Customer Reviews

Ramage's Challenge

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This is one of the oddest books I've read in the Royal Navy genre. Pope must have been out to lunch when he wrote this one. There are three things that make this such a weak book. First, Pope keeps repeating himself. We're told something, and a few pages later, we get exactly the same thing. Did Pope just forget what he had written? Although this series really needs to be read in order, Pope does give enough review in each book for each to be read by itself. But within the same book?
Secondly, the premise of the story is just not very interesting; Ramage is sent out to rescue some admirals, generals, and lords who were vacationing in France during the peace and are captured and interned in Italy. He rescues the men through a ruse, but their wives are kept somewhere else (more about this later). The battle is good, but too short. And ya gotta read a LOT to get to the short battle. All in all, it's just not very interesting. Finally, execution of the story is absolutely ridiculous. Ramage has orders from on high to rescue the officials--no mention of their wives. After the initial rescue, he has followed his orders to the letter of the law and can return to England. The question remains whether he'll rescue the wives as well. The silly part is that none, not one, of the men try to take over or even convince him to do so! Even the admiral sits by and watches Ramage mull everything over in his mind. Either these guys are fools or don't care much about their wives. I don't know many men who would just let their wives rot in jail--wouldn't every guy pull rank (orders be damned!), take over the ship and rescue his wife? Of course! The whole thing is just plain silly.
Repetition, dullness, and silliness make this a weak, very weak, book.

Oh Mr. Pope - not up to your usual standards. Had yourself a nice visit to Italy, hmmm? Decided to share your knowledge with us? Only problem is - we're expecting a *nautical fiction* series, not an Italian travelogue. First half of the book expounds on the history, current customs, agricultural practices and land formations of Tuscany. B-o-r-i-n-g. Seems as if Mr. Pope wrote himself into a corner when Sarah's ship goes missing during Ramage #14 and he had only a short story's worth of idea of how Ramage could get her back. Once we got down to the hostage-rescuing action at sea, things were fine, but boy did we have to wade through junk to get there. No joke, first half of book is on land and nothing happens. All of the Ramage books have short explanations of previous events so that a reader can pick up any book and follow the plot, but as you read further into the series, these repeats become tiresome, especially when the stuff being repeated doesn't seem important. Do we really need to know about the various winds in the Med, again, or Southwick's prowess with his two-handed sword, which he uses only once in this book, and "off-camera" to boot? It's almost as if Mr. Pope has a list of things to include in every book, with no regard as to whether or not the info is important to a reader's understanding of that particular book. Overall, my advice to folks reading the series - you can skip this one without missing anything - there's no character development, we don't learn anything more about Ramage or Sarah or any of the guys. Just go directly from Ramage #14 to #16, and accept that, through the magic of fiction, Sarah is back. Oh and P.S., that LT Hill, the new LT from the mutiny trial, is a good guy (we do learn that in this book). Or, as another reviewer suggested, just read the last half, starting from Chapter 12.

I've read all the Ramage novels and I'm a fan. This is just a friendly suggestion to the reader that when you get to this one you might consider to proceed rapidly through the first half of the book. Read the first sentence of each paragraph and then decide whether to read the whole paragraph or not. The author gets especially carried away with descriptions of things we, the seeker of naval action, don't give a damn about -- local vegetation, birds, geographical names (and their histories). Mr Pope can be forgiven for waxing on about his interests (because he has given us so many exciting stories up to this point), but I voted to pass up large portions.

Make no mistake, the exciting part does eventually arrive, but even then is a bit rushed and abbreviated. And, the ending definitely leaves a bunch of loose threads (e.g., what happens to the duel between Ramage and the obnoxious General?).

Ramage and his happy crew sail back to adventure off the Tuscan coast of Italy again, haunts where he first rescued the beautiful Gianna, the Marchesa of Volterra, escaping from the heel of Napolean. Now she's presumed to be his victim again, but will Ramage happen upon traces of her, or of the wife he married just before she disappeared at sea? In the meantime he has been tasked by the Navy to rescue some noble (and well-hidden) hostages, and he must try several ruses to outwit the clever French. This story and its allusions will make more sense if you've read Ramage no. 1 (and the rest of the series).

Among the interesting vignettes Pope loved to slip in are how to up anchor on a lee shore or cast a log line to determine ship's speed. Usual McBooks excellence in typography, with those lovely swash capitals (oops, the swashbucklers appear in no. 17). This time the cover art is misleading, since this is another story featuring Ramage's ingenuity, guile, tact, and luck rather than bloodthirsty battle.

Not up to the tense build-up from the Hornblower novels and he drops clues early that makes you frustrated..Why can't Ramage figure this out from the OBVIOUS clue? Otherwise the action's believable and interesting...the three different girl friends are a bit overdone.