Seaflower: A Kydd Novel [Hardcover]

Julian Stockwin (Author)

Book Description

Series: Kydd Novels | Publication Date: May 20, 2003

Internationally bestselling author Julian Stockwin's seafaring hero, young Thomas Kydd, comes of age in this epic naval adventure set in the Great Age of Sail.

Writing in the sweeping tradition of Patrick O'Brian and C. S. Forester, acclaimed author Julian Stockwin continues the saga of Seaman Thomas Paine Kydd as he moves up the ranks of the Napoleonic-era British navy.

The year is 1794. Kydd and the other shipwrecked sailors have returned to England for the court-martial of the sole surviving officer of Her Majesty's frigate Artemis. Kydd was on duty the thirteenth of April as quartermaster of the starboard watch. He knows what happened that dreadful night. His evidence can destroy an officer's career.

Kydd is devastated by the loss of his ship, and he's shocked when he's not allowed to tell the court his story. Instead, Kydd and his good friend Nicholas Renzi are forcibly shipped off to the Caribbean. After many lonely months at sea, they don't even have a chance to go ashore to see family and friends.

New adventures await, however, as both Kydd, a man of humble origins gradually rising through the ranks, and Renzi, whose exalted family heritage remains a tantalizing mystery, discover the pleasures and hazards of a lush new land.

The journey will take Kydd from a dockyard in Antigua to a life-and-death struggle on the high seas aboard the plucky naval cutter Seaflower. While war between England and Revolution-torn France escalates, Kydd's mettle under fire -- as a sailor and a man -- receives the ultimate test.

Set at the dawn of a new century, Seaflower gives us the primal forces of nature at sea where they are at their most untamed and exhilarating. This is classic storytelling at its powerful best.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The latest installment of this rousing naval adventure series set during the Napoleonic wars finds stalwart British seaman Thomas Kydd and his comrade, slumming aristocrat-philosophe Nicholas Renzi, ping-ponging around the Caribbean as Britain and France fight over the West Indies. The manic plot encompasses four battles, three courts of naval inquiry, two hurricanes, two shark attacks, a shipwreck, yellow fever, the rescue of French Royalists and a few floggings and dinner parties. As Kydd surmounts all leadership challenges, his courage and resourcefulness are praised by a series of ever more august naval father figures, and he experiences a dizzying social ascent from ordinary sailor to master's mate, picking up along the way the navigational skills and drawing-room manners of an officer and a gentleman. The oedipal fantasy at the heart of the book dovetails with simplistic anti-Jacobin politics, in which the British Navy is a bastion of meritocracy and upward mobility, achieving through incrementalism and rational hierarchy what the French fail to achieve through social revolution. Kydd's two-dimensional character is all virtue and heroism-even a stint as a slave overseer leaves him morally uncompromised-and the book never surpasses the level of vigorous melodrama. Still, Stockwin's richly detailed, if idealized, portrait of life on ship and shore in Britain's oceanic empire is engrossing. He writes evocatively of shipboard routine, the panic and confusion of combat and the terrifying approach of a storm at sea, and he knows how to stage enthralling action scenes. His ability to tap into male wish-fulfillment will ensure a growing readership.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Praise for Julian Stockwin's previous books: 'I was soon turning over the pages almost indecently fast ... Roll on, the promised adventures of Kydd and Renzi.' -- Independent 'The vantage point of the common sailor gives the nautical novel a fresh twist. In Stockwin's hands the sea story will continue to entrance readers across the world.' -- Guardian 'Gripping ... Rich in action and full of interesting characters, this thrilling novel leaves you in awe of the 18th-century seaman.' -- Peterborough Evening Telegraph 'Stockwin paints a vivid picture of life aboard the mighty ship-of-the-line ... The harsh naval discipline, the rancid food, and the skill of the common sailor are all skilfully evoked.' - Daily Express --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1 edition (May 20, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743214625
• ISBN-13: 978-0743214629
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,550,565 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I wanted to go to sea ever since I can remember. My mother says that as a toddler I went up to sailors on the street, and on one occasion dragged home a dead seabird because it smelled of the sea! I was entranced when my great uncle Tom Clay, a seaman in square-rigged ships who had sailed around the Horn in the "Cutty Sark", took me over this ship. As a young boy I read everything about the sea and I was especially terrified by a description of a great storm, but longed to go to sea to experience one.
I won a scholarship to a grammar school, but my mind was captivated by seeing low grey shapes far out to sea, outward bound to who knew where. I passed this sight every day on my way to school; my scholastic performance suffered!
In the hope of having the nonsense knocked out of me, my father sent me to a tough sea-training school. This only strengthened my resolve for a life at sea and at fifteen I joined the Royal Navy.
After leaving the Navy (rated Petty Officer) I practised as an educational psychologist. I worked for some time in Hong Kong, where I was commissioned into the Royal Naval Reserve.
I now live in Devon with my wife and literary partner, Kathy - and two Siamese cats.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Life before the mast, April 23, 2004

By 

Fred Camfield (Vicksburg, MS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Seaflower: A Kydd Novel (Hardcover)

This is an interesting novel, the main character being Thomas Kydd, a seaman in the Royal Navy during the 1790s. The novel is a little weak when it comes to describing action against the enemy (some actions seem a little superficial) but gives good accounts of fighting bad weather and generally surviving aboard a ship of war. John Nicol's autobiography, "John Nicol Mariner," is a good account of a seaman during that time period.

In actual fact, during that time there were more losses from disease, storms, shipwrecks, and accidents in general, than there were from enemy action. The description of Kydd's survival after coming down with yellow fever would be typical for the location and time period. Frederick Hoffman in his autobiography, "A Sailor of King George," related his experience aboard a ship where he was one out of 16 midshipmen, and one out of two who survived a yellow fever epidemic. The survivors lived to tell their tales, so stories are naturally about survivors. There was reputedly an old toast in the Royal Navy for "a long war or a fever season," i.e., others misfortunes opened opportunities for promotion.

While it may seem a little unreal for a ship or officer to have one success after another, such officers did exist at that time and many, including Nelson, achieved rapid promotion by their successes.

There were young men from well-to-do families who ran off to sea for various reasons (just as some later joined the French Foreign Legion). Some survived and achieved success. The character of Nicholas Renzi is believable.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Seaflower, August 27, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Seaflower: A Kydd Novel (Hardcover)

Stockwin does an excellent job with the physical details of 19th century sailing and writes tolerably on the sentence level.

Two large elements of the novel don't work so well, though. The first is the plot, so-called. Kydd and his friends go through one apparent challenge after another, but all are easily resolved. Just as the drama starts to build, the characters solve the problem or the danger goes away, resulting in repeated anticlimaxes. The plot does not seem to have an overall arc or a structure of building tension... essentially, there's no point.

The second problem is with characterization. Though the characters are appealing enough in themselves, they're never challenged and none of their experiences seem to change them. They don't develop through the book.

I can't really recommend this.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Great.. but readable, January 11, 2005

By 

Edward (Richmond, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Seaflower: A Kydd Novel (Hardcover)

The 3rd installment in the Kydd series following on from `Kydd' and `Artemis'. This was the book that I really expected to see a little more character development in Kydd. Unfortunately, the book fails in many ways, not just with the lack of Kydd's character. The worst area is in regards to the plot. Time and again we find the author building up a dangerous situation, i.e a sail in the distance.. only to turn the page and find that the crew has defeated the enemy and all is well. It seems to read like a collection of 20 short stories all with quick endings. The only exception to this trait is the final story.

The worst book of the series so far, but still ok to read and a must if you want to continue reading the series.