It has been a year since I finished reading my last Stockwin, but it has been six months since I started this one. This time out Thomas Kydd is to go on a grand adventure and invade again in the name of King and Country. The Target, Buenos Aires, which tale has reached Cape Town that it is wide open for the taking. And Hope Popham intrigues with Kydd for the chance to do this.

Historically, the authors notes tell us more about Admiral Popham who was very interesting, and also of the attempt. The execution though of this particular tome, covering a distance perhaps greater than any of the other books in the series, with action spread over a length of time that has little to do with the action of ships of the line, left me bored.

Where Mr. Stockwin had not done that as yet, always keeping me interested, in this outing I could not get through the material, hoping until the last sixth, to just get through to the end of the chapter. I was not connected to the story, and I think it does have to do with the subject matter. The Conquest of South America whilst the Napoleonic War was occurring was not interesting. At least not from a Naval perspective. Perhaps if we had seen the tale directly through the eyes of the Army, rather than forcing Kydd to become attached to the Army, we might have experienced this better. More of a tale to be given us by Bernard Cornwell and Sharpe then by Julian Stockwin.

In all, we know that Stockwin and his hero Kydd is exceptional and for my money a better tale than O'Brian. In this outing we did not see the secondary Nicholas Renzi too often, as he has been more foolish than sensible the last few outings. This may not be a read again, even should the entire sequence be tackled, but it does continue to add to the entirety of Kydd's CV, and there are periods in everyone's life where they can not always be a success, or be heroes. This may be one of those times for Kydd. ( )

As a fan of British history and naval history I found this book to be an entertaining quick read. There was good character development and the battles were engaging. I might pick up some other books in the series at some point. ( )

This is a fun read especially if you enjoy this time period of pirates. I had not read any other books in this series so was afraid that I would be lost in reading this one but that was true. It is enough of a stand alone story that you can enjoy it even though you have not read the first ones, though after reading this book I want to get the others to read too.

This book has just enough history mixed with action to keep your interest. I will say this book is swashbuckling fun. I enjoyed reading it and would recommend it to others. ( )

Outstanding entry in an excellent series. Good story telling enriched by sufficient technical details to engage the Age of Fighting Sail aficionados without overwhelming the less inclined. Hero growing and learning from mental introspection and physical trial and error. Penetrative looks via interaction with actual persona into social and economic issues of the day. Context provided in afterword. ( )

Similar to Master and Commander, it seems like you really need an initial understanding of ships and the British Navy to have much of a clue of what's going on. Lacking that, I got vague ideas of battles being won but I'd be hard pressed to tell you how. This book would probably serve someone with some familiarity with the subject a lot better. ( )