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Paperback
Publisher: Running Press
Format: Bargain Price
1762, The Georgian Age of Sail: For his first command, John Cavendish is given a ship—the HMS Meteor—and a crew, both in need of repair and discipline. He’s determined to make a success of their first mission, and hopes the well-liked lieutenant Alfred Donwell will stand by his side as he leads his new crew into battle: stopping the slave trade off the coast of Algiers. Alfie knows their mission is futile, and that their superiors back in England will use the demise of this crew as impetus for war with the Ottoman Empire. But the darker secret he keeps is his growing attraction for his commanding officer—a secret punishable by death. With the arrival of his former captain—and lover—on the scene of the disastrous mission, Alfie is torn between the security of his past and the uncertain promise of a future with the straight-laced John. Against a backdrop of war, intrigue, and personal betrayal, the high seas will carry these men through dangerous waters from England to Africa to the West Indies in search of a safe harbor.
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| Pretty good story, drags in parts |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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The parts of this story about John and Alfie's relationship were pretty good, but there is waaaaaay to much blah blah about sailing, and they spend too much of the book apart. I know that in the romance novel formula, a conflict has to threaten the love between the protagonists, but this was above and beyond. I just skimmed over the boring parts and saved the time.
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| Flying colors from an HNF POV |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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I have been exploring cross genre "incursions" into age-of-fighting-sail Historic Naval Fiction with varied results. Science fiction -- disappointing. Good SF/Fantasy, but no respect for the naval side. Young adult -- mixed. One or two writers who set their stories in a genuinely-rendered navy of the Napoleonic era and one or two who tell a good story, but who show little respect for the details of ships and navies. When I became aware of False Colors, I did not hold out a great deal of hope for a gay romance set in the Royal Navy just at the close of the Seven Years War. In fact, I was very wrong. While I had feared to find the navy ignored after being used as a convention for throwing a lot of men together, like some kind of mincing Pirates of the Caribbean, I encountered instead a well-researched re-creation of both the technical and social sides of the navy. Alex Beecroft did her homework and treats the reader to compellingly written passages of ship and sail evolutions, gunnery, medicine and boat handling. There are plenty of well handled actions -- single ship, cutting out, shore bombardments and fighting ashore. In particular, Beecroft showed a fine mastery of how to fight a bomb ketch. I was very impressed with her narration of ship handling and repair during a harrowing, and near-disastrous, encounter with an iceberg in the arctic.
Beecroft also understands the socio-political structure and mores of the Eighteenth Century navy. While it would have been easy for her to establish a convention that homosexuality, while officially condemned, was unofficially condoned and a fact of life -- a sort of proto don't-ask-don't-tell -- her romance in fact unfolds in a harsh and unforgiving culture where it is viewed with disgust and punished by death. She does permit herself the license to create some not-implausible situations that allow the story to move forward, but she never fails to respect the real culture of the navy. Needless to say, the romance does take up a good bit of the story. Alfie Donwell is smitten with the handsome Jack Cavendish, who spends most of the book becoming aware of, and reconciled to, his own love for another man. There is a lot of soul-searching and a few encounters, but this is a love story, not pornography -- nothing as graphic as, say, the straight sex in Dewey Lambdin's novels. Other reviewers who enjoy romance have praised the love story. Readers of historic naval fiction may find themselves less engaged with this aspect of the book, but will still find a good adventure and an authentic historical novel which shows the Royal Navy from a slightly different perspective.
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| Muddled |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
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I WISH I COULD SAY THIS WAS A GREAT BOOK. After all, wouldn't it be great to come across a solid page turner that combines historical fiction with a gay theme?! While plodding through, I found myself too often saying out loud "god, this is stupid!" I also did a lot of involuntary eye rolling. If you decide to read this book, you'll understand.
The book starts off well enough moving along at a fresh pace, satisfyingly convincing in its historical accuracies. However, all too soon it gets muddled and rambling and just plain stupid. Two-thirds through it just loses it. I finished this book out of principle but I almost didn't. I suppose the author felt it would be a reward to throw in a steamy sex scene at the very close of the book. While she (the author) did her homework and seems to have the mechanics of gay male sex down, her understanding of the gay male character/psyche is off. A lof of it is just plain silly and unbelievable especially in the supposed historical context.
There is an alarmingly curious heaping of torture and extreme physical suffering of the two gay characters in this book. It's hard to believe anyone could survive such treatment, especially considering the lack of good medical care and antibiotics at the time, despite the dousings of piss received... I got the unsettling sense that the author might be thinking that this sort of thing is erotic, possibly due to having heard of gay men being into "hard play" and "water sports." Well, the truth is, the fun has a tendency to grind to a stop when there is drawing of blood. 99.9% of gay men are not into having their throats slit for enjoyment, I'm sure. And while the torture is no doubt historically accurate, it comes across as a grotesque grasping for dramatic effect here.
To be fair, the overall bones of the book, are well enough. That's why I gave it 2 stars and not 1. It's just good enough to not fling it down with digust. The characters, although inconsistently drawn, are likable if not believable. And the descriptions of the life and workings on a sailboat of that period are satisfying indeed. Perhaps the author will try again and get better with her next book. I doubt, however, that I will give her another chance.
