The Little Ships (Alexis Carew #3)

I read books 1-6 in quick succession so this is a combined review of them all.

The author creates a believable universe in which FTL travel occurs in a manner that, through necessity, replicates the feel of the age of sail of the early 19th century. While this might seem contrived at first glance, this reality is so interwoven into the characters and the universe that you quickly just accept it as (fictional) fact and enjoy the story. The technology levels of developed worlds hits all of the expected high notes; it is really just the FTL travel that morphs into a different era.

The tale of Alexis Carew mirrors that of Horatio Hornblower to a great extent. Born into a star-spanning nation modeled politically and culturally on the British Empire of the early 19th century, Alexis joins the Navy as a midshipman and faces a series of trials and adventures that certainly pay homage to, and remind the reader of Hornblower’s travails. Carew’s tale includes more of her home life than Hornblowers, which adds to and deepens her journey, rather than distracting from it.

As one would expect, her gender is an area of conflict on multiple occasions, but is not overdone or used as a blunt instrument.

The books are PG-13, with occasional detailed violence, some allusions to sexual activity, and some language, though most of that uses 19th century terms. If you are proficient in German or French, the language does get more explicit. Overall, though, the reader is protected by a veneer of class that keeps the story from being overly gritty and is in keeping with a series that, at its core, starts with the journey of a 15 year old girl.

Overall, I highly recommend the series. At its core, it is a YA/NA series with a strong female lead, strong character growth and a plot that includes not only adventure, but intrigue and romance as well.

I was somewhat split on my opinion of the first book in this series, primarily due to its somewhat strange science. I was hesitant to read the second book due to the book blurb which seemed to focus on some woman hating (censored by Amazon). I liked the second book a lot more than I thought I would though and I liked this one quite a lot!

Alexis is now a Lieutenant which I quite like since she now has some actual power to kick (censored by Amazon) and she is quite good at that. I guess this is one of those books that you either like or do not like. If you are into hard core science fiction then my guess is that you wont like this book. If you can look past the science and just look at the adventure part, well then it is a great book.

This is really an old sailing ship era story, including pirates and all that kind of stuff, transformed into a space going era. It is quite well written. The characters are wonderful and it is a nice adventure filled with various kinds of action both in space and on the ground. Unfortunately the core of the story is a somewhat sad one where Alexis is taking part in a pretty botched up attempt to invade a planet, currently, belonging to the bad guys of this book series. As far as the core of the story goes I would say that it plays on a few British stereotypes. The bad guys are the Germans, The French cannot be bothered to pull their weight, apart from some especially heroic characters, and the British are the good guys (mostly). Well, it is a nice change from all the books where certain parties originating from the Middle East are the baddies at least.

The book is filled with anachronisms. Sailing ships in space, old fashioned habits, battling with broadsides from manually loaded and fired guns, gun ports, flogging as a punishment, etc. etc. It takes a bit of getting used even though there this book provides some explanation as to thy things are as they are to but now once I have gotten used to it I do like it. I did read a few of my fathers old sailing adventure books as a kid and this is really a mixture of those and the sci-fi stories that I like.

I have to say that I am a wee bit miffed about the ending though. Come on, Alexis pretty much saved the day including a heck of a lot of lives. The way she is treated at the end gives me very mixed feelings. I guess that the outcome was not too bad but it still stinks way to much of bureaucratic nonsense and pencil pushing. I especially grew a disliking for this psycho analyst or whatever that was evaluating Alexis after the main events. But then maybe that is the reaction that the author wanted.

Well, at least she got a command and I am definitely very keen on knowing where the story goes from there. I am quite sure that the backwater command, being away from the front lines, is not going to be what her superiors think. At least I hope it wont be. Looking forward to the next instalment in the series

Another chapter in the Alexis Carew series. I was eagerly waiting for this third book to be released, and I wasn’t disappointed. I was a bit surprised to see that “Dunkirk in Space” would be used as part of the plot, but it worked out well. I’m interested in how the author treats the PTSD issue that our Lt Carew is starting to suffer from. So, now I have to settle down for the long wait for the sequel.

As for the fact that these stories are similar to Age of Sail novels, it works. David Drake’s Lt Leary series is also using similar space sailing tech and low tech crews. The thing is to roll with and enjoy the story.

Reading the first two novels in this excellent series is a must to understand many of the references to past events. After two novels where the enemy is known and obvious, Alexis is plunged into the murky worlds of politics and espionage. Rather than distinguish herself in a single engagement, Alexis has the chance to alter the course of the whole war. Along the way we meet the hopeless and inept Midshipman Artley (who comes good in the end) the smuggler Dansby, and his motley and disreputable crew, and meet Lt Delaine and Commodore Belestrau from book 2 again and – a less welcome face from the recent past. This novel is a fine read, it has pace and action and humour is hard to put down.

Honor Harrington meets Hornblower! Sailing through Dark Matter of space, there are plenty of canons roaring, with enough skulduggery, deception, hope, heroism humour and pathos to keep this action adventure moving forward at a good pace. The world building and characterisation are second to none. Bear with the older english language and you’ll soon get into the swing of it. Or I’ll know the reason why! Enjoy!

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