By Force of Arms (G K Hall Large Print Book Series)

Rating:
Summary: I read fifty pages and already feel like a sucker
Review: "In the tradition of Patrick O'Brian" clearly means "books about guys who sail ships and shoot at each other" with no requirement whatsoever of, say, nuanced and developed characters. The inhabitants of this wretched work are so wooden and one-dimensional I had to throw the thing away lest it discourage me from ever reading a novel again.

Rating:
Summary: Action all the way.
Review: A string of unfortunate events propel Isaac Biddlecomb from captain of a merchant ship, to wanted smuggler, to foremast jack, then - the ultimate degradation - pressed into service in the enemy's Navy, aboard a hell-ship run by incompetent tyrants. Hopes of escape in Barbados are thwarted by a farcical attempt at anchoring, the subsequent disgrace tipping the unstable Captain over the brink into madness.

In parallel, all the elements are coming together for mutiny, both at sea and in the American colonies; this is 1775, just over a year after the Boston Tea Party, and the British blockades and harrying of shipping are stretching tempers to the limit.

Biddlecomb finds himself a key player in the run up to the struggle for American Independance
Mr.Nelson does a fine job of weaving the threads of this story into a fine yarn, with plenty of historical facts to back it up. The characters are well-drawn and believable, the writing flows and the action sequences are so vividly detailed, one almost feels like part of the crew.

This is book 1 of a 5-part saga, which promises great things. There is action and plot twists right up to the last page, I couldn't put it down.
The author has also thoughtfully included a glossary of naval terms for those readers unfamiliar with the jargon.*****

Rating:
Summary: A rousing and well-paced seafaring adventure tale
Review: Biddlecomb is an interesting character as are many of the others through the book. The setting and action are very well done. The action and plotting and the narrow escapes kept the pages turning. Compared to Hornblower, Bilotho, Aubrey characters, Biddlecomb is rather meek at times, but he is developing into a heroic figure. The English are portrayed as the tryants that they were at that time. The sea battles and descriptions of the sailing are excellent. The only drawback I found was far too many nautical terms that weren't explained as Alexander Kent does. Nevertheless, a top notch historical adventure. I own the next two books and look forward to reading them. Perhaps another series set in the War of 1812 or the Civil War would be in order. Sail on!

Rating:
Summary: Shiploads of authenticity
Review: Even authenticity can be overdone, and those of us who don't know our backstay from our starboard leech may at times feel drowned by the ocean of detail Nelson incorporates into his story. There is however an excellent labeled diagram of a brig of war, to help the reader. The author's storytelling skills are first rate, his handling of dialogue less good. Other reviewers have drawn attention to the anachronous 'okay'. What jarred with me was the utterly unconvincing vernacular of the British seamen.

There is no great theme, message or purpose to the story. It is a straightforward, action-stuffed nautical adventure yarn. The action is excitingly and memorably handled. It is a limited theatre of action though, for there is not much to do except shipwreck, mutiny and collide with another vessel. If you a fan of the genre, your list is probably headed by Forester and O'Brian. What better name than 'Nelson' to add to that list?

Rating:
Summary: Shiploads of authenticity
Review: Even authenticity can be overdone, and those of us who don't know our backstay from our starboard leech may at times feel drowned by the ocean of detail Nelson incorporates into his story. There is however an excellent labeled diagram of a brig of war, to help the reader. The author's storytelling skills are first rate, his handling of dialogue less good. Other reviewers have drawn attention to the anachronous 'okay'. What jarred with me was the utterly unconvincing vernacular of the British seamen.

There is no great theme, message or purpose to the story. It is a straightforward, action-stuffed nautical adventure yarn. The action is excitingly and memorably handled. It is a limited theatre of action though, for there is not much to do except shipwreck, mutiny and collide with another vessel. If you a fan of the genre, your list is probably headed by Forester and O'Brian. What better name than 'Nelson' to add to that list?

Rating:
Summary: Forced story
Review: Here's the beginning of a good, or rather, promising series for American fans of Age of Sail fiction, a series that takes place in Colonial American waters. The story consists of a long string of bad luck but action-filled encounters between a surprisingly naive merchant captain (with the awkward name of Biddlecombe) and elements of the British authorities and Navy in 1775. Two of his antagonists, the elegant British Captain Pendexter and his First Lt. Smeaton, are perhaps the most hilariously inept stooges in nautical fiction (a genre that takes itself seriously, in the main), and their mates are among the most strenuously vicious. They stand out in a text that is rather dry and features likable but otherwise mostly flat characters. Some of the most fascinating incidents illuminate the contentious and contradictory state of mind in the New England colonies just before the outbreak of rebellion. The forces pushing Biddlecombe's conversion are there but the actual moment seems too abrupt.

