the fog of literature, 15 Sep 2008
A very vague presentation of a naval story. Which character is talking to which character? No explanation of navy slang or jargon. A "fanny of war fog" perhaps.

the fog of literature, 15 Sep 2008
A very vague presentation of a naval story. Which character is talking to which character? No explanation of navy slang or jargon. A "fanny of war fog" perhaps.

as it must have been, 12 May 2000
I would suggest this book to any one, it made me feel that at times i was standing on the bridge of HMS Gladiator.

the fog of literature, 15 Sep 2008
A very vague presentation of a naval story. Which character is talking to which character? No explanation of navy slang or jargon. A "fanny of war fog" perhaps.

as it must have been, 12 May 2000
I would suggest this book to any one, it made me feel that at times i was standing on the bridge of HMS Gladiator.

Oh dear, 06 Dec 2007
I have been a fan of his previous books and also his books under the name of Alexander Kent. This book appears to be a series of notes. I failed completely to pick up any story line and very much doubt I will get to the end of it. It is a shame such a great writer appears to be losing it.

Enjoyable but not accurate, 16 Sep 2007
I am a fan of many years standing of both the Reeman and Kent books and am very aware that the author must now be 'getting on in years'. Another reviewer says that this book is disjointed and jumps backwards and forwards too much. To some extent I must agree with this assessment but I did find the book very enjoyable on the second reading. I am not sure if two readings should be necessary but I find that the author is using a more abbreviated style than usual in this book. My feelings about this book are that the author has written it based on previous knowledge and research but has not researched the specialist areas of this book at all well or at all. A major section is based in Derry (Londonderry) for example but the city is not in the least recognisable to someone who is familiar with it.

Knife Edge, rather blunt, 01 May 2006
This book is a great disappointment, too "bitty" to follow with the usual ease and enjoyment of a Douglas Reeman tale, it almost seems to be a copy of the author's early notes of ideas for another book!


Knife Edge. Douglas Reeman, 09 Mar 2006
Having read and enjoyed many of the books by Douglas Reeman, this book has been very disappointing. There has been little flow to the narrative and the action is very disjointed. Too much use of flashback,too much having need to backtrack for clarity. Characters not developed as in other books. Too much chopping and changing prevented enjoyable reading.

Rare poor offering, 06 Mar 2006
Douglas Reeman has given us some great tales over the years and he has certainly evolved and changed as a writer, his early works are very different to his later ones.
So I hope I have established that I am a fan and in that context I was very disappointed with this one. This is the latest in the author’s theme of the Blackwood family, a ‘Marine’ family involved in most conflicts since the Marines were first formed. This one has Ross Blackwood as the lead and we see him from the 1970’s through to the Falkland’s conflict.
My problem was that the narrative was dis-jointed and on many occasions I had to re-read things to understand them. Things that Reeman normally handles well do not work in this one and on more then one occasion just as the action hots up, the story jumps to the aftermath. Many threads of plot are presented and then sadly not followed up, an example being the lead character and his relationship with the sergeant who is also a relative.

I hope the author gets back on track with his next one.

the fog of literature, 15 Sep 2008
A very vague presentation of a naval story. Which character is talking to which character? No explanation of navy slang or jargon. A "fanny of war fog" perhaps.

as it must have been, 12 May 2000
I would suggest this book to any one, it made me feel that at times i was standing on the bridge of HMS Gladiator.

Oh dear, 06 Dec 2007
I have been a fan of his previous books and also his books under the name of Alexander Kent. This book appears to be a series of notes. I failed completely to pick up any story line and very much doubt I will get to the end of it. It is a shame such a great writer appears to be losing it.

Enjoyable but not accurate, 16 Sep 2007
I am a fan of many years standing of both the Reeman and Kent books and am very aware that the author must now be 'getting on in years'. Another reviewer says that this book is disjointed and jumps backwards and forwards too much. To some extent I must agree with this assessment but I did find the book very enjoyable on the second reading. I am not sure if two readings should be necessary but I find that the author is using a more abbreviated style than usual in this book. My feelings about this book are that the author has written it based on previous knowledge and research but has not researched the specialist areas of this book at all well or at all. A major section is based in Derry (Londonderry) for example but the city is not in the least recognisable to someone who is familiar with it.

Knife Edge, rather blunt, 01 May 2006
This book is a great disappointment, too "bitty" to follow with the usual ease and enjoyment of a Douglas Reeman tale, it almost seems to be a copy of the author's early notes of ideas for another book!


Knife Edge. Douglas Reeman, 09 Mar 2006
Having read and enjoyed many of the books by Douglas Reeman, this book has been very disappointing. There has been little flow to the narrative and the action is very disjointed. Too much use of flashback,too much having need to backtrack for clarity. Characters not developed as in other books. Too much chopping and changing prevented enjoyable reading.

