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Read To Glory We Steer (1998)

To Glory We Steer (1998)

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Rating
4.03 of 5 Votes: 4
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ISBN
0935526498 (ISBN13: 9780935526493)
Language
English
Publisher
mcbooks press

To Glory We Steer (1998) - Plot & Excerpts

Next up... picked up from the town transfer station of course. My paperback is from 1978 and not pictured in the lookup. No cover anyway...Finally got into it last night. Pretty darned "meaty' so far!And now the meat has gotten well-bloodied as the first encounter with a privateer has taken place and it was nasty. Very violent and well described.Cruising along in the action-filled tale. Ups and downs and ups for Bolitho. No romance though. Fighting(lots), bravery, luck, cowardice, treachery, and the frustration of chain-of-command all come into play.- Two dead French sentries - reminds me of The Last of the Mohicans!- This book just races along - a true can't-put-downer.- The nasty flogging makes it difficult to root for the nasty Brits who do it - even unto arbitrary and needless death. Totally barbaric!All done now after staying up too late - as usual. As one reviewer has pointed out the Bolitho-is-an-English warrior/god gushing gets to be a bit much a times, but this is not enough to lower the rating. Everything ends with another orgy of blood, death and destruction at the Battle of the Saintes by the Dominica Passage. Bolitho survives badly wounded but a LOT of others don't. Fortunes of war...- NO women(virtually) in this tale!

This is the first one published back in 1968 and it has all of the seeds (story wise) of the ones published later that come before it in the time line. I'm really happy that I was able to read them chronologically because if I had I started with this one I would not have had the joy of getting to the crescendo of the story that climaxes in this book. In To Glory we Steer, we have Bolitho commanding his first frigate, a ship with a very dark cloud looming over it. Mutiny, distrust, tragedy. Bolitho must gain the trust of his crew despite the weakness of the officers serving under him. To Glory we Steer closes a part of Bolitho's life with a very big bang. It also ends the narrative arc of the Revolutionary War. I liked it despite having to say goodbye to beloved characters and I'm warming up to the new ones introduced that will follow their captain in the adventures to come.

What do You think about To Glory We Steer (1998)?

I probably would have liked this a few years ago. But having read Patrick O'Brian, reading this is painful in the extreme. There is none of the wealth of historical detail, none of the sly humour and none of the wonderful characterisation and lightning wit so characteristic of Aubrey-Maturin. The characters are wooden, stock caricatures and the description of square-rigged tactics pales in comparison. The only reason this book gets two stars is because in my rating system one star is reserved for trash such as Eragon.
—Alwin

It is January, 1782 and Captain Richard Bolitho takes command of the PHALAROPE in England and sails to the Caribbean to join the British fleet there opposing the French, Spanish, and Americans. The ship and its crew have a poor reputation and Bolitho is given command to bring the ship back into fighting shape. The novel traces the final year of the American Revolution as Bolitho takes his ship and works to restore pride and a fighting spirit. Another good story in the Bolitho series tracing his career in the Royal British Navy with plenty of action.
—George

I like naval fictions and saucy sailors in any shape and any environment as far as the age of sails is concerned and the historic setting is masterfully entwined in the plot. The worst case scenario is some too obvious glitch in naval books, that can be pain. The plot line is again Dick will rule all aka Richard Bolitho was again pushed in the painfully hard situation when all odds were against him but you know very well that he will come out with laurel on his head. The Phalarope was unhappy ship led by tyranic captain who had enough sense to pass to the Hades and captain Bolitho was lucky or rather unlucky to take his place. The ship on the verge of mutiny, the admiral who hated him to the bone plus American Revolution to deal with. Yes, Mr. Kent is utter sadist when it goes about family matters and clash of the brothers was imminent spiced the plot with something more then plain swashbuckling. The Caribbean swirled with the French, new American nation ships and english man-of-wars begs for action. Heads are smashed, limbs are amputated and ships are sunk. Bolitho beat the odds and came out victorious, which made female readers swoon.
—Matimate

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