H.A. Tinsdale

I am in big trouble. I mean deep in the #@%* kind of trouble. I'm in sooo much trouble.

Here I go starting a blog and then don’t post anything to it for eight months. I am so embarassed. Last September I was in Paris and met a young woman and her husband that were taking a seven month sabbatical to southeastern asia with their three sons (6,8 and10) and she was going to blog about their trip. She left in mid September and so far I think she has something like 54 entries and that's with three very young kids and a husband to take care of. I have no excuse. I’m sorry. All I can say is I’ll try and do better in the future.

I could try to blame it on writer’s block, after all I am having a terrible time trying to get started again. After putting together three novels ranging from 325 pages to almost 500 in only a little over a year, I can’t seem to be able to get my butt in gear and just do it, start writing again. Maybe the three hundred rejection letters have had something to do with that. Who knows? But I’m here now so I’ll try to bring you up to date without boring you too much.

First, just because I haven’t been writing doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading. As a matter of fact I’ve been reading a great deal. Since my posting of the review of Camilla Lackberg’s “The Ice Princess” in April, I’ve read a second of her novels, two by Lisa Gardner, one by Steven Saylor, four by Steve Hamilton, fourteen by Dewey Lambdin, two by S. Thomas Russell, a couple by Bernard Cornwell, six by James Mace, a few by Judson Roberts and Simon Scarrow. Oh yes, I read Bonnie Jo Campbell’s “Once Upon a River” as well.

All in all I think I’ve put away thirty eight novels or some 11,400 pages, assuming an average of 300 pages per book. Now let’s talk about content and themes.

The books by Simon Scarrow and James Mace are based on the activities of Centurions and soldiers of the Roman Legions during that nation’s period of empire. They are historical fiction and are action based with little attempt at in depth personality development, at least in the initial offernings. Scarrow’s characters are being developed more deeply as he continues to offer new volumes. Both authors are great reads of daring do.

Judson Roberts’ volumes are the same only the historical perios is the 9^th century in Scandinavia and England. You guessed it, Vikings. Again great reads, probably very historically accurate and excellent page turners, perfect for that long “flight over water”. The characters are very real and the writing is excellent. It makes you feel sympothy for a character that rapes and pillages his way across two seas. Not an easy task.

Most readers of historical fiction will be familiar with Bernard Cornwell or anyone who’s seen any of the “Sharpe” films starring Sean Bean on BBC. He’s written about British riflemen in Wellington’s army, archers in Henry V’s not to mention a Viking or two. Cornwell does an excellent job of bringing those times and characters to life. The books are designed as pageturners and perform that duty admirable well. Whenever he has a new book out I usually wind up getting it and I don’t think I’ve ever been disappointed.

This brings me to Dewey Lambdin. Dewey’s been writing since the 70’s or early 80’s about a “rakeshell of the first head” as he likes to say in late 18^th and early 19^th century England. This young man, by the name of Alan Lewrie, is basiclly “pressed” into the Royal Navy in 1780 as a midshipman. It’s the Great Age of Sail for Britian and our intrepid hero manages to escape from one frying pan into the next with great regularity, always seeming to avoid the fire, just. I’ve read many of these books in the past but this summer I started rereading them all over again as well as catching up with the adventures and misadventures of young Mr. Lewrie. It’s taken Mr Lambdin years to create this enterprising young man and he has indeed done an excellent job. Alan, from the first book on, through all fourteen so far, displays courage and honor in the face of adversity yet always considers himself a fraud, certain that he will one day be found out and disgraced before all English society. Society and it’s conventions of that time are a very important part of these books and just as imortant to the characters.

The only negative I can attribute to this series is the fact that Mr. Lambdin seems to be spending more and more of each new book bringing the reader up to speed as to what’s happened in his character’s life up to that point. Face it. After fourteen episodes that’s a lot to be catching up on. Sometimes you just have to go with the minimum and let the current story carry the reader forward. Yes it’s nice to know that Alan has had many seafaring adventures, met many great famous or infamous men and managed to get laid a lot, especially when he was younger and that he thinks with “member” more than his head, but, come on. Let’s get on with the story. When you finish the author can always refer the reader to the prior tales. Besides that one item I highly recommend this series to readers of historical fiction who have an intrest in the glory days of the Royal Navy during the American and French Revolutions and the Napolianic wars.

By now you’re probably saying, has this person ever met a book they didn’t like. The answer is “YES”. Usually when I come across a volume that doesn’t “do” it for me, I just set it aside and move on. That normally happens within the first hundred pages. If it hasn’t got me hooked by then I simply set it aside and eventually give it away to someone I don’t particularly like. I can’t say that about Steven Saylor’s “Roma, a Novel of Ancient Rome”. I read the whole thing, all 547 pages plus the writer’s notes and the Book Club Question and Answers. Please, don’t ask me why. I’ll tell you in my next posting.