Peregrine

The next book in the Fighting Anthony's will be Peregrine. The author expects it to be available late summer/early fall

A bit delayed but the book is now out in Kindle and the paperback will be out in April

I started reading the first few pages shown on the Amazon site, and frankly I was impressed at the lack of typos and grammatical errors so prevalent in the earlier books. I guess he's taken our constructive criticism on board, eh? I hope so, because he does spin a good yarn.

I do believe I will be ordering this.

I'm well into this one and can confirm the writing has tightened up considerably. Alaric, Doug and Kim Reeman, and James Nelson get mentions in the acknowledgments with particular thanks given to Alaric, who I suspect is largely responsible for the improvements I've noted (although he'd probably never admit it).

In any event, the absence of the "distractions" has allowed me to concentrate on enjoying the story and the characters. So far, the potential I observed in the earlier novels that kept me reading them despite the distractions, is seeming to come to fruition in this one. I'll let you know for sure when I finish it.

Peregrine 5th in the Fighting Anthony series arrived today (saved me from reading the local "fish wrapper"). These are great little "pocket" books, so tonight "Michael Aye and I meet again". Be back with my take.......

Finished Peregrine last night, so I've had a bit of time to think about this personal review - and it is solely "my take".

Michael definitely writes in "American English" (both in word choice and style). I noted few "typos", but did find half a line of one sentence missing (the sentence ended with "Faith".

I find a similarity between Michael's "Anthonys" and Bill Hammond's "Cutlers" as both storylines are heavily "family based". While I think family can be an important thread in the fabric of any story, I also believe it can be "overused" and is to an extent here. Also, while I'm prepared to believe in "over familiarity" between officers and seaman on a private, privateer, merchant, or American naval ship, my indoctrination into the customs of the British Royal Navy of this period leave me at odds with many of the character protrayls in Peregrine.

The "naval action" which doesn't begin until well into the novel, is fast, and appears realistic to me and then continues and builds as the central "quest" is played out. I'd be happier with a shorter "lead in", an earlier focus on "the quest" and more of the action Michael's shown us that he can produce.

It's in my library.

He does seem to have the most well-behaved crews in existence doesn't he. Never a defaulters list, never a flogging (which I don't really miss, but ... ).

This, along with the over-familiarity between officers and subordinates, has been a flaw since the beginning of the series, so I didn't bother mentioning them.

Having followed this discussion I decided to give Peregrine a try. I'm happy with the story line, but I can't stomach the other aspects already alluded to: officers treating crew as equals; virtually no discipline; both main coxswains re-invented to be friend/servant/advisor; other than the villain, everybody else are close friends, irrespective of rank. Frustration nearly got the better of me by the half way point. In the end I did finish it, but I can't say I enjoyed the experience and I certainly wouldn't recommend it as a start point for an HNF newbie. It seems I have a much lower tolerance threshold than the rest of you

Joolz wrote:Having followed this discussion I decided to give Peregrine a try. I'm happy with the story line, but I can't stomach the other aspects already alluded to: officers treating crew as equals; virtually no discipline; both main coxswains re-invented to be friend/servant/advisor; other than the villain, everybody else are close friends, irrespective of rank. Frustration nearly got the better of me by the half way point. In the end I did finish it, but I can't say I enjoyed the experience and I certainly wouldn't recommend it as a start point for an HNF newbie. It seems I have a much lower tolerance threshold than the rest of you

Hah! You didn't have the first two to compare it to ...