Customer Reviews

Sails on the Horizon: A Novel of the Napoleonic Wars

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a decent book if you enjoy naval fiction of the Napoleonic

era. It is about the sudden rise from second lieutenant to

commander in the career of Charles Edgemont and his subsequent

initial adventures. Edgemont is called up from the gun deck to take

command when the captain and first mate are killed in battle, and he

gets credit for the good results that really did not stem from any

action on his part. Admiral Jervis promotes him to the rank of

commander and awards him captaincy of a 28-gun frigate. There are

elements here that gave me considerable unease. In most naval

fiction, the usual idea is that the hero should captain a ship or

perhaps command a small fleet: he should be the actor in charge,

and not simply a lower-ranking person who is part of action

outside his control. Curiously, war novels on land usually take

the opposite approach--the hero is not a general or other high-

ranking officer [who are usually far behind the front lines]. So

what we have in the novel is a mechanism to elevate Edgemont to

independent command as quickly as possible. My intuition would

suggest that under remarkable circumstances a 2nd lieutenant might

be promoted to commander, and a ship suitable for a commander

might be given to that person--say a 12-gun brig. Captaincy of a

28-gun frigate was post-rank, not commander, I believe. Even in

wartime there would be a long list of post-captains ashore looking

for a ship--especially a frigate, and many of most would have some

influence at the Admiralty.

Commander Edgemont has a number of small battles with the enemy,

and in particular with his nemesis the Santa Brigida, a 40-gun

frigate. Edgemont seems remarkably skillful in his tactics for

someone who has never commanded a ship--this also leaves me a bit

uneasy. There is an encounter with Lieutenant Horatio Hornblower,

which I felt was getting much too cute.

The book is well-written, and the battle scenes are engaging. It

would be nice for Edgemont to have a few character defects--

O'Brien's Aubrey and Lambdin's Lewrie have defects--it helps make

them more human, and they also make mistakes.

Lord Cochrane was a real (nonfictional) naval hero of that time--

his skills and exploits have been used extensively by Forester,

O'Brien, Lambdin, and others, and in many ways serves as their

model. Cochrane worked best with small independent commands--away

from the restrictions and politics of being one captain in a fleet

of, say, 15 men-of-war. He was the model protagonist. I wish I

could see more naval fiction where the hero was not in charge of

the action, not the protagonist. The early Lambdin novels, with

Lewrie as a midshipman and lieutenant are the most enjoyable--

and I'll be forever grateful for Lewrie's slow rise across many

novels to post-captain rank. Edgemont at the start of the novel

is 25 years old, having been at sea since he was 13, as I recall.

I would very much have liked to see much more of those formative

years. We have seen Alan Lewrie in his first days at sea learning

the ropes [literally!], making mistakes, changing from a wastrel

to an enjoyable and engaging character--we see how his skills and

abilities were formed. There's not enough of that in most naval

fiction--and I would have enjoyed seeing it in this novel.

I just finshed Sails on the Horizon and am trying to decide what Commander Edgemont's distinguishing trait is. Hornblower's was honor. Lewrie is a scoundral. Bolitho's was loyalty to his people. Aubrey was the ultimate sailor. Ramage's temper was ever close to the surface. Bentley is still finding himself.

Edgemont's appears to be honesty.

Edgemont was a competent, but not particularly noteworthy lieutenant who finds himself in command at the tail end of a battle that is won. Credit must be awarded, and it falls on Edgemont who doesn't particularly seek it, and tries to minimize his role, which was - minimal. He is promoted in any case, given a ship, and set in a position to dual a larger Spaniard frigate off and on for the rest of the book.

In the meantime, he meets his true love by accidently breaking her arm. She is a Quaker, and we soon find out she is more than a match for him. She may be the most interesting character in the book.

This is a fine start of what I hope is a long series. I miss Hornblower, Aubrey and Bolitho, and personally need to know that there will continue to be new careers to follow of those though fought the wooden ships.

Whenever I am asked to review a book, particularly a novel written by someone just now making the leap from "phrase spouter" to "author", there are several questions I ask in order to clarify the direction in which the debut writer wishes to go. A few of these questions include:

"Excuse me? Were you talking to me?"

"Are you sure?"

"Fine, whatever."

