The Evening Gun (War of 1812 Trilogy, Volume 3) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is a disappointment not because it is poorly written but because it does not show the same improvement that the second showed over the first. In fact, I think it is at about the same level of the first, A PRESS OF CANVAS. What suffered in that one and this is not the actual writing, it is the story telling. It seems to wander along without much excitement and without getting much done. That is disappointing in that the second volume of the trilogy, A FINE TOPS'L BREEZE, did do a better job of story telling.
Even so, there is material of interest to be had here. Nautical fiction, especially of a naval bent, takes an American point of view all too rarely. Material concerning the War of 1812 is even more scarce. This book covers both of those issues from the point of view of Isaac Biggs, an American sailor pressed into the Royal Navy. He makes his escape in the first book, serves as a privateer on a rescue mission in the second and acts as the captain of a gunboat in a flotilla of such operating in the Chesapeake Bay during the closing days of the war in this one.
The descriptions of small boat operations has some interest as does the inclusion of such events as the burning of Washington and the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. The interest, however, does not translate into any drama.
This is a fair book for aficionados of the genre but is nothing special.


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A Fine Tops'l Breeze (War of 1812 Trilogy, Volume 2) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The first volume of White's War of 1812 trilogy was well written and interesting but did not tell much of a story. This second volume addresses that deficiency. It does tell a decent story and does so in an enjoyable fashion.
Like the first, this book tells two parallel stories that only come together right at the end. On the one hand, the story of Isaac Biggs continues as he sails as third mate on an American Privateer. The second thread concerns his buddies from his days as a sailor pressed into the Royal Navy. They are now sailing on an American frigate. That frigate is the Chesapeake, the one captured by the HMS Shannon. They are taken as POWs to Halifax where they rot in prison. The story comes together as the privateers attempt to release the captives, and act the US Navy can't or won't attempt.
As was the first, this is a refreshing view of fighting sail given from the point of view of Americans rather than the British. It is well done and I hope the writing continues to improve.


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Continuing the adventures of the newest character in American sea fiction, Isaac Biggs of Marble head, Massachusetts, this second volume of the trilogy finds Isaac as Third Mate on the Salem privateer General Washington in February 1813. At the same time, his friends from the British frigate Orpheus and the Baltimore schooner Glory find berths on the American warship USS Constellation and, eventually, they wind up on the USS Chesapeake in Boston just in time for her disastrous meeting with HMS Shannon. Throughout the spring of 1813, Isaac and the General Washington roam the waters between Massachusetts and Nova Scotia, taking prizes and harassing the British. When the American survivors of the Chesapeake/Shannon battle are confined in Melville Island Prison in Halifax, the General Washington and Isaac play an important role in securing their freedom.

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