Featured Books
Category Archives: Reviews
Floating Gold by Margaret Muir – a Review
Margaret Muir’s novel, Floating Gold, was recently released in paperback. A great read, we never though that it got the attention that it deserved. Here is a repost of our review from May of 2010: Margaret Muir’s new novel, Floating Gold, is … Continue reading
The Perfect Wreck by Steven E. Maffeo – a review by Linda Collison
Linda Collison, author of Surgeon’s Mate and Star-Crossed, recently reviewed Steven E. Maffeo‘s new book The Perfect Wreck – Old Ironsides and HMS Java: A Story of 1812 in her blog Sea of Words. I enjoy reading Linda’s reviews almost as much … Continue reading
Jack Tar: Life in Nelson’s Navy by Roy & Leslie Adkins – A Review
Over the next several weeks, we will be reviewing a series of books about what life was like in Nelson’s navy. The first is Jack Tar: Life in Nelson’s Navy by Roy & Leslie Adkins, subtitled “the extraordinary lives of ordinary seamen … Continue reading
Posted in Lore of the Sea, Reviews, Seastories
Tagged Jack Tar: Life in Nelson's Navy, Leslie Adkins, Roy Adkins
2 Comments
Deadly Straits by R.E. McDermott – A Review
For the sake of full disclosure, I am not a huge fans of thrillers, particularly thrillers involving ships. The plots often strike me as implausible and the descriptions of the ships and ship operations often border on the laughable. (Too … Continue reading
Posted in Newbooks, Reviews, Seastories
3 Comments
Dolphin Sunday – Part 1: Dolphin Tale, a Review
Today, we have three posts about dolphins and humans interacting. I went to high school on the Gulf Coast of Florida, which has some of the largest bottlenose dolphin populations in the world. When I am in Florida visiting family, I … Continue reading
Posted in Lore of the Sea, Reviews, Seastories
Leave a comment
Alaric Bond’s Cut and Run – A Review
Alaric Bond’s wonderful new book, Cut and Run, the fourth in his Fighting Sail series, steps away from the Royal Navy and takes us onto the decks of a merchantman – a ship of the Honorable East India Company. The ships of … Continue reading
Posted in Newbooks, Reviews, Seastories
1 Comment
Gentleman Captain by J.D. Davies – A Review
Lord Macaulay wrote “There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the navy of Charles the Second. But the seamen were not gentlemen; and the gentlemen were not seaman.” Twenty one year old Matthew Quinton, captain of the Happy Restoration, … Continue reading
Posted in Newbooks, Reviews, Seastories
Tagged Gentlemen Captain, J D Davies, Matthew Quinton, restoration, Royal Navy
Leave a comment
SURGEON’S MATE by Linda Collison – A Review
Patrick McPherson is a 19 year surgeon’s mate in the Royal Navy. By all appearances, he is an upstanding young man with a promising future. The dark secret that the young mate carries is that he is indeed, a she. … Continue reading
Posted in Newbooks, Reviews, Seastories
Tagged Linda Collison, Star-Crossed, Surgeon's Mate
3 Comments
eNotated Edition of Joshua Slocum’s Sailing Alone Around the World – A Review
I was recently sent The eNotated Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum. Enotation is electronic annotation, where instead of footnotes or endnotes, there are embedded links in the text of an e-book. A book like Slocum’s which contains … Continue reading
Posted in Critiques, Reviews, Seastories
Tagged eNotated edition, Joshua Slocum, Sailing Alone Around the World
2 Comments
The Fyddeye Guide to America’s Maritime History edited by Joe Follansbee, on Kindle – A Dual Review
I recently purchased Joe Follansbee’s The Fyddeye Guide to America’s Maritime History – 2,000+ Tall Ships, Lighthouses, Historic Ships, Maritime Museums, and More. Rather than purchasing a dead-tree version, I bought the guide as an e-book for Kindle. This is, … Continue reading
Posted in Lore of the Sea, Newbooks, Reviews, Seastories
Tagged Fyddeye Guide, Joe Follansbee
2 Comments
Fire on the Horizon: The Untold Story of the Gulf Oil Disaster by John Konrad and Tom Shroder
When the Deepwater Horizon suffered a blowout, caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Mexico last April, it was only forty miles off the coast of Louisiana. Yet, in many respects, the world aboard the ill-fated rig was as … Continue reading
Posted in Newbooks, Reviews, Seastories
3 Comments
Joan Druett’s Tupaia – Captain Cook’s Polynesian Navigator : A Review
Joan Druett’s new book, Tupaia – Captain Cook’s Polynesian Navigator, fills an important blank space in the history, as well as the legend, of Captain Cook. On his first voyage to the Pacific in HMS Endeavour, during a stop in … Continue reading
Posted in Newbooks, Reviews, Seastories
Tagged HMS Endeavour, Joan Druett, Maoris, New Zealand, Tahiti, Tupaia – Captain Cook's Polynesian Navigator
2 Comments
Bernard Cornwell’s The Fort – A Review
Bernard Cornwell’s The Fort: A Novel of the Revolutionary War is not strictly speaking nautical fiction but does focus on an ill-fated expedition that ended as the worst American naval defeat prior to Pear Harbor. At first glance, The Fort … Continue reading
Posted in History, Newbooks, Reviews, Seastories
Tagged Bernard Cornwell, Penobscot Bay, The Fort
Leave a comment
The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey, – A Review
Sea monsters exist. They break ships in half and pull them below the waves. Sometimes they swallow them whole. Most who encounter them never return to tell the tale and those few who do, until very recently, were rarely believed. … Continue reading
Posted in Lore of the Sea, Newbooks, Reviews, Seastories
Tagged rogue waves, surfers, Susan Casey, The Wave
6 Comments
The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert Redick – A Review
I recently had recommended to me Robert Redick’s The Red Wolf Conspiracy, a fantasy epic which is almost exclusively set aboard the Imperial Merchant Ship Chathard, a 600 year old sailing ship of immerse proportions and age that sets out on … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews, Seastories
Tagged IMS Chathard, Robert Redick, The Red Wolf Conspiracy, The Ruling Sea
Leave a comment
