I love reading books set around sailing, especially military or thriller stories. Sometimes, however, when I pick up a new book I still get a little apprehensive that the narrative will slowly become bogged down in dry and irrelevent descriptions of rigging and manoeuvres. This book, as one would expect of something penned by Bernard Cornwell, manages to avoid these pitfalls. The book revolves around the plot, not the sailing. There is still some excellent descriptive sections about the sailing, but without the overly technical passages which haunt some similar books. There are, of course, sailing terms used, but the strength is that it adds to the tone which the sailing aspects of the book set.
As for the rest of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed it - finishing it off in less than two days... The prose was fast-paced and encourages the reader to keep turning the pages, always wanting to know what's next and if there is another twist in the works. The early stages of the book nicely provide some character backgrounds which helps the reader to feel a connection with all the characters, and to some extent, feel a tinge of pity for the main characters eternal optimism.
Overall, a very good page-turner. Not a piece of literary genius, but, for its sheer un-put-downable-ness, it's a good 9/10 from me.