The answers to these questions tend to shape the content and style of my review. It is with this in mind that I must say that this is by far, bar none, the single best novel I have ever read that was written by anyone who was my father.

Not being a writer myself, I fear I must resort to common cliches to describe Dad's first effort:

"A real page-turner"... at least half-way. I discovered that with this book, the plot moves much more naturally if you only turn every OTHER page. You see, the story itself begins on page 3, which warrants turning after you have finished it. This is followed by page 4, but if you turn page 4 when you reach the end of it, you end up back at page 3. This is still a wonderfully written page, but the story begins to stale after an hour or so if you don't break loose and jump to page 5.

"A must read"... note to all people who have parents: if one of them publishes a book, you must read it, if it's not about parenting.

"Brilliant - a masterpiece!"... this is not a cliche so much as a series of words that a lot of people use when reviewing books that they hope to get a piece of after the author dies.

The novel itself I think is fantastic. As indicated by the title, the story contains predictably distant horizons, as well as more than a few sails. Mix a little prostitution and hardcore naval combat into the... er, mix, and you have a book that's a winner in my - umm... in my book. This writing stuff is not easy!

In high school, I learned that a good story had to have some sort of struggle in it, and that struggle had to fall into the category of man against man, man against nature, man against the Yankees or man against chocolate. I may have missed one or two categories, but you get the idea. Without giving away too much plot, I can tell you that Sails on the Horizon pushes the envelope in this regard. Some of the struggles you'll find include:

Man vs. Spaniards

Man vs. a bunch of other men who don't like their jobs

Man vs. Woman

Man vs. that woman's father

Man vs. that woman, her father, and her unwavering belief that everything you stand for is pretty much directly opposed to everything she stands against (except the Spanish... well, except really, the fact that you stand against the Spanish is sort of the reason she stands against what you stand for - or rather, she stands against you standing against things.)

As you can see, this is a very well-written book. This may come as a shocking announcement to anyone who has seen the picture of my father inside the back cover. I love him, but the man looks like he's trying to figure out which teeth the ham is stuck between, or possibly where the truck is parked. I must encourage anyone who reads this review to read the book before looking at the picture, lest they think they have somehow been duped.

In summary, please buy the damn thing. When my Dad went into a bookstore to see it on the shelves for the first time, the young lady behind the counter mistakenly thought he was asking for "Sales on the Horizon". If we all work together, we can make her vision come true.

Author Jay Worrall offers an intriguing new Royal Navy captain, Commander Charles Edgemont, in "Sails on the Horizon: A Novel of the Napoleonic Wars". However, I concur with other reviewers who note that Worrall hasn't quite done his homework with respect to the history of the Royal Navy during this time (However, I shall note that there were some instances where commanders were given occasional commands of a 6th rate ship such as HMS Louisa that were normally given to post-captains; HMS Louisa reminds me all too much of Captain Aubrey's HMS Surprise, another captured French 28 gun frigate.). For example, Worrall doesn't distinguish between prize money and salvage money when HMS Louisa retakes a British merchantman which was seized by a 40 gun Spanish frigate. And I wish Worrall had offered more in the way of character development showing how Edgemont had the ability to become as effective a frigate captain as Captains Aubrey or Hornblower.

Worrall draws amply from his own Quaker background in sketching the character of Penelope Brown, the strongly independent, and highly intellectual young Quaker who becomes Edgemont's wife. Some of the most fascinating scenes are between these two characters. Less impressive are Worrall's interactions with real-life Royal Navy heroes like Commodore Horatio Nelson and Admiral John Jervis, the first Earl of St. Vincent. Nor was it necessary to have a little episode with one Lieutenant Horatio Hornblower (I wonder whether Lieutenant Jack Aubrey might make an appearance too in a subsequent novel.). Fans of Napoleonic Wars naval fiction may enjoy too this series, especially those enamored with the likes of Richard Bolitho, Alan Lewrie, and especially, Horatio Hornblower. But if you want something more substantial, along the lines of the late Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series of novels, then the reader will feel most disappointed.

I must shamelessly confess that I purchased this audiobook (abridged CD) on impulse after having watched a Hornblower (A&E) episode the prior evening, and also being quite taken with the impressive packaging art.

