10-12-2013, 07:21 PM | #16 |
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I'll be reading P.T.Deutermann's Ghosts of Bungo Suido next. I recently read his Pacific Glory, which had a thrilling description of the Battle Off Samar.
Following that, I'll probably re-read Away All Boats by Kenneth Dodson. (about a WW2 amphibious transport, the fictional U.S.S. Belinda), or The Cruel Sea. I read both decades ago and enjoyed them tremendously; I'm curious about how well they have aged. After that, perhaps a re-read of some Hornblower. |
10-12-2013, 07:33 PM | #17 | |
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Apache |
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10-12-2013, 09:56 PM | #18 |
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I enjoyed Run Silent, Run Deep very much. I'm hoping Ghosts of Bungo Suido will be at the same level of quality.
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10-13-2013, 12:17 PM | #19 |
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On the privateer side of "Naval," I can recommend James L. Nelson's The Only Life That Mattered: The Short and Merry Lives of Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and Calico Jack Rackam.
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10-13-2013, 12:37 PM | #20 |
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John Biggins wrote a series of four books set during and just before WWI, featuring an Austro-Hungarian naval officer named Otto Prohaska.
Das Boot (The Boat) by Lothar Gunther Buchheim is very good, about a German WWII submarine. Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy is excellent, but may be too modern. |
10-13-2013, 04:47 PM | #21 | |
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I liked the movie Das Boot. I hadn't realized it was based on a novel. That's definately going on my TBR list. |
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10-13-2013, 04:55 PM | #22 |
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Thanks for the suggestion. I enjoyed his Brethren of the Coast novels, and the Biddlecomb novels. I'm adding The Only Life That Mattered... to my TBR list.
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10-16-2013, 09:27 AM | #23 |
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Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood books, starting with Captain Blood (made into a fun film in the 1930s with Errol Flynn at his rousing best. There were two or three other Captain Blood books, not exactly sequels but fitted into the time-span of the first book.
The exploits of Captain Blood, by the way, all happened (but to various different privateers). If you enjoy a laugh, try George MacDonald Fraser's "Pyrates" in which he sends up the whole genre. Fraser, you'll remember, wrote the Flashman series. |
10-16-2013, 10:28 AM | #24 |
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I liked that. To my mind, if you're reading historical novels about sailing ships and you need to be told what a "sheet" is (it's a rope that controls a sail), then you probably need to do a little research before reading that genre of fiction; I wouldn't expect the author to have to teach me elementary nomenclature.
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10-16-2013, 11:14 AM | #25 |
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Well, Harry, I read for pleasure, so tend not to research before I start a book. If I find I am lacking in technical knowledge, I don't mind researching during.....
I took a Patrick O'Brien book, (Master and Commander, as I recall) as well as a hefty tome on marine navigation, when I crossed the Atlantic by sail, as crew to a very experienced friend. Think I read the novel three times and the textbook not much. Turned out that A) Brazil is fairly hard to miss and B) The GPS worked just fine. The friend, being an non english speaking french lady, was not terribly helpful with the nomenclature, but I worked it out anyway. |
10-16-2013, 11:39 AM | #26 |
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A good compromise is to have a glossary at the end of the book. A lot of military fiction does this. What I would object to would be the author using the wrong word for something simply to make it easier for the reader - eg talking about "ropes" on a ship.
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10-16-2013, 02:07 PM | #27 | |
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10-16-2013, 05:24 PM | #28 |
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I like to be thrown in at the deep end (as it were) and work things out from the context. How much does it really matter if I don't know what a sheet is? If I'm really struggling I might look something up, but otherwise I'll just wait for another clue, later.
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10-16-2013, 05:33 PM | #29 |
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What I guess finally hooked me on the O'Brian books was that Steven Maturin was as clueless as I was and still managed to survive.
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10-27-2013, 10:20 AM | #30 |
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Not naval fiction, but if you love to read about the age of fighting sail, Sam Willis "Hearts of Oak" trilogy is currently on sale at amazon.ca and amazon.com
I read The Fighting Temeraire last year. It is about both the Temeraire's career and the J.M.W. Turner painting. An excellent book, so I was very happy to get an great deal on the other two books. The Fighting Temeraire CDN$ 1.97 http://www.amazon.ca/Fighting-Temera.../dp/B0089XJROU The Admiral Benbow: The Life and Times of a Naval Legend CDN 1.97 http://www.amazon.ca/The-Admiral-Ben.../dp/B005QJT5L0 The Glorious First of June CDN$ 2.33 http://www.amazon.ca/The-Glorious-Fi.../dp/B005Q8QZKA ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ amazon.com links http://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Temer.../dp/B0089XJROU $1.89 http://www.amazon.com/Admiral-Benbow.../dp/B005QJT5L0 $1.89 http://www.amazon.com/Glorious-First.../dp/B005Q8QZKA $2.23 |
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