Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 24, 1990 TAG: 9006240289
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by LARRY SHIELD
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
When an author undertakes a series of novels using a backdrop of the Royal Navy in the 19th century, he will be compared to C.S. Forester and the Hornblower saga. Dewey Lambdin is the latest novelist (Alexander Kent and Dudley Pope among others) to carry the burden.
With the second novel of a projected series, Lambdin continues the story of Midshipman Alan Lewrie, reluctant volunteer on the frigate Desperate. Using actions surrounding General Cornwallis' defense and eventual surrender at Yorktown, Lambdin illustrates a side of the Revolutionary War not often discussed. That war was a civil war, not a war of invasion.
The inhumanity of the civil conflict completely overwhelms the nautical settings. In fact, things nautical actually interfere with the story's flow. Lambdin is no Forester; Lewrie is no Hornblower. And no French admiral plays a major role in the narrative, but on balance, the exposition of the Revolutionary War makes this book well worth reading.
by CNB