Rare poor offering, 06 Mar 2006
Douglas Reeman has given us some great tales over the years and he has certainly evolved and changed as a writer, his early works are very different to his later ones.
So I hope I have established that I am a fan and in that context I was very disappointed with this one. This is the latest in the author’s theme of the Blackwood family, a ‘Marine’ family involved in most conflicts since the Marines were first formed. This one has Ross Blackwood as the lead and we see him from the 1970’s through to the Falkland’s conflict.
My problem was that the narrative was dis-jointed and on many occasions I had to re-read things to understand them. Things that Reeman normally handles well do not work in this one and on more then one occasion just as the action hots up, the story jumps to the aftermath. Many threads of plot are presented and then sadly not followed up, an example being the lead character and his relationship with the sergeant who is also a relative.

I hope the author gets back on track with his next one.

Excellent, 26 May 2008
The First to Land is in my opinion one of the best novels dealing with small scale combat in one of Britain's 'little wars'. The characters are well developed, the story is interesting, the romance is just right and the battles are exciting and believable. The story follows on well from the equally excellent Badge of Glory. I just wish it was a longer tale.

Royal Marines Saga 2, 13 Apr 2008
This is the second book in the Royal Marines Saga/Blackwood novels. I found this a good read and an excellent follow on from book 1 in the series (Badge of Glory). The Blackwood family theme continues but with a fresh complement of characters,events and historical backdrop.

A ripping yarn, 19 Oct 2007
An action-packed tale that is, as far as I can tell, historically accurate in most respects. Not the author's best book, but very good.

A classic Reeman book, 30 Mar 1999
An action packed book, describing a fight against the odds. Inclusion of heroics and an impossible romance add to a great reading experience.

the fog of literature, 15 Sep 2008
A very vague presentation of a naval story. Which character is talking to which character? No explanation of navy slang or jargon. A "fanny of war fog" perhaps.

as it must have been, 12 May 2000
I would suggest this book to any one, it made me feel that at times i was standing on the bridge of HMS Gladiator.

Oh dear, 06 Dec 2007
I have been a fan of his previous books and also his books under the name of Alexander Kent. This book appears to be a series of notes. I failed completely to pick up any story line and very much doubt I will get to the end of it. It is a shame such a great writer appears to be losing it.

Enjoyable but not accurate, 16 Sep 2007
I am a fan of many years standing of both the Reeman and Kent books and am very aware that the author must now be 'getting on in years'. Another reviewer says that this book is disjointed and jumps backwards and forwards too much. To some extent I must agree with this assessment but I did find the book very enjoyable on the second reading. I am not sure if two readings should be necessary but I find that the author is using a more abbreviated style than usual in this book. My feelings about this book are that the author has written it based on previous knowledge and research but has not researched the specialist areas of this book at all well or at all. A major section is based in Derry (Londonderry) for example but the city is not in the least recognisable to someone who is familiar with it.

Knife Edge, rather blunt, 01 May 2006
This book is a great disappointment, too "bitty" to follow with the usual ease and enjoyment of a Douglas Reeman tale, it almost seems to be a copy of the author's early notes of ideas for another book!


Knife Edge. Douglas Reeman, 09 Mar 2006
Having read and enjoyed many of the books by Douglas Reeman, this book has been very disappointing. There has been little flow to the narrative and the action is very disjointed. Too much use of flashback,too much having need to backtrack for clarity. Characters not developed as in other books. Too much chopping and changing prevented enjoyable reading.

Rare poor offering, 06 Mar 2006
Douglas Reeman has given us some great tales over the years and he has certainly evolved and changed as a writer, his early works are very different to his later ones.
So I hope I have established that I am a fan and in that context I was very disappointed with this one. This is the latest in the author’s theme of the Blackwood family, a ‘Marine’ family involved in most conflicts since the Marines were first formed. This one has Ross Blackwood as the lead and we see him from the 1970’s through to the Falkland’s conflict.
My problem was that the narrative was dis-jointed and on many occasions I had to re-read things to understand them. Things that Reeman normally handles well do not work in this one and on more then one occasion just as the action hots up, the story jumps to the aftermath. Many threads of plot are presented and then sadly not followed up, an example being the lead character and his relationship with the sergeant who is also a relative.

I hope the author gets back on track with his next one.

Excellent, 26 May 2008
The First to Land is in my opinion one of the best novels dealing with small scale combat in one of Britain's 'little wars'. The characters are well developed, the story is interesting, the romance is just right and the battles are exciting and believable. The story follows on well from the equally excellent Badge of Glory. I just wish it was a longer tale.

