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Rating: 
Summary: ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING!!!
Review: All of the the Lewrie novels to date have been good,
with more realism (and much more sex) than Forester's
Hornblower and much freer, less wooden writing than
all but the first few of O'Brien's Aubrey/Maturin.
The sex gets a little obtrusive sometimes, but not
overly so.
Many of the Lewrie novels are distressingly hard
to get. Contrary to an earlier review, the "King
and Country" trilogy consists of King's Coat, King's
Commission, and Gun Ketch and it is a great place
to start if you can locate it.
If you like this series, see also the following
historical naval series -- James L. Nelson
(Biddlecomb -- Revolutionary War -- e.g., "Force
of Arms"), Alexander Kent (Bolitho -- Napoleanic
Wars -- e.g., "Command a King's Ship"), and
Richard Woodman (Drinkwater -- Napoleanic Wars --
e.g., "An Eye of the Fleet" -- hard to locate in
USA, easier in Canada & UK).
Consider also the historical army novels of Bernard
Cornwell. The Sharpe novels are great, the Starbuck
Civil War series good but not great.
Rating:
Summary: C.S. Forester with a sense of humour and sex
Review: Dewey Lambden is a C.S. Forester with a sense of humour and sex. He makes OBrien seem wordy and Alexander Kent seem pale and prissy.
Rating:
Summary: Historical Novel covering a period not commonly covered.
Review: For those with in interest in tall ships and the sailing navies, this novel covers a time period not well covered by other authors, i.e., the period between the American Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, when most of the British Navy was laid up out of service and pirates roamed the West Indies. Lambdin does an excellent job researching the information for his novels. While this book is one out of a series about the naval and amorous adventures of Alan Lewrie, the main plot stands alone and Lambdin fills in the reader with any incidental information on events from earlier books. A highly recommended book for filling in that time period of history.
Rating: 
Summary: Good fiction with a questionable lead character
Review: Lambdin marries Lewrie off, but he still can't keep it in his pants. He covers the period and the action well, but for some reason our Alan is always chasing women for the movie cameras (or is Lambdin writing for them?).Excellent descriptions of the scandals of the Carribean before the Fench Revolution.
Rating:
Summary: Good fiction with a questionable lead character
Review: Lambdin marries Lewrie off, but he still can't keep it in his pants. He covers the period and the action well, but for some reason our Alan is always chasing women for the movie cameras (or is Lambdin writing for them?). Excellent descriptions of the scandals of the Carribean before the Fench Revolution.
Rating:
Summary: What do you do when there's no war to fight?
Review: Lieutenant Alan Lewrie is enjoying a few weeks in England, in between the completion of his anti-pirate adventures in the Far East (as recounted in The King's Privateer) and taking up his new assignment in command of the gun ketch ALACRITY as part of the Bahamas Squadron. Such a small vessel doesn't ordinarily rate more than one commissioned officer, but on the Navy's books it's a "sloop," so Capt. Lewrie finds himself with a first officer, the rather prim but engaging Arthur Ballard, who actually is Lewrie's senior in terms of naval experience but seems to harbor no jealousy about their relationship. (In fact, the two soon become friends as well as trusting colleagues and it's apparent Ballard is destined to become "Bush" to Lewrie's "Hornblower.") Alan spends much of his time ashore with the Chiswicks in Surrey (the family he helped rescue in _The French Admiral_) and is dismayed to find that Caroline Chiswick, for whom he has a soft spot, is being matched off by her uncle to the swinish heir of the local baronet. Suddenly, Lewrie finds himself doing what he never expected: getting married. And, rather than leave his bride in Plymouth, he allows her to talk him into taking her to Nassau with him. Naval novels set in peacetime sometimes have to go far afield to find an entertaining plot, and Lewrie's domestic adjustments, together with a struggle against another set of pirates (and the corrupt civil and naval officials with whom they are in league) make for an engaging yarn. However: The author seems not to understand the distinction between an exclamation mark properly used in dialog ("Kill them!") and its thoroughly annoying, rather gushing use in narrative (He killed them!). Though perhaps that's just sloppiness after the initial success of the series. And while he has become quite good at descriptive passages, especially those of the sea around the Bahamas (where he obviously has spent some time sailing himself), he also seems too willing to limit most of his principal characters' conversations to the same period slang, used over and over again. Lewrie is brighter than that. (I'm getting awfully tired of "ram-cat" and "caulk" and "putting the leg over" and "buttock-brokering" and "heel-taps" -- that one always in quotes, for some reason.) I don't much care for the smugness of Lambdin's Introductions and Afterwards, either. Still, it's a good series with good plotting and (mostly) good character development and excellent detail on ship operations and tactics of the period, and I shall certainly keep reading.
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