
Command a King's Ship
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Narrated by:
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Michael Jayston
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By:
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Alexander Kent
About this listen
Critic reviews
“One of our foremost writers of naval fiction.” ( Sunday Times, London)
Detailed and brilliant story telling
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I suppose it is largely down to the narrator if you enjoy the book and in this respect I was fortunate. The narrator was excellent! And that has given me the confidence, having listened to the standard set, to get several other titles not only from this series but across a range of books and authors. I am looking forward to my next audible book.
Great narration,
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My only complaint relating to this particular audio book is the strange pronunciation of some words and the odd reversals in pronouncing ‘boy’.
Another good yarn from the era of fighting ships on the sale
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Another hit
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loved the quirky story in the west indies
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Not quite so fast-paced . . .
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Great Stort
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the rhythm of delivery
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But formulaic writing always annoys me, as it smacks overmuch of laziness on the writer's part. It's not too hard to imagine the publisher calling the author and demanding his contract terms be met, and that another Bolitho tale be on the shelves by.... (name a date). And Kent wearily reaching for his word processor to begin his next edition in the Bolitho serial, trying to muster some enthusiasm for the coming weeks of mental trial. How many ways can wooden-ship naval action be described without falling back on tired cliches and patterns of battling? It's well enough known that Forester hated writing his Hornblower stories, but publisher pressure was what it took to get him to write another. Then another. And it's those little books that produced the pattern evident in Kent's novels where there's a Bolitho involved. But Forester did it better. So much better. But if readers like the atmosphere of sailing and naval battling between the late 18th and early 19th centuries, then there's only Forester, Kent and - wossisnamagain? In two out of three of these series, the super-Captain has a super-servant who attaches himself to his hero, only Bolitho does it serially - finding two of these infinitely faithful treasures, the second taking up right away from the more slavish first. Which was a developmental error. Stockdale gets it, Allday springs into the breach so created and essentially becomes Stockdale, but with added tendency to be a little more "forward" with his captain,
The final Forester-Hornblower never made it to being audio'd yet these inferior works seemingly exist by the multiple-dozen by comparison in audio format. Why? Maybe a change of publisher with a differing take on audio-transfer?
Initially, I bought all of the Hornblowers in book form. Then re bought them on Kindle. Then yet again in audio format. While obviously imperfect, they're that good.
There's no way in the world that I'd have done so had the forester books been written in the style used by Kent.
But since I like stories of naval action before ships were made of steel and belched stinking smoke while under weigh, I've had to face up to the reality that Hornblower stuff can only be read and reread so many times. Leaving the alternatives of Kent and - the other chap whose name still eludes me. He that wrote (perpetrated?) those Aubrey excrescences... I've read several of those and can take no more.
Kent finishes these books too abruptly. This one passes from gung-ho fighting through to a very brief "epilogue" to - the end. Can't he write better - and much less abrupt? endings than that?
It seems - not.
Formulaic
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If you like your swashbuckling gory red and Navy blue you might well take to this.
Boys Own Adventure
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