Royal Marines Saga 2, 13 Apr 2008
This is the second book in the Royal Marines Saga/Blackwood novels. I found this a good read and an excellent follow on from book 1 in the series (Badge of Glory). The Blackwood family theme continues but with a fresh complement of characters,events and historical backdrop.

A ripping yarn, 19 Oct 2007
An action-packed tale that is, as far as I can tell, historically accurate in most respects. Not the author's best book, but very good.

A classic Reeman book, 30 Mar 1999
An action packed book, describing a fight against the odds. Inclusion of heroics and an impossible romance add to a great reading experience.

A truly great book, 27 Dec 2000
This follows the same pattern as a lot of his previous WW2 books, still proving that this formula works, and works well. This book is longer than his average, although this makes it all the more interesting. A worthy read.

War on sea and land in the meditaranian during 1943., 28 Sep 2000
Douglas Reeman works his magic again. This time following the wartime career of Mike Blackwood, the latest in a long line of Royal Marines. Newly gazzeted Captain Mike Blackwood, Royal Marine Commando, is being sent on a number of special missions in the meditaranian sea. This book doesn't have quite as much action as the other books I have read in this set. The book loses none of its shine though, as a very deep love interest more than makes up for the loss. The love interest is very well incorporated into the tale,as Reeman links everything together with his usual seemlessness, to make this instalment of the Blackwood family saga pull you in deeper than Badge of glory or The fist to land(the only others I have read as yet). Its references to the forefathers of the Blackwood family from the other books is a welcome touch especialy if you have read some of them already. I have only given this book three stars as I am a lover of action and this book has a tiny bit less than the others I have read, but I still wouldn't have missed it! Enjoy.

the fog of literature, 15 Sep 2008
A very vague presentation of a naval story. Which character is talking to which character? No explanation of navy slang or jargon. A "fanny of war fog" perhaps.

as it must have been, 12 May 2000
I would suggest this book to any one, it made me feel that at times i was standing on the bridge of HMS Gladiator.

Oh dear, 06 Dec 2007
I have been a fan of his previous books and also his books under the name of Alexander Kent. This book appears to be a series of notes. I failed completely to pick up any story line and very much doubt I will get to the end of it. It is a shame such a great writer appears to be losing it.

Enjoyable but not accurate, 16 Sep 2007
I am a fan of many years standing of both the Reeman and Kent books and am very aware that the author must now be 'getting on in years'. Another reviewer says that this book is disjointed and jumps backwards and forwards too much. To some extent I must agree with this assessment but I did find the book very enjoyable on the second reading. I am not sure if two readings should be necessary but I find that the author is using a more abbreviated style than usual in this book. My feelings about this book are that the author has written it based on previous knowledge and research but has not researched the specialist areas of this book at all well or at all. A major section is based in Derry (Londonderry) for example but the city is not in the least recognisable to someone who is familiar with it.

Knife Edge, rather blunt, 01 May 2006
This book is a great disappointment, too "bitty" to follow with the usual ease and enjoyment of a Douglas Reeman tale, it almost seems to be a copy of the author's early notes of ideas for another book!


Knife Edge. Douglas Reeman, 09 Mar 2006
Having read and enjoyed many of the books by Douglas Reeman, this book has been very disappointing. There has been little flow to the narrative and the action is very disjointed. Too much use of flashback,too much having need to backtrack for clarity. Characters not developed as in other books. Too much chopping and changing prevented enjoyable reading.

Rare poor offering, 06 Mar 2006
Douglas Reeman has given us some great tales over the years and he has certainly evolved and changed as a writer, his early works are very different to his later ones.
So I hope I have established that I am a fan and in that context I was very disappointed with this one. This is the latest in the author’s theme of the Blackwood family, a ‘Marine’ family involved in most conflicts since the Marines were first formed. This one has Ross Blackwood as the lead and we see him from the 1970’s through to the Falkland’s conflict.
My problem was that the narrative was dis-jointed and on many occasions I had to re-read things to understand them. Things that Reeman normally handles well do not work in this one and on more then one occasion just as the action hots up, the story jumps to the aftermath. Many threads of plot are presented and then sadly not followed up, an example being the lead character and his relationship with the sergeant who is also a relative.

I hope the author gets back on track with his next one.

Excellent, 26 May 2008
The First to Land is in my opinion one of the best novels dealing with small scale combat in one of Britain's 'little wars'. The characters are well developed, the story is interesting, the romance is just right and the battles are exciting and believable. The story follows on well from the equally excellent Badge of Glory. I just wish it was a longer tale.

Royal Marines Saga 2, 13 Apr 2008
This is the second book in the Royal Marines Saga/Blackwood novels. I found this a good read and an excellent follow on from book 1 in the series (Badge of Glory). The Blackwood family theme continues but with a fresh complement of characters,events