Ramage & the Renegades

After having been on vacation for 2 books, Pope finally decided to sit down and write something interesting. Ramage is sent to the South Atlantic to claim an island for Great Britain. As we comes into the harbor, he comes across several other craft, one of which turns out to be a privateer (well, the war is on hiatus, so they're really pirates). The others are 'prizes' with the passengers still aboard. This all makes for great suspense. Will Ramage get everyone free? Of course, and the fun is watching how. You'll have to read it to find out how. There is also some good character development. The secondary story, one that has been going on since the first book, concerns Ramage's love interest, the beautiful Marchesa. This book defines and decides their relationship. All in all, a good book and an easy read.

All Lord Ramage are vibrant and exciting novels based upon historical naval battles and themes during the 1800's. Very well written by Dudley Pope, a great series!

For readers of the Ramage series this is a critical volume. Captain Lord Ramage finally realizes that marriage to his long-time love, the Marchesa of Volterra, is not going to happen. A fragile peace has come to Europe. The Marchesa has decided to return to Italy despite the fact her enemy Napoleon still rules there. Ramage is off to the American Tropics again on a secret mission to survey a South Atlantic island. He finds a mix of surprising, deadly, and lovely discoveries. The novel is very slow starting. It focuses on people more than action. An unprecedented amount of informal conversation between crew and captain is a hallmark of this series, but this volume is more reliant than usual on dialogue and repartee. This story is best for how Ramage has to deal with civilians on his desert isle, and with the Marchesa, the IDEA of the Marchesa, and with a new woman in his life. This is almost a romance novel for men. For once his fierce reputation works against him, as he is manipulated by pirates. As usual the writing is smooth, although a great stretch of the book lacks the tension of others due to it being peace time. Pope makes use of an expedition artist to describe the beauty of tropical skies and waters. You'll find interesting vignettes on shipyards, the Hydrographic Office ("Who knows, one day we might be able to print our own charts..."!), the despicable peace treaty of Amiens, shipboard chaplains, ship's books, and tropical clouds. An excellent map is included.

I have long been a fan of the Ramage series. However, I have grown a little dissappointed of the tedious re-introductions of the the main characters which occur in each book. Nevertheless, this is one of the better ones. The concept of the story was good, almost believable, and Pope has done a good job in transporting you to the period. There is little else I can say about the actual plot, without giving too much away. There is a good twist at the end - watch out for it! This is one of the series that you will probably be happy to buy, and re-read, not just borrow from the Library.