Book Review- Artemis by Julian Stockwin
July 6th 2007 07:47
With Kydd, Julian Stockwin introduced us to a young wig-maker from Guildford who was kidnapped and pressed into duty with the tempestuous crew of the Duke William battle ship. Now, Thomas Paine Kydd is back--with a vengeance--in the latest installment of Stockwin's thrilling naval adventure series. Artemis is the eighteenth-century crack frigate that Kydd and sea-mate Nicholas Renzi are set to sail all the way to the fabled Far East. In this great age of fighting sailing ships, Kydd's voyage promises to be a perilous undertaking. But not even shipwreck, mutiny, or a confrontation with a mighty French frigate manages to thwart Artemis and her crew. It's only when Kydd receives an urgent message from home--one that threatens to cut short his career and trap him on shore forever--that Artemis's real journey begins... (net sourced McBooks Press) 374 pages
After an introduction like that, sounds pretty exciting doesn't it but as I bought it for $2.50 NZ in a bargin bin, this should have told me something. But as my family have a bit of a proud naval heritage, I thought it would be worth reading based on the reviews on the back cover.
'I was soon turning over the pages almost indecently fast, roll on the promised adventures of Kydd and Renzi' Independent
'Stockwin paints a vivid picture of life aboard the mighty ship of the line' Daily Express
This is the first book I have read by the author Julian Stockwin and I should imagine it will be the last as I just thought it was a mish mash with slow plotting, average characters and very annoying dialogue!
The dialogue between the common sailors is full of this sort of thing and although I acknowledge this might be accurate in historical terms, the effect it has whilst reading it, is to make you go 'What the???' This really slows down the story line and I feel the author should have just used normal English as I have just finished reading a historical novel about Alexander the Great and the dialogue is just normal English, not ancient Greek, Latin etc with the end result of being a great read.
There are some moments of interest such as when they force a fight with the French ship Citoyenne but apart from that I was left wondering about things as characters would be introduced eg two army deserters, but then there didn't seem to be a reason for them being introduced as they were only mentioned once or twice after that.
Below average book with very few moments of drama, annoying dialogue but has a nice cover though.
kiwiauthor rating 2/10
Heath
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