Well, I'm very glad I made the buy because I thoroughly enjoyed the talent that went into this work, by both author Worrall and narrator Prebble. The character development and clean storyline was excellent, really capturing the 'feel' of the era in my opinion.

Pacing was brisk, and when the story concluded I found myself eagerly thinking ahead to the next volume series. Having generally missed out on the other established seafaring sagas, it was nice to get into this one on the ground floor.

Charles Edgemont is an honest hero, and it was very satisfying to have him 'navigate' through dark waters and properly deal with some of the scoundrels encountered.

The 'Sails on the Horizon' audio CD was so engaging and entertaining, I actually found myself looking forward to the daily rush hour commute so that I could continue listening to the unfolding drama in my car - imagine that.

There are two kinds of readers of sea stories: fans of naval adventure and fans of Patrick O'Brian. With his first novel, Worrall clearly hopes, with some success, to appeal to the latter, who are as interested in the intricacies of shipboard life as they are in the heroics of battle.

Worrall opens his story with the British and Spanish fleets blasting away at each other. It's 1797 and Charles Edgemont, 25, is second lieutenant on the Argonaut, a small British ship bringing up the rear and seeing little action. Until, that is, the Spanish break for Spain and the Argonaut is ordered to stop them. Horrific confusion ensues, the two senior officers are killed, and Edgemont becomes an accidental captain and an accidental hero.

This battle launches his career, though Edgemont is keenly aware how little he had to do with any of it. Defeated Spanish ships - prizes - have made him a rich man and he heads home in triumph, a frigate command secure in his future. All he needs to complete his success is a wife, and Charles is quickly smitten. But Penelope Brown is a Quaker, a committed pacifist.

To salve his broken heart Charles accepts a temporary command and goes looking for privateers on the Irish Sea. This is the second of three very different boats he captains during the course of this novel and each one, while seeking lots of action, offers special challenges in handling the crew.

Worrall gets into plenty of detail on the structure and character of shipboard life, including the dilemmas facing a captain who requires discipline but is all too aware of the injustices visited upon the crew, ranging from forced conscription to death at the captain's pleasure. From the galley to the stinking bilges, Worrall knows his ships and vividly recreates them and the men who make them sail.

Worrall's debut is promising, but there is a problem. Edgemont is too lucky, too good. He wins all his battles, makes only smart decisions, and inspires his crews and his officers. There isn't enough tension; nothing serious to overcome, no personal enemies to defeat or win over. Of course, these are fixable problems - not something serious like a dislikable protagonist or an inability to write - and this O'Brian fan is reserving judgment until Edgemont's next adventure.

Portsmouth Herald

The book opens with a vivid Naval battle scene--the first of several. The outcome is that Second Lieutenant (he's held that post for just a few days) Charles Edgemont, the highest ranking survivor of the battle, finds himself promoted to captain, a role he knows perfectly well he is almost completely unprepared for. But he forges along somehow, in the company of some terrific supporting characters, including Penny (the intrepid Quaker pacifist he falls in love with), Molly (a prostitute that Penny takes under her wing), Attwater (a rather hopeless steward), and his good friends and shipmates, Bevan and Winchester, who banter their way through a succession of disasters and trials. An enjoyable addition to this genre.

On a scale of 1-5:

Historical accuracy: 5

Characters: 5

Suspense: 4

Humor: 5

Sex scenes: 3.5 (goes no further than innuendo)

Pushing envelope of genre: 4.5 (the Quaker sweetheart is a new twist)

Writing: 5

Likeability: 5

OK, this should really be a 4.5--but Amazon doesn't provide that option, and between a 4 and a 5, I have to give it 5.

As a female, and a grandmother at that, I would never have thought of picking up a book about naval adventures during the Napoleonic Wars, but a friend sent me a copy and I was delighted. I found Worrall's book an absorbing, well-paced read. I learned many fascinating details about how naval battles were fought and the social structure and reward system of that era, and I enjoyed the unusual and engaging love story interwoven through the action. I look forward to a sequel, which I'll read with a picture dictionary in hand to know the meanings of all the ships' parts.

This book is a fun read for people who like novels about the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, and it has an interesting twist in that the hero wants to marry a Quaker girl who has to come to terms with her pacifism. If this is the beginning of a series, I will snap up its successors as they emerge.