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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Almost as good as Hornblower, 14 Aug 2002
Ramage is in many ways a contrary to Hornblower. He is rich, a nobleman, intuitive rather than intellectual, hopeless at mathematics, but they share the sense of duty to the navy and to the seamen serving under them.
In the first of the novels we are presented with Ramage and the most important of the characters who will follow him in the rest of the novels. It starts dramatically with Ramage waking up after a severe blow to find himself instantly promoted from 5th in command to 1st in command, since all his superiors are dead. The ship is sinking and the enemy is ready to fire the conclusive barrage.
Very good book, but if you haven't read Hornblower yet, do that first.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ramage - Dudley Pope, 9 July 2002
This is the first of Dudley Pope's series of novels about Lord Nicholas Ramage, naval officer in His Majesty's navy at the time of Nelson. Pope knows his history and seafaring and spins a good yarn to boot. His writing is vivid, realistic and exciting though not in the Patrick o'Brien class of naval prose.
This opening story sees Ramage take charge of and lose his first command within an hour but this does not stop him from taking over the secret assignment given to the late Captain of Ramage's doomed frigate. Ramage has to rescue a group of patriotic Italians but in doing so he both incurs the wrath of one and the affection of another, the latter being the heroine of the piece with whom Ramage falls madly in love. There's a court scene, an excellent battle scene towards the end and Ramage gets to meet Nelson and another chap called ... Hornblower! Contrived stuff at times but hard to put down and will leave the reader looking forward to the next exciting episode - of which there are fortunately many!
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better than Hornblower., 18 Jan 2003
Sibella 28, on a mission to rescue several aristocrats from Boney's clutches, is being pounded to death by a French 74, all the officers except the wounded Lt.Ramage are dead and Sibella is sinking fast. As the 74 closes in for the 'coup de grace', Ramage pulls a daring stunt and escapes, with the intention of completing the mission. This is only partially achieved, through no fault of his own, but one of the rescued thinks otherwise, being aware that Ramage's father was court-martialled for cowardice. When they are picked up by a British patrol, Ramage collects the legacy of his father's sentence as he is also accused of cowardice; here he sees first-hand the depth of feeling against his family, as he is stitched-up prior to his hearing.
He suddenly finds he has plenty of enemies wanting to step over him to gain promotion or influence; but he also discovers who his friends are ... and a little more!Well-researched and well-written, this kept me going into the small hours; in particular the overview of each locale contains those usually-forgotten minutiae - like smells, shapes, sounds and change of terrain - that make all the difference to one's mental picture of the proceedings. Although billed as Forester's successor, Mr.Pope is a far better wordsmith and Ramage is a far more normal character than Hornblower, in both personality and humanity; he has doubts, uncertainty, rage and lust; he's more likeable as well, one can imagine making friends with him and not having to worry about his sincerity - in short, he's human, not an extension of the Navy Board. A damned good read.
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