 Pirates and Privateers
The History of Maritime
Piracy
Cindy Vallar, Editor
& Reviewer
P.O. Box 425,
Keller, TX 76244-0425
Books for
Adults ~ Nautical Fiction
The Patriot’s Fate
By Alaric Bond
Fireship Press, 2012, ISBN 978-1-91179-238-6, US
$19.95
e-book ISBN 978-1-61179-239-3, US $9.95
Michael Crowley’s life takes
an unexpected and unwanted turn when he
meets friends from the old sod one
evening. They are diehard patriots eager
to try, once again, to free Ireland from
British control, and they expect Michael
to join them. But he has a new life in the
Royal Navy with new friends and a new
berth aboard a ship of the line that’s
under construction. A press gang intrudes
and Michael and his old friends are taken.
Other Irish rebels intervene, and Michael
soon finds himself across the Channel in
France, where the rebels are gathering.
Before long, he’s aboard a French warship
bound for Ireland where united Irish and
French forces will launch a new uprising
in 1798.
Given his father’s ultimatum, Captain
Banks decides it’s better to take command
of a frigate and go to sea now, rather
than wait any longer for the ship of the
line whose launch date has been postponed
again. He and his loyal corps of officers
and men, with the exception of Michael
Crowley who’s gone missing, set sail
aboard the Scylla. They are bound
for the Irish coast. Rumors abound of a
French invasion force, and Banks must do
whatever he can to prevent their landing.
Even if he, his men, and his ship must pay
the ultimate sacrifice to thwart the
rebels.
These are but two of the many points of
view through which this story unfolds.
While the reader may occasionally get
confused as to who’s who, on the whole,
this technique provides the reader with a
greater understanding of what happens
aboard a naval vessel. In this way, Bond’s
characters become three-dimensional,
“real” people with lives and personalities
outside the close confines of the Scylla.
The only drawback is that although the
reader knows what happens to most of these
characters by the end of the story, the
fate of Captain Banks and the Scylla are
not revealed.
The final confrontation between the
frigate and the French at the Battle of
Tory Island is edge-of-your-seat,
hold-your-breath adventure witnessed as if
we stand on the decks of both vessels.
Even though the reader may sense how the
tale will end, Bond’s gift of storytelling
makes us keep hoping that won’t happen in
The Patriot’s Fate, the fifth title
in the Fighting Sail series.
Review Copyright ©2013 Cindy Vallar
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