Sails on the Horizon: A Novel of the Napoleonic Wars

I must shamelessly confess that I purchased this audiobook (abridged CD) on impulse after having watched a Hornblower (A & E) episode the prior evening, and also being quite taken with the impressive packaging art. Well, I'm very glad I made the buy because I thoroughly enjoyed the talent that went into this work, by both author Worrall and narrator Prebble. The character development and clean storyline was excellent, really capturing the 'feel' of the era in my opinion. Pacing was brisk, and when the story concluded I found myself eagerly thinking ahead to the next volume series. Having generally missed out on the other established seafaring sagas, it was nice to get into this one on the ground floor. Charles Edgemont is an honest hero, and it was very satisfying to have him 'navigate' through dark waters and properly deal with some of the scoundrels encountered. The 'Sails on the Horizon' audio CD was so engaging and entertaining, I actually found myself looking forward to the daily rush hour commute so that I could continue listening to the unfolding drama in my car - imagine that.

As a female, and a grandmother at that, I would never have thought of picking up a book about naval adventures during the Napoleonic Wars, but a friend sent me a copy and I was delighted. I found Worrall's book an absorbing, well-paced read. I learned many fascinating details about how naval battles were fought and the social structure and reward system of that era, and I enjoyed the unusual and engaging love story interwoven through the action. I look forward to a sequel, which I'll read with a picture dictionary in hand to know the meanings of all the ships' parts.

Whenever I am asked to review a book, particularly a novel written by someone just now making the leap from "phrase spouter" to "author", there are several questions I ask in order to clarify the direction in which the debut writer wishes to go. A few of these questions include: "Excuse me? Were you talking to me?" "Are you sure?" "Fine, whatever." The answers to these questions tend to shape the content and style of my review. It is with this in mind that I must say that this is by far, bar none, the single best novel I have ever read that was written by anyone who was my father. Not being a writer myself, I fear I must resort to common cliches to describe Dad's first effort: "A real page-turner"... at least half-way. I discovered that with this book, the plot moves much more naturally if you only turn every OTHER page. You see, the story itself begins on page 3, which warrants turning after you have finished it. This is followed by page 4, but if you turn page 4 when you reach the end of it, you end up back at page 3. This is still a wonderfully written page, but the story begins to stale after an hour or so if you don't break loose and jump to page 5. "A must read"... note to all people who have parents: if one of them publishes a book, you must read it, if it's not about parenting. "Brilliant - a masterpiece!"... this is not a cliche so much as a series of words that a lot of people use when reviewing books that they hope to get a piece of after the author dies. The novel itself I think is fantastic. As indicated by the title, the story contains predictably distant horizons, as well as more than a few sails. Mix a little prostitution and hardcore naval combat into the... er, mix, and you have a book that's a winner in my - umm... in my book. This writing stuff is not easy! In high school, I learned that a good story had to have some sort of struggle in it, and that struggle had to fall into the category of man against man, man against nature, man against the Yankees or man against chocolate. I may have missed one or two categories, but you get the idea. Without giving away too much plot, I can tell you that Sails on the Horizon pushes the envelope in this regard. Some of the struggles you'll find include: Man vs. Spaniards Man vs. a bunch of other men who don't like their jobs Man vs. Woman Man vs. that woman's father Man vs. that woman, her father, and her unwavering belief that everything you stand for is pretty much directly opposed to everything she stands against (except the Spanish... well, except really, the fact that you stand against the Spanish is sort of the reason she stands against what you stand for - or rather, she stands against you standing against things.) As you can see, this is a very well-written book. This may come as a shocking announcement to anyone who has seen the picture of my father inside the back cover. I love him, but the man looks like he's trying to figure out which teeth the ham is

The book opens with a vivid Naval battle scene--the first of several. The outcome is that Second Lieutenant (he's held that post for just a few days) Charles Edgemont, the highest ranking survivor of the battle, finds himself promoted to captain, a role he knows perfectly well he is almost completely unprepared for. But he forges along somehow, in the company of some terrific supporting characters, including Penny (the intrepid Quaker pacifist he falls in love with), Molly (a prostitute that Penny takes under her wing), Attwater (a rather hopeless steward), and his good friends and shipmates, Bevan and Winchester, who banter their way through a succession of disasters and trials. An enjoyable addition to this genre.