Nach mehr als zwanzig Jahren wiedergelesen. Mein früherer Eindruck hat sich dabei bestätigt: der Band ist eine unterhaltsame Lektüre für zwischendurch, schnell gelesen da knapp 160 Seiten, und meiner Meinung nach eher geeignet für Leser der Serie zur Abrundung, weniger als Einstieg in die Serie. Wir lernen zwar Richard Bolitho und das Leben als Midshipman an Bord eines Linienschiffs in der Royal Navy kennen und bekommen einen guten Eindruck seines Wesens und Charakters, aber insgesamt macht das Buch eher den Eindruck einer Einführung in das Genre, verstärkt durch explizite Erklärungen an ein paar Stellen, und hat spürbar weniger Tiefgang als die späteren Bände. Wieder einmal stelle ich auch fest daß die deutsche Übersetzung stilistisch und spannungsmäßig hinter dem Original zurückbleibt. ( )

Audiobook to listen to when getting to sleep. So I often miss bits. It was OK for that. ( )

another navel series, young mans wins victory while officers incapacitated

This omnibus contains three novels that chronicle the early stages of Richard Bolitho's career.

Richard Bolitho, Midshipman begins in Portsmouth as Richard joins the warship Gorgon and befriends another midshipman named Martyn Dancer. Richard, at 16, is already an experienced seaman and has a strong seagoing history in his family, so this book establishes his personality and gives him some early heroics.

Midshipman Bolitho and the Avenger takes place in Falmouth, Bolitho's hometown, in the lead-up to the Christmas season. The crew of the Gorgon has been given shore leave while the vessel undergoes refitting in Plymouth, so Bolitho and Dancer visit the Bolitho homestead. And of course they end up in an adventure of sorts with the ship Avenger, commanded by Richard's brother, Hugh.

Band of Brothers sees Bolitho, Dancer and some of the crew on the Gorgon being tasked with sailing the newly built Hotspur to Guernsey, where it will be patrolling the English Channel. Adventures ensue, and the two midshipmen also take their exams in hopes of eventually being promoted to King's officer.

Overall, these were comfortable, undemanding reads. I particularly enjoyed the time period (just before the Revolutionary War) and the setting (southwest England, at least in parts). I was less fond of the third book in the omnibus, finding it a bit disorienting, and in all of the books I never really got over the feeling that the characters were fictional. For some reason the names just sounded unreal, especially Martyn Dancer, which sounds like a book name and not a real person name. And in the first book I found there were too many instances of "Bolitho saw that this person was feeling…" or "Bolitho knew by looking at the sails that a storm was coming" instead of informing the reader of the person's mood or the weather another way. But I zipped through the whole omnibus in just a few days, so I'll keep the series on my list for whenever I'm in need of a brain vacation. ( )

While not as finely detailed as Mr. Stockwin’s “Kidd” or as trenchant as Mr. Forester’s “Hornblower, “Midshipman Bolitho” by Alexander Kent -a pseudonym for Douglas Reeman- has its own nautical panache and endeared itself to me rather quickly. “Midshipman Bolitho” is considered the first novel in the Bolitho series by Mr. Kent and there is an awkwardness there that comes out at times. Nevertheless, it is full of rip-roaring action and nautical adventure that will keep naval and history buffs entranced and entertained. A real gem was the afterward which included a short piece from Mr. Kent’s Bolitho newsletter detailing the lives, times and realistic hardships his characters are living through. I picked up this first book in the series on a whim and I hope to have many similar whims in the future. ( )