Since the death of Patrick O’Brian in 2000 (has it really been that long?), I have searched high and low for his literary successor. Evidently, book publishers have noticed the demand for good nautical fiction, and several heirs-apparent have appeared over the past few years. Here are a few you might enjoy.
Adam Lewrie series by Dewy Lambdin: Probably the most prolific of contemporary naval writers. The 16-volume series is ribald and picaresquely comic. Captain Adam Lewire is a philandering, disobedient cad, but a lovable and successful one. And he sails with two cats, Toulon and Chalky. His wife keeps taking him back, so I guess we should too. The first in the series is The King’s Coat.
Thomas Kydd series by Julian Stockwin: Most stylistically similar to O’Brian. The captain, Tom Kydd, is an engaging, sympathetic hero who has risen from the ranks of common seaman to his current captaincy. Like O’Brian’s hero, Lucky Jack Aubrey, Kydd, too has a “particular” friend, Renzi, who is sometimes called upon by the English government to engage in espionage. The first in the 10-volume series is Kydd.
The author also has an entertaining, multi-media website at www.julianstockwin.com with lots of dusty corners to poke around in.
William Rennie series, by Peter Smalley: An intriguing new series by an Australian writer. Rennie is a complicated and brooding man, prone to fits of inexplicable anger. Unlike some of the other series, the Rennie books revel in the grittier side of Naploeonic-era Royal Navy life. The first in the series is HMS Expedient.
And of course, there are the traditional favorites, CS Forester’s Hornblower, Dudley Pope’s Ramage and Alexander Kent’s Bolitho series, all of which can be found in the CRSN catalog.
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