In the great age of fighting sail, life ranging the seas for prey and prize money in the crack frigate HMS Artemis is fast and exciting.

Now a true Jack Tar, Kydd sails into Portsmouth Harbour and a hero's welcome after a ferocious battle against the French. However his jubilation is cut short when a family matter threatens to take him from the life he has grown to love; he must return to Guildford. But the sea beckons irresistibly and Kydd manages to ship out again in his beloved Artemis - a voyage that will take him to the fabled East and present him with fierce challenges, both personal and physical. Finally homeward bound, he faces death itself in the cruel waters of the Great Southern Ocean

A cracking story; a whirlwind of a Naval adventure which takes in a round the world voyage (or almost). The language is rich and the characters come across as very real. One of the best historical novels I have read for a long while. The rest of the Kydd novels beckon.

Entertaining like all the Kydd novels, but not in the same league as Aubrey/Maturin, Ramage, or even Hornblower. ( )

Julian Stockwin crams a lot of story in only three hundred plus pages of “Artemis” the second novel in his Kydd adventures. This time Mr. Stockwin takes his former pressed periwig maker now able seaman to new depths of adventure that straddles the globe in naval escapades of abandon. Readers of nautical tales will relish the worlds Kydd visits and Mr. Stockwin seamlessly recreates these escapades as if you were truly there on deck smelling the tar of the ropes and the salt of the sea. There are times when the seaman vernacular is a bit too thick, but after a few chapters the conversations tend the flow more easily. If you are looking for truly authentic seafaring action of how the common man fared on these ships-of-the-lines, Mr. Stockwin’s Kydd novels are your answer. ( )