Historical / modern fiction with a hint of time slip to it. I found both the historical and the modern threads of the story absorbing. The link between them is slightly tenuous, given that one is living the experience of the British navy, and the other is reading about it, but that actually works well. Some slightly contrived details, and some of those overly coincidental details that actually are the way that life works.

Lots of thematic parallels between the two sections, of young teens being somewhere they weren't expecting and having to adjust. Sam's (historical) story is the more physically challenging, Molly's (modern) much more emotionally challenging -- or at least that was the way that i read it. ( )

[I wrote this review in 2010]

**First-rate children's historical fiction**

It's heartening to see Susan Cooper return to prime form with this first-rate story of a boy's life aboard HMS Victory in Nelson's time. Her writing is excellent - fluent and engaging, with just the right amount of words to tell the story at a good pace. The historical elements are well-researched and she brings life aboard the ship vividly to life, skilfully linking present and past, making accessible to young readers a significant battle of modern naval history, The Battle of Trafalgar.

Told in two parts, we simultaneously have the story of Molly, a young girl in the present day uprooted to Connecticut from her friends, grandparents and everything she's ever known in London when her mum re-marries an American; and we have the story of Sam, a young boy about the same age unwillingly press-ganged into serving aboard the HMS Victory in about 1803, a couple of years before The Battle of Trafalgar. The lost and displaced Molly feels a connection to this boy Sam aboard the Victory, and sets her mind to finding out more about this famous ship.

Susan Cooper draws some well-thought-out characters to go alongside the likable Sam and Molly and writes with feeling and sensitivity about the themes of loss and loneliness, and re-adjustment for children. Highly recommended for ages 8+ - ***** 5 stars. ( )

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Moving back and forth from a child living now to a child living in 1800, you feel the connection, drawing and thirst for knowing. Cooper provides many details into the life on a ship, including the feeling, sights and sounds. The research spilled over the writing creating a scene that allows the reader to experience it.

My boys wished that I could skip the current day child's story, to stick to the adventure of another day, but they were rewarded by seeing the connection. ( )

This is the first Susan Cooper book that I have personally read. My children have read her Boggart series and King of Shadows. I acquired this book at a public library sale and am saddened to think that it was withdrawn from the library shelves. I was caught up in the somewhat mystery, time-shifting element of this story. I believe one of the great benefits of historical fiction is to entice us to want to learn more about a specific event or time period in history that seemed either boring or unimportant to us, because we had no personal connection to it. I found Victory did that for me. It gave me a personal connection to Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson and hopefully in the near future I will pull my Landmark book off the shelf and read more about the Battle of Trafalgar.

This book also deals with love and loss of family members, remarriage and sibling conflicts. I do not recall when I read the book, finding anything objectionable to how this was dealt with. I believe this book could be a conversation starter, if need be, for helping a young person through grief and loss.