Rating: 
Summary: Phenomenal work! Wonderful summer read!
Review: Outstanding fiction. Perfect for the beach! William Martin is simply masterful at integrating the diverse experiences of a family history across time into an exquisitely integrated series of events.
Couldn't put it down. Have read Back Bay and can't wait to read Cape Cod
Rating: 
Summary: Nice threading of history and fiction
Review: The fictitious history of a Maryland family through 300 years and several generations makes engaging reading, weaving in as it does real historical characters with the fictional family members. The maritime scenes and background ring true and the adventure is kept on the rails.Disappointing however was the sharp division between hero and villain. The Stafford family's "bad apples" were rare, and only peripheral characters. The central character in each generation was always good and upright. The baddies were bad through-and-through: you knew the Naval Academy bully would go on to something bad like designing dud torpedos. A small blemish on an otherwise good read.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-researched, well-written book of historical fiction.
Review: This book is a fantastic read for anyone who wants to know more about American history, particularly the Navy's role in it. Centered around two families and starting in the mid 1700's, The novel is a sort of "story within story" as one member of the family tells a distant niece about the family's history. As a Naval Academy graduate, most of the history rang true to the way it was taught to me, and seemed very well researched. Members of the family assume slightly minor roles in historical settings e.g. there is a Stafford on both the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (formerly the USS Merrimack). My only complaint with the book was that I felt there was more depth in the beginning and middle than towards the end. The reader really gets a feel for the conditions aboard ship in the early 1800's while sailing around the southern tip of South America, but I didn't get that sense of "being there" in the Vietnam scene. This slight aside, I really enjoyed the author's ability to weave a good tale and still get the details right.
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