. I think Stockwin is trying for something special, in part by setting this his first story in the ranks of common sailors, but also from taking the naval aspect of these stories very seriously. You do get a healthy sense of sea life in this tale, though you are often frustrated by the very limitations of this life. It is hard to get a bigger picture of things precisely because these sailors were largely in the dark. This sense that anything can happen out of the blue often gives the story a kind of disjointed feel, as if each episode is unconnected with the rest. Moreover, there are a lot of episodes.

Despite this, and a sense that Stockwin is a much better observer of naval life than human character, the story was often gripping and the narrative never flagged. If you haven't read Patrick O'brian's novels, I would start there first before considering Kydd, but with the passing of O'brian and the Aubrey-Maturin series, Kydd warrants a serious look.

I wish there were room for half-stars, because three and a bit seems right to me.

I'm a Hornblower fan, but unlike so many others, I've never enjoyed Patrick O'Brian's naval books. (They are fine books, I know; for some reason, they just don't click with me.) So I was delighted to find "Kydd," a Napoleonic seafaring adventure, capturing my interest almost from the first page, as the hero is unhappily pressed into service in the Royal Navy. Unlike Hornblower, Kydd is a rankless landlubber, which enables Stockwin to provide a new and interesting perspective. Like the C.S. Forester novels, though, "Kydd" is fast-paced and interesting. This is a promising start to what one hopes will be a long series.

I find Julian Stockwin's novel "Kydd," the first in a projected series about the adventures of a Royal Navy seaman during the Napoleonic wars, to be a glass both half full and half empty. There are some aspects of the novel which were truly excellent. Stockwin has a detailed command of the physical aspects of the Royal Navy -- the ships, the implements and small duties of daily life, the sea itself, and he brings those physical aspects into vivid existence. When he wrote how a wave dashing against the hull of a ship sent water spurting through the narrow crack around the lid of a gunport, I realized that I had never thought of this happening but instantly recognized that his description was unmistakably true. Such descriptions of ships and the sea dominate the first half of "Kydd" and, at the halfway point, I was eager to read further. But ... The second half of the novel is much more given to characters and what is supposed to be an action-filled plot, and -- at least at this stage of his writing career -- Stockwin is no master of either. I found the minor characters unmemorable and one of the main characters, Nicholas Renzi, to be literally unbelievable. When he says, "Perhaps one day we will sail to the Orient -- I have a morbid desire to imbibe their metaphysics at the source," I personally have a morbid desire to throw away his thesaurus.

Depite my reservations about the characters (and their often strained dialogue), I would still recommend "Kydd" to nautical novel enthusiasts. Read the first half slowly and revel in the intense physical world recreated, then scan the predictable plot turns of the second half more quickly. I will undoubtedly read the next novel in the series, "Artemus," and will hope that Julian Stockwin's skill as an author grows to meet the promise shown by the first half of "Kydd."

As a first novel, this book is impressive. Sometimes the story line seems a bit implausible, but the characters are vivid and realistic. Readers who don't know much about naval fiction will feel right at home, as Kydd is a young man who has been press-ganged to sea and must work his way up on his first ship, experiencing firsthand the beauty and horror of the sea. Having read 'Artemis' and 'Seaflower', the sequels to Stockwin's first novel, I have come to appreciate 'Kydd' a lot more. Disappointingly, I feel that Stockwin had a wonderful capability and his books were promising, but have not found his proceeding books as engaging as this one. So read this book and appreciat it - you can't always find other ones as rewarding, even by the same author.

OK. First off, this initial instalment in a new naval fiction series isn't Patrick O'Brian reborn. There aren't the depths upon depths of O'Brian in style, nor the superb characterisation of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin.

But the setting is the same, with a bonus of more realism than O'Brian ever managed, and the language of the lower deck is just as pungent.

It's much the same world, this time seen from before the mast, and this is the half-world that O'Brian rarely peeped into. We live in the shadows of the gun decks, our existence made up of rows and rows of hammocks, the mess tables between the guns, the fo'csle make and mend and the taunt line to be toed when dealing with officers.

The atmosphere is pungent - and you can almost smell the rich aromas that arise during the action. The sights and sounds of the lower deck complete the picture.

If I have a criticism, it's that some of the events and characters are a little far-fetched. A few too many coincidences for my liking, and one is made conscious of the mind of the author doing a little embroidery here and there.

But, that niggle aside, this is a series I shall follow with keen interest. Maybe Stockwin cannot match the literary style of O'Brian, but he gives us a new view on the same world and it is a pleasure to revisit it.

Oh yeah. Keep a bucket handy for when the barky starts to toss. You'll find yourself at the end of the book afore ye know it and be rolling down the street to buy the next in the series.

Kydd is just too perfect. There are so many authors around that are writing sea stories, and their main character is too lucky, too good looking, and too successful with the women. There are no women in this novel but that will probably change in later books by this author. Ho hum. And that is the problem with this novel.

I liked the technical descriptions of how ships operate, but this may not appeal to others. The novel is really a collection of short stories in the life of Kydd who is pressed into the Navy and then grows into a seaman; so it jumps around a lot. Kydd's best friend, Renzi, is not any better drawn that Kydd, but maybe future books by Stockwin will better define their character and make them more dimensional.

