Ramage

Armchair seadogs will welcome this first salvo in a new Horatio Hornblower-styled series about Junior Lieutenant Nicholas Ramage. Ramage is an utterly fearless tactical genius with a tendency to daydream in the middle of battle. He is the son of old Blaze-Away Ramage who was drummed out of the Royal Navy for following his own initiative rather than the stupid rules of the book. Young Ramage must redeem his father's name. However, we first meet him lying unconscious, with his crew shot to pieces and ship sinking from French cannonfire. Well, it had been an unfair battle! - his frigate's 28 guns against the French line-of-battle ship's 74. Still, with all his senior officers dead, Ramage assumes his first captaincy and rescues what he can of the situation. He and several men escape capture and fulfill the ship's first mission, which was to free a handful of Italian nobles from Bonaparte's clutches. Soon, though, he is facing a hostile court-martial for loss of his ship and cowardice. Lord Nelson assigns him another mission. Off goes Ramage but this time he is sunk by the gunfire of a beached ship. Tactics saves the day, he wins a marchesa and Nelson's admiration. And the author wins an extra tot of rum for this amusing action tale. (Kirkus Reviews)