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Post by severance on Oct 21, 2007 11:45:37 GMT
Press Gang by Adam Hardy, NEL 1973 - pseudonym of Ken Bulmer. You just know from looking at the wonderful depiction of Second Lieutenant George Abercrombie Fox on the above cover that he's a tough old bastard, his clothes might be a bit worse for wear, but you'd definitely want him on your side in a fight. At only 112 pages Bulmer doesn't have a lot of time to waste in useless exposition, so he wades right in with a midshipman getting his head taken clean off by a cannonball in the first paragraph! The arcing blood gets on Fox's uniform, and he is not best pleased. As is usual for him, his actions lead to a successful engagement with the enemy, which subsequently are claimed by the incompetent officers above him. Fox is very much a loner on board, despised as an officer (albeit the lowest rung) by the majority of the crew, and looked down on by his superior officers, who got there by nobility rather than ability. The sheer hell of life on board a naval ship is brought home convincingly by Bulmer, the vast majority of the crew not even being allowed on-shore for fear of desertion. When they receive large losses, their numbers have to be replenished by forcibly kidnapping the men in whole coastal villages in the dreaded Press Gang sweeps, which naturally the Captain leaves to Fox. This means the crew is always on the edge of mutiny, and lashings are dispensed for even minor derelictions of duty. There's a bit of technical maritime jargon at times, to do with the rigging, sails and so on - but it doesn't matter if you don't understand every term (I certainly don't) its just enough to know that they're messing about with their ship!! All in all a satisfying little read full of blood, sweat, noise, chaos... and more blood. Mr. Fox certainly never has time to admire the scenery, and neither does the reader. I've got the second book in the series (of 14 I think) and I look forward to getting to it sometime.
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Post by andydecker on May 24, 2023 15:22:30 GMT
Time for a bit of cover maintenance in a few old threads, due to photofuck and sadly absent friends. Starting with this.
Bulmer sure was quite good in sea adventures. Maybe he didn't reached the literary heights of Alexander Kent or Bernard Cornwell, and the success of Fox can be also much attributed to the cover-art (like it was the case with most of NEL), but the stories of George Abercrombie Fox are still a fun read.
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