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Title: The Guernseyman (Richard Delancey Novels, No. 1) by Cyril Northcote Parkinson, C. Northcote Parkinson ISBN: 1-59013-001-4 Publisher: McBooks Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A worthy naval warfare series
Comment: After you've read all of Patrick O'Brian and C.S. Forester, what do you do? You can either re-read these classics of naval warfare or search for other similar authors. Are you more interested in a great story with a lot of action, deep realism without an idealized hero, or do you demand a literate and well written story? You must accept some trade-offs among the remaining age of sail authors such as Alexander Kent, Dudley Pope, Dewey Lamdin, James L. Nelson, Richard Woodman and C. Northcote Parkinson.
I personally want "all of the above" qualities in my reading, with the absolute requirements that it be a realistic, literate and well written story. I am willing to sacrifice some excitement and action in favor of these qualities. I wasn't sure based on the previous reviews if Parkinson would meet my criteria. After reading the first four novels in this series, I would say that he does without qualification.
As the other reviewers have pointed out, most of the action in this first book takes place on land, although there is definitely a naval flavor to the story. Even if we are missing the traditional naval broadsides here, the story is a very good one that holds the reader's interest. Much of the story takes place in America, Jersey and Gibraltar. Upon finishing this first book, I immediately went on to the next three of the Richard Delancey novels. It is too bad there are only six in the series.
I rate this series as five stars on the basis that Parkinson is, in my opinion, in the top four of the naval warfare authors whom I've read. Richard Woodman's Nathaniel Drinkwater series is also in this top group, whereas Kent, Lambdin and Nelson fall slightly below, but still worth reading. I enjoyed some of Pope's works but I often get annoyed with the lack of realism.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Guernseyman
Comment: I found this book a little on the slow side with not enough action at sea. However, DeLancey is likable for all of that, despite his propensity to social climb. I think Parkison is better than most people credit and should give him a second try.
Rating: 3
Summary: More military than naval
Comment: This book is quite unlike most naval fiction. Its focus is really more military than naval, more strategic than tactical. Naive teenager Richard Delancey, from the British isle of Guernsey off the French coast, is trying to find a career in England, but is swept into the British navy at the outbreak of the American Rebellion. This is the story of his quest for the king's commission, with lots of help and winking from his captains along the way. It is not a story of ships under sail. Most of the novel takes place on shore in New York, Jersey and Gibraltar. He hears of the grand strategy of the American Revolution, finds his American relatives, and meets several traitors. Through his eyes we witness a farcical French invasion atttempt. Then we see the strategy of the 1782 Franco-Hispanic attempt to take the peninsula of Gibraltar back from the British. Delancey's boat attack against the monstrous floating batteries is the only full naval action described in the whole book. Again the land battles are discussed with greater relish. Delancey should have been cast as an artilleryman. He is described as a mediocre ship handler, and that applies to the author's (in)attention to such matters. We don't see Dick handle anything larger than a rowboat.
Parkinson's tone is precise, clear, clinical and detached, as bloodless as he could make a war novel. He spares you all the "agonizing" and technical detail standard in salty sail-navy fiction. Someone new to the genre might like that. His prose is a bit formal and academic, interestingly didactic, but too learned for the mouth of an unschooled youth. Delancey is made effortlessly wise beyond his age by Parkinson's deep historical understanding of the Revolutionary era. The McBooks edition is pretty, with useful maps. They commit a couple of whoppers in the running heads, and the cover picture is strictly generic.
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Title: Devil to Pay (Richard Delancey Novels, No. 2) by Cyril Northcote Parkinson, C. Northcote Parkinson ISBN: 1590130022 Publisher: McBooks Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Fireship (Richard Delancey Novels, No. 3) by Cyril Northcote Parkinson ISBN: 1590130154 Publisher: McBooks Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Touch and Go (The Richard Delancey Novels, No. 4) by C. Northcote Parkinson ISBN: 1590130251 Publisher: McBooks Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: So Near, So Far by C. Northcote Parkinson ISBN: 1590130375 Publisher: McBooks Press Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Dead Reckoning by C. Northcote Parkinson ISBN: 1590130383 Publisher: McBooks Press Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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