M
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| Very thoughtful, wonderfully written book |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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This is my first book by Alex Beecroft, and when I started reading and figured out where the author was going (John being such a devoted Christian), I did not think she would be able to accomplish it. I waited for the story to turn unbelievable, for John's character to be superficial and unrealistic, and for the struggle between John's religion and his growing like/love for Alfie to be cheapened. However, I was very pleasantly surprised at the thoughtful and sensitive way the author treated the internal conflicts of the characters and how these conflicts were very realistically contrasted against the historical prejudices/beliefs of the time.
Miss Beecroft's writing was wonderful, and I would have given the book 5 stars, but for the following 2 comments:
-I felt the last two chapters of the book (after Alfie's and John's argument in John's cabin - in the Arctic) were wasted on anger and misunderstanding between the two characters.
-As another reviewer mentioned, the book ended when Alfie and John finally had sex, as if this was the HEA, and with everything that happened in the book, this was a disappointment. Since the danger of discovery and the hangman still existed, the book should have ended on a more poignant "love in the face of all odds" note, rather than "now that we have finally gotten together, everything will be well."
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| It is a superb piece of writing, a credible and exciting story, uncompromisingly authentic in time |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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"False Colors: An M/M Romance," is yet another swashbuckler from the remarkable imagination of Alex Beecroft (Running Press Book Publishers, 2009). This is the latest in her high-seas-adventure series, and is, in my opinion, the best example yet.
Set during the Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France, c. 1754 to 1763, it is the tale of a young naval officer, Lieutenant John Cavendish, a Quaker by up-bringing, who is not only deeply religious but also fervently committed to duty, honour and country. As the story opens Cavendish has just received his first temporary command of a modest merchant ship, the "Météore," by a politically motivated admiral, Admiral Lord Saunders. His Lordship's orders, conveyed in private, are that Cavendish should attack a colony of Barbary Coast pirates that have been raiding the English coast. In truth it is a suicide mission, given the size of the renamed "Meteor", and Cavendish is readily aware of this. Nevertheless, his commitment to duty dictates that he accept the assignment without question.
The ragtag crew that has been assigned to him also reflects this pessimistic prospect; all except for another young lieutenant, "Alfie" Donwell. He is an infectiously sunny personality who radiates a generosity-of-spirit like morning sunshine. Nevertheless, Cavendish confides in him that they are probably both sailing toward their dooms with their first adventure together. Thus, the stage is set for some male bonding in the shadow of an emerging threat.
They are further drawn together when Donwell is captured and cruelly tortured by the Barbary pirates, who regard the English as infidels, and Cavendish responds by first rescuing Alfie; then by ransacking the harbour of its prime ships before escaping into the open water of the Mediterranean. However, just before he reaches the sanctuary of Gibraltar he encounters an enemy corsair that easily outclasses the relatively modest "Meteor." A bloody battle ensues--i.e. "Even Alfie ... felt a little squeamish as he watched the bodies burst apart, the blood fountain out to stain the white sails red." -and although he is victorious, John is severely wounded in the melee.
By now Alfie Donwell has set his course on seducing the handsome but straight-laced commanding officer, and his lengthy convalescence that followed gives Alfie an opportunity to gradually work on his defences. However, he miscalculates by telling Cavendish about an adolescent crush he once had on a notoriously foppish captain--Captain Lord Lisburn--and John's puritanical up-bringing rebels at this news; so much so that he nearly names Donwell to the admiralty--meaning a veritable death sentence for Alfie.
A reversal of roles then takes place as Alfie turns his attention away from Cavendish, returning instead to Lisburn, just as John becomes enamoured by Alfie's honesty and erstwhile devotion. It is a juxtaposition that will repeat itself several times throughout the novel to considerable dramatic effect. Moreover, two predominant triangles are thus formed; one involving John, Alfie and Lisburn, and another to include duty and emerging--albeit forbidden--love.
That said, there is no disputing the fact that this is one of the best explorations of the subject I have read in a very long time. In his Cambridge lecture on the "Aspect of the Novel ," (1928), E.M. Forster maintained that a good novel is fundamentally comprised of two elements: life in time; and life by values, i.e. "I only saw her for five minutes, but it was worth it." In this regard Alex Beecroft has fulfilled both, admirably.
Life in time
One of the definite strong points of this story is the seemingly accurate depiction of the eighteenth century. Hollywood's romanticized portrayals notwithstanding, the 19th-century was a rugged, grotty period of time. On the one hand it was almost idyllic and somewhat puritanical in its thinking, and on the other life was `nasty, brutish and short.' In my opinion Beecroft has captured this dichotomy remarkably well, and has admirably withstood the temptation to `rose-hue' it.
Life by values
Fundamental to this category is a cast of strong, well-defined characters, and once again the author has delivered the goods. The two main characters, John Cavendish and Alfie Donwell, are distinct in their makeup and believably human in their thinking. Moreover, their developing relationship is well paced and credible throughout, and they are very much a part of their chosen professions and time.
It is a superb piece of writing, a credible and exciting story, uncompromisingly authentic in time, and highly recommended.
Gerry Burnie Books,
Canadian history from a gay perspective, series.
Journey to Big Sky
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