Nelson's test suffers from spill-checking that left homonym misuse. The cover art does not apply to this story. Otherwise the presentation is good and I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

Rating:
Summary: By Force of Arms
Review: Horatio Hornblower, Aubrey/Maturin, Richard Bolitho, Lord
Ramage, Josiah Peabody, Isaac Biddlecomb? Isaac Biddlecomb? Where does Isaac Biddlecomb fit into the pantheon of the great heroes of nautical fiction? I'm not sure yet. He'll take some time to catch on since unlike Hornblower, Ramage, Aubrey/Maturin, and Richard Bolitho, he hasn't been around a long time. This is the first book about an American sea captain since C.S. Forester's THE CAPTAIN FROM CONNECTICUT. However, Josiah Peabody, the hero of that book, was forty-seven years later than Biddlecomb. He was in the War of 1812. By Force of Arms, James L. Nelson's first novel, is set in Rhode Island in January 1775. It was originally going to be set during the War of 1812 and its original title was Weight of Iron. However, after working on the reproduction of the HMS Rose, he changed it. The Napoleonic period's way overcrowded. Biddlecomb, the captain of the merchantman
Judea, is caught smuggling Dutch molasses into the colony. He's ordered to present himself to Captain James
Wallace of the Rose. However, his foster father objects and
the Rhode Island militia fires on the Rose with an ancient
cannon. Biddlecomb escapes on another merchantman, the Samuel B. Adams, with a rabblerouser named Benjamin Rumstick. Needless to say, Biddlecomb and Rumstick are pressed into the Royal Navy by an incompetent boob named Lieutenant James Pendexter.
Pendexter's sole claim to fame, is his relationship to Admiral Samuel Graves, the commander of the North American Squadron. Pendexter happens to be Graves' nephew. But since he's not the firstborn son, he won't inherit
the title of Lord Pendexter, that will go to his brother. He impresses Biddlecomb and Rumstick and starts flogging the crew. Biddlecomb and Rumstick lead a mutiny against
Pendexter and his sadistic first officer Smeaton after a voyage to the West Indies. When the Icarus returns to American waters, the Rose picks up the chase and Biddlecomb and a handful of other mutineers escape.

Rating:
Summary: Clear For Action - Nelson's First in the Series is a Winner
Review: I seem to be on a James Nelson roll lately having recently read The Only Life That Mattered and the books of The Bretheren of the Coast trilogy. This is the first book in what was originally concieved as the Revolution At Sea trilogy, but has now been extended to at least five books and entitled a "Saga". Well, if the story found in the first book is representitive of what is to follow, a saga it surely will be.

Isaac Biddlecomb is the captain of the Judea as the story begins on New Year's Eve in 1775. Returning from a successful smuggling run to Barbados they are about to enter Bristol Harbor when they encounter the HMS Rose, a British Man of War sent by King George to enforce tariffs and suppress smugging. Badly damaged he decides to send his ship into the coastal rocks in order to escape and thereby sacrifices his ship and the fortune she was carring.

The Rose is commanded by Captain James Wallace who sets out to find and arrest Isaac in order to make an example of him. That action leads to a series of encounters and escapes by Biddlecomb that eventually finds him pressed into service on a British ship wheich turns out to be a true living hell until circumstances occur which place him in command of the British ship and bound for another encounter with Captain Wallace.

Nelson writes strongly and convincingly of the times in colonial America and identifies the emerging desire for independence among its people as well as giving identity to those who would have kept us loyal to the king. This is a fast moving story, packed with adventure at sea, violence, intrigue and suspense. It is a very promising start for what looks to be a terrific series of reads.

Rating:
Summary: The Great American Nautical Saga
Review: Nelson might get a bad rep for sticking too much action in a short space, but I found this first book to be outstanding. He knows his seamanship and how to write a villain that is completely despicable. I'm excited to find an American writer attempting to write an American Hornblower!

Rating:
Summary: The Great American Nautical Saga
Review: Now is the time for all good sailors, whether on board ship or in their armchairs, to get behind the greatest living nautical novelist, James L. Nelson, and shout "Hold firm!" Sure I stiffened my upper lip with Hornblower, and sure I waded happily through Patrick O'Brian's eclectic and sometimes prissy "Jane Austen" tales of the sea. I've sailed with Dewey Lambden and Alexander Kent and a host of others. But this is the AMERICAN side of things, blast it! And no one, I'm telling you, no one, does it better than James L. Nelson! Doing my research, I've discovered that Nelson has been published in Merry Olde England, and translated into several languages - but he was ours first!
Nelson has evidently (judging from biographical material available) done some powerful sailing himself, but anyone can study up on nautical terms and history. What sets Nelson apart is his peculiar Americaness and with it the contradictory impulses that American men at war have struggled with since the Revolution (the subject by the way, of this book). Sure they might be sailors, and sure they might be under the command of the captain and his officers, but secretly (and sometimes not so secretly) every American sailor is the master of his fate and the captain of his soul. The English could rule the waves for a couple of centuries by pluck, undeniable courage, and unrelenting organization, but the Americans were bound to kick dust in their British cousins' faces with the sort of individualism that would characterize so many American involved battles, at sea as well as on land.
Okay, end of tirade. This is the beginning. Here are the first shock waves of the American Revolution, the nautical war so very seldom chronicled. Here is Isaac Biddlecomb, merchant, smuggler, and hell under sail! Here is his second in command, Rumstick, who cares about the Colonial cause as Biddlecomb does not. If you love to imagine the awful thunder, the cries and the bellowing commands, the shudder of ship ramming ship, there is no better place to begin than the pages of this book. And neither is it blood and thunder only, for Nelson can craft characters that make you laugh and make you care, and sail his theme of rough individuality, courage, and ultimate sacrifice as few other authors in this genre can do.
Best of all, this is only the first in a series, and several series, and Nelson just gets better and better.