I enjoyed reading this book, but if the author does not improve his characterization and flow of narrative, I will not be reading any future books by the author. There are a number of authors out there that are worthy of consideration beside O'brian--Richard Woodman has got this type of sea story down. Try Jan Needle for a view of what life is like in the lower decks with a crazy captain.

The premise is good but the story becomes a bit unbelievable. The character does things that should have had him charged with desertion and he gets away with it. I'll reserve judgement on the series until I've read the second book.

Julian Stockwin's "Kydd" has a strong first half but dissapointed me during the second half. He's an obviously knowledgeable period writer and has developed a protaganist that comes from a different social caste than all other naval heroes, a common sailor as oppossed to an officer or gentleman. This take was what first attracted me to "Kydd".

The first half of the novel is excellent and would easliy deserve four or five stars. Thomas Paine Kydd is a wig maker pressed into the Royal Navy very much against his will. The harshness of the lower deck is only moderately alleviated by his acquiring a "sea daddy", a long time able seaman who takes Kydd under his wing and teaches him the trade. Kydd is also an intelligent, physically active young man who is a natural leader. Despite these many positives, they are not sufficent to avoid the brutal existence experienced by mere landsman on a man o' war.

The second half falls apart. The story is fragmented and does not flow as well as the first half. More importantly, Kydd makes an easy half dozen errors but because of luck, acts of god, or the sudden unexpected benevolence of formerly brutal or indifferent superiors, manages to repeatedly avoid the consequences of his actions. From bad luck, he suddenly lives a charmed life. Where he was on the way to become a stoic, he transforms into a petulant child. The second half deserves a mere two stars.

I do recommend the book, as the good far outwieghs the bad. However, I think the longevity of the series will have to rest on the second novel (titled "Artemis", the name of Kydd's second ship) which I will certainly buy. As a devout fan of Forester and O'Brien, both deceased, here's hoping that the author manages to capture the essence of the first half of Kydd, and avoids the chaos of the second. We need more Napoleonic fiction.

By the way, when will someone write from the French view of the naval war between France and Britian?

Our protagonist, Thomas Kydd, is no Hornblower (thanks goodness!! -no long evenings at the whist table, melancholy reflections or regrets about marrying Maria); Kydd is a wig-maker who has the misfortune of meeting up with a press gang at he wrong time. Lonely, scared, and confused, Kydd slowly learns the culture of the crew and the workings of the ship. Unfortunately, the reader is just as confused. Not much really happens in the first part of the book and it's just not very interesting. I realize the author is setting the table for later books, but I'd like a few morsels to keep me going. Also, the book is heavy on dialogue, which takes some getting used to. Much jargon (not just nautical) and there are few speaker cues, which make the dialogue difficult to follow. I'll slog through another book or two in the hopes that it gets better.

"'Ooray," a retired British skipper has begun another great new "Age of Fighting Sail" series (2 more vols. in work)! Beginning as a pressed man torn from home upon the outbreak of (22 years of) war with revolutionary France in 1793, young Kydd starts all confused, and he/we first learn our position (the lubberly bottom) and shipboard duties (brute labor) at the end of screamed gibberish or slashing "starter" rope (no shore classes in those days). This is the only Napoleonic maritime series I know whose hero actually begins "before the mast," rather than as a petty officer (Lambden, Woodman) or a captain already (Forester [with only episodic flashbacks], O'Brian). [I also don't know of any series that gives a contrasting French take to all these Limey views of "the Frogs," and Americy.] It's also nice to have a view from inside a first-rate (100 gun) ship, for so many series have never reached that exhalted point from their initial sloops and frigates (O'Brian). Kydd gradually "learns the ropes" as his old, leaky, and fœtid ship sails to meet a French squadron in vividly described battle. Then his promising (yet so far unheroic) rise in the Navy takes a fateful lurch in the last chapters that promises to change all our expectations for the series. But here I think the story ends more hastily, conventionally, and less terrifyingly than it might have done (so, 4.5 star review actually).

The series will celebrate the rare type of hard man who managed to grab onto and then climb to the top of the Naval ladder of command without "interest" and by his prodigious talent and luck alone. Kydd's personality falls between the randy worldliness of Lambden's Lewrie, the patriotic idealism of Forester's Hornblower, and the ruminations of O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin pair. The supporting characters are highly individual, interesting, and engage in wonderfully dialectic dialogue. For the realism and suspenseful interest of this series, it's good to know that leading chaacters are subject to random death like any other Jack Tar. No sure thing on a sailing ship of war.

Stockwin writes well, crisply, and spiritedly, with what I thought was exactly the right level of sharply observed sea-faring detail (the smells are almost palpable, too). There's enough of sail handling to confuse a lubber, but not to obscure the story. Readers new to sailing stories would be helped by the addition of rigging and wind-rose diagrams to future editions (or consult Dean King's A SEA OF WORDS). The HB dj painting by Goeff Hunt captures remarkably the settings for much of Kydd's activities on the three-decker. This is a gripping start for the Kydd series, may it prosper. I'll ship out for the voyage.