Astreya: The Wanderer’s Curse (PB) – Historic Naval Fiction

Seymour Hamilton has a new book which has just been released worldwide, Astreya: The Wanderer’s Curse. The final book in a nautical/fantasy trilogy is available in paperback and ebook versions.

The breathtaking conclusion of The Astreya Trilogy Lindey takes Astreya, Cam, Damon, and Arneb to Matris, only to discover that much has changed since she left home. Suspicion and distrust surround the men. Astreya and Lindey begin to resolve their difficulties, but a gossipy old man on a horse misrepresents the past, and all five must flee aboard Arneb’s boat. Once outside the shelter of the hills surrounding Matris, the group discovers that the bloodthirsty Men of the Sea are searching for their navigation stones, and they think the Village where Astreya was born has them. Astreya must arrive in time to avert a massacre. When the great black ship reaches the headlands of the fjord, Astreya must confront the worst and the best aspects of his inheritance before he can unravel his past and lift The Wanderer’s Curse.

Read More Astreya: The Wanderer’s Curse (PB) – Historic Naval Fiction.

Seahawk Burning HC – Historic Naval Fiction

Author Randall Peffer has a new novel which is now available for pre-order in Hardcover, Seahawk Burning: A Novel of the Civil War at Sea. It will be released worldwide on 15 April 2012.This final volume in the Raphael Semmes trilogy of Civil War naval thrillers, Seahawk Burning, follows the real-life adventures of Confederate Captain Raphael Semmes and his ship, the C.S.S. Alabama, on the final legs of their reign of terror on the high seas. The novel chronicles Semmess rise to mythic stature as he becomes Lincolns public enemy number one, seizing and burning scores of Yankee ships in the Caribbean Sea, the south Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, and the South China Sea before heading to France for sanctuary…all the while dodging scores of federal Navy ships pursuing him.Enemy vessels, spy games, mutinies, storms, and loneliness stock Semmess cruise during 1863-64. Meanwhile, back in the Lincoln White House, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles tries to marshal his warships to catch Semmes and simultaneously protect his president from spies and assassins, one of whom is Semmess mistress.

Read More Seahawk Burning HC – Historic Naval Fiction.

The Challenge: Britain Against America in the Naval War of 1812 (PB) – Historic Naval Fiction

Author Andrew D. Lambert has a new book, The Challenge: Britain Against America in the Naval War of 1812 , which will be released worldwide on 5 April 2012 in Paperback and can now be pre-ordered.

In the summer of 1812 Britain stood alone, fighting for her very survival against a vast European Empire. Only the Royal Navy stood between Napoleon’s legions and ultimate victory. In that dark hour America saw its chance to challenge British dominance: her troops invaded Canada and American frigates attacked British merchant shipping, the lifeblood of British defence. War polarised America. The south and west wanted land, the north wanted peace and trade. But America had to choose between the oceans and the continent.

Within weeks the land invasion had stalled, but American warships and privateers did rather better, and astonished the world by besting the Royal Navy in a series of battles. Then in three titanic single ship actions the challenge was decisively met. British frigates closed with the Chesapeake, the Essex and the President, flagship of American naval ambition. Both sides found new heroes but none could equal Captain Philip Broke, champion of history’s greatest frigate battle, when HMS Shannon captured the USS Chesapeake in thirteen blood-soaked minutes. Broke’s victory secured British control of the Atlantic, and within a year Washington, D.C. had been taken and burnt by British troops.

via The Challenge: Britain Against America in the Naval War of 1812 (PB) – Historic Naval Fiction.

Review: Prince of the Atlantic by Mark M. McMillin – Historic Naval Fiction

In the second instalment of the adventures of Captain Luke Ryan the action really starts as he sails from Dunkirk as a privateer under the American flag. It is based on the true story of Ryan who was an Irish smuggler who became a privateer under a Letter of Marque from Benjamin Franklin and went on to command the Calonne, a 400 ton ex-French naval frigate of two decks and 36 guns with a crew of nearly 250 men of Irish, French, American and Dutch nationalities.

He was one of the most successful privateers and the book fully explores his many captures and battles with British warships as well as the political intrigue caused as a result of an Irishman sailing from France under American colours with a multinational crew.

via Review: Prince of the Atlantic by Mark M. McMillin – Historic Naval Fiction.

Review: Reefs and Shoals by Dewey Lambdin – Historic Naval Fiction

In this latest excerpt of his adventures, Captain Sir Alan Lewrie, aboard his frigate Reliant, hoists his broad pendant as Commodore in charge of a squadron of small vessels suppressing privateering off the shores of Cuba, Spanish Florida, the Keys and the Florida Straits. He must also visit American ports to assess whether, as neutrals, they are giving aid to the privateers.

It is refreshing to read about Lewrie who is not as ‘correct’ as many of the naval fiction heroes and has a depth of character you can empathise with. Captain’s are usually depicted as having that god like separation from their officers and men which is even present to some extent with those who they might regard as friends but Lewrie keeps pets and is a friend to all.

The role of a junior Commodore in distant waters with the difficult task of suppressing privateers on a coast with endless small bays where they can hide, whilst at the same time steering a difficult diplomatic path with touchy American sensibilities over their recently won freedom and neutrality, is fully explored in this novel and you can step into the shoes of Lewrie as he struggles to achieve these aims.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it.

via Review: Reefs and Shoals by Dewey Lambdin – Historic Naval Fiction.