At the Edge of Honor
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- USD 15.99
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- USD 15.99
Descripción editorial
Robert Macomber's Honor series of naval fiction follows the life and career of Peter Wake in the U.S. Navy during the tumultuous years from 1863 to 1901. At the Edge of Honor is the first in the series and winner of the Patrick D. Smith Literary Award for Best Historical Novel of Florida.
The year is 1863. The Civil War is leaving its bloody trail across the nation as Peter Wake, born and bred in the snowy North, joins the U.S. Navy as a volunteer officer and arrives in steamy Florida for duty with the East Gulf Blockading Squadron. The idealistic Peter Wake has handled boats before, but he's new to the politics and illicit liaisons that war creates among men. Assigned to the Rosalie, a tiny, armed sloop, Captain Wake commands a group of seasoned seamen on a series of voyages to seek and arrest Confederate blockade-runners and sympathizers, from Florida's coastal waters through to near the remote out-islands of the Bahamas.
Wake risks his reputation when he falls in love with Linda Donahue, whose father is a Confederate zealot, and steals away to spend precious hours with her at her Key West home. Their love is tested as Wake learns he must make the ugly decisions of war even in a beautiful, tropical paradise—decisions that take him up to the edge of honor.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Macomber's maiden voyage is the first of seven projected installments tracing a seaman's career during the American Civil War. Assigned to his first command position in 1863, Officer Peter Wake takes charge of a Union navy sloop charged with patrolling the gulf waters and disrupting Confederate trade routes. Sailing from port to port and out to sea and back, often without engaging the enemy, Wake learns quickly how isolating life aboard ship can be. His confrontations with his rebellious crew are nearly as grueling as skirmishes with rebel forces, and an outbreak of malaria ravages Key West, where his ship is based. Wake's romance with Key West resident and reb sympathizer Linda adds an extra dimension to the tale, but the ups and downs of their relationship can't make up for the dearth of galvanizing action at sea. Despite the promise of more volumes to come, too many plot lines are left dangling: Wake's aggressive bos'n is baited as a possible traitor but drowns before anything can be proved, and the investigation of a high-seas conspiracy is deferred. The raw nature of gun-wielding seamen remains largely unexplored here, and the nitty-gritty details of seamanship and navigation are less than vividly portrayed, but Macomber does skillfully describes tactical strategizing while providing the history of Florida's Civil War sea battles.
