The Reaper

The author was kind enough to send me this book some time ago and it's taken far to long to get round to reading it. A fast paced book which I enjoyed so have already started the next in the series. There is a full review on the website

I recently read this title, the first of Michael Aye's books I have seen. I was hoping this author would produce works as convincing as those of (say) Peter Smalley or Alaric Bond, but, based on this title, I was sadly mistaken.

The anachronisms are glaring and repeated; they put me off the book right from the beginning, when Lord Sandwich (died 1792)  and the Prince Regent (assumed the title 1811) appear together. Then there's the names and styles of the characters...there were 2800 post-captains in the Georgian navy: none was named Gabriel and only two were named Gilbert. Couldn't the author have chosen names more in sympathy with the period about which he was (supposedly) writing? And what's all this with senior officers addressing juniors as "Gil" and "Gabe". The famously taciturn Lord Howe would never have used such an inappropriate (for the 18th century) way of addressing one of his captains.

As for the climax, when one of the characters calls down a raven from the sky to rip out the eyes of the enemy captain, give me a break! The genre is called HISTORIC naval fiction,  and while Lambdin has introduced a supernatural element into his novels, at least there is some ambiguity about what is going on.

All in all, I found "The Reaper" really disappointing on a number of levels. However, I may try another Michael Aye title in the hopes that maybe it gets better, but I'm not holding my breath.