Customer Reviews

The Ramage Touch

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Making landfall off the Tuscan coast of Italy (familiar to readers of the very first Ramage novel as the home of his love), Capt. Ramage's frigate Calypso falls in with two French bomb vessels. With the discovery the t wo vessels were to join frigate transports for a secret invasion plan, Ramage's eyes light with new possibilities for applying his devastating but low-casualty "touch" to discomfit Napoleon. Can he discover the destination? He becomes a gypsy spy, attacks a harbor, and chases a frigate, all in pursuit of this goal. His cruise in the Mediterranean is to be continued in the next volume (Ramage's Signal).

More deliberately paced than, say, Alexander Kent's swashbuckling Bolitho series, Pope wrote two major actions to Kent's typical five. Pope includes short didactic pieces, which slow the narrative but contribute to the depth of the story. For example, in the middle of this volume (and to build suspense) is an entertaining section on the handling of Calypso's anchors, and later the commands necessary for setting sail. This series is easier than others for the novice to follow, whereas the Bolitho is for those seeking pure action.

As with all Pope's novels in the Ramage series, an enjoyable read, not his best, but enjoyable all the same. My only concern was that the copy that I recieved had Chapter Four all scrambled up. The first page carried on following the previous chapter, then proceeded to go onto ramblings of the First Lt for half the chapter, and then switched to Mid Orisini reading the instructions for the mortar firing. All in all more than a bit disconcerting. I had to read the Chapter twice and double check that the pages were correctly numbered. After that the book went fairly well.
As a serious reader I persisted, but I could see where a non serious reader may have given up or been turned off at reading more from an outstanding author and historian. I can only hope that my copy was a misprint and not a sample of the book publishers art.

As any reader of this series knows by now, Capt. Lord Nicholas Ramage makes a point, whenever possible, of using the opportunities and tools that come to hand in his continuing struggle against the French navy under Bonaparte. He does it in innovative ways, usually catching the enemy (and often his own people) by surprise. He also hates to lose men unnecessarily, so any inventive scheme that works to that end is also welcome. And his success is shown by his position as one of the youngest post captains on the Navy List. A couple of books ago, Ramage captured a French frigate, undamaged and recently provisioned, which allowed him to pass himself off as an enemy vessel -- and to essentially capture the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao. Now the Admiralty has sent him off on a three-month cruise in the Mediterranean to create havoc and disrupt French operations in any way he can. The French lines of the CALYPSO, the French-pattern suit of sails, and a recently captured French signal book will allow him to work practically undercover. And almost the first contact he makes, off the coast of Tuscany, is with a pair of bomb ketches -- small, converted merchantmen, each slightly redesigned and re-outfitted to carry two ten-inch mortars. With a charge of up to eight or ten pounds of powder, such a weapon could hurl an explosive shell weighing nearly a hundred pounds for up to a mile, in a parabolic arc ideal for plunging fire behind walls and over hills. The ketches -- which Ramage, naturally, is able to grab without firing a shot -- are headed for Crete in company with a couple of frigates, where they are to join with other naval elements in some kind of fleet. But where the highly secret operation is aimed, Ramage has no idea. Egypt, perhaps, where Bonaparte had already failed a couple of years before? Being fluent in Italian and French, he slips ashore to seek intelligence among the troops gathering to board the awaited frigates, but things don't go well. Not to worry, however. And those mortars are going to come in very useful. It's not a bad yarn, though one gets the impression that the author had only recently studied up on bomb ketches and wanted to regurgitate everything had learned. The crew spends a lot of time explaining all the technology and specifications to each other for the benefit of the reader, which is always an awkward device. There's also a good deal of other padding in order to bring the book up to respectable length. The other main problem is that, since this is an historical novel and not alternate history, the author can't simply rewrite the major events of the war to suit his plot -- which requires that he basically throw away the point of all Ramage's activities at the end of the story. Anyway, since it's obvious the cruise is going to be continued in the next volume, his editor should have suggested Pope trim some of the fat and combine two or three sub-adventures into a single book.

This dull book suffers from all the weaknesses of Pope's writing and none of his strengths. Reading this book was like wading through the LaBrea Tar Pits. Way too much detail on trivial matters and little action and suspense. Just when things begin to get interesting, Pope pulls the rug out from under the reader and leaves him wondering what is going on. This happens over and over. There simply is no climax to any of the episodes. They just fizzle out. And they aren't filled with anything to keep the reader interested. The whole story--Ramage capturing several bomb ketches, sinking two frigates--should be a jolly ol' read. But it isn't. I'll keep plugging along with this series, but hope the next one is better.