Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic action and characters!
Review: This is the first naval adventure novel I've ever read. Now I want to read them all and compare! If the rest are as good, or only near as good, as this one, I won't be wasting my time. "Kydd" is an intense read. I could only manage one chapter each sitting, for the most part, because each chapter has a remarkable storyline in and of itself, usually culminating in something highly emotional and vivid such as cannons firing back and forth. The battle scenes are rendered with no details spared so prepare yourself for some blood and gore. I could also *feel* the chill of the wind, taste the awful food and the warming relief of the grog. I enjoyed Kydd's character very much as he adapts to his new life and finds he actually loves it, but I liked his best friend Renzi even better. The two make a perfect pair of buddies - Kydd is fresh, young, unschooled, and Renzi with his haunted past and intellectual musings on life, together make a whole person you just have to appreciate. I don't know many of the sailing terms but it did not stop me from enjoying the story one bit. I've visited the author's website, and there are links to glossaries there. I appreciate the way the author explains some things but lets others slide, so you never get bogged down into details. This story moves fast and yar. I added this book to my list of "great reads."
Rating: 
Summary: 1793 through the eyes of a British sailor
Review: Thomas Kydd, a young wigmaker from the English countryside is impressed or more accurately shanghaied into military service aboard the British battleship Duke William. It is 1793 and in the midst of the French Revolution, England and France are at war. The British hierarchy object to the regicide of King Louis and are trying to blockade the French navy in the English Channel. All available hands are needed to man the British naval vessels. Kydd, a landlubber is a genteel sort, not used to the rough life of hardship typical of the English sailor. He is at first scorned by his shipmates but eventually is taken under the wing of seawise sailor Bowyer. Bowyer with a gentle touch teaches Kydd the duties of a sailor. Kydd after realizing that he will not escape his fate aboard the ship relents and solely desires to become an able seaman. Kydd is progressing toward his goal when Bowyer is tragically killed in a fall off a towering yardarm of the main mast. Kydd is then befriended by the previously taciturn Renzi a cultured aristocratic sort who is paying self imposed penance aboard the Duke William. Together Kydd and Renzi fight together against the French in a fierce naval battle and share adventures as the war progresses. Stockwin recreates a seemingly authentic representation of the lifestyle of a British sailor in the 18th century. The book unfortunately begins with a plethora of sailing terminology which initially make it a difficult read.
Rating:
Summary: Kydd
Review: What I'd really like to do is give this novel a four for setting, a three for plot and use of language, and a three-minus for characterization. Kydd is a first novel, and that shows. It has uneven quality, with the author heavily emphasizing bits he likes (details of the rigging) and skimming bits he doesn't care as much about (Kydd's pre-impressment life). It is very, very far from being the Second Coming of St. Patrick, despite the frothing of several professional reviewers. Yet it's readable, entertaining historical fiction. Stockwin clearly knows his stuff when it comes to ships, and while some readers may enjoy the intensive detail given, others may get bogged down in it. I tended to enjoy it. Other aspects of the late 18th-century setting are not as well-drawn, but are competently portrayed. The episode in Brittany seemed weaker setting-wise than other parts of the novel. The plot has an episodic quality, as others have noted, but I didn't find that excessive. There's plenty of action. There are a couple of minor continuity errors, but nothing fatal. I did feel, however, that Kydd gets away with his escapades too easily; problems are too readily solved. In particular, Kydd's ability to easily rendezvous with his ship after three different separations strained belief. I found Kydd to be less than enticing as a character. He's sort of a Luke Skywalker, a hero in the making, and he's good at everything from shooting to climbing the rigging. Everyone he meets who's not a villain likes him. He's a little too flawless to be real, and a little too nice to be interesting. He's not a complex enough character to make me want to follow him through several books - compared to genre heroes Aubrey, Maturin or even Sharpe, he comes across as flat. However, Stockwin may well be able to enhance Kydd's depth of character in the upcoming sequel. Though this isn't great literature, I enjoyed it, found it to be a quick, entertaining read, and will read the sequel when it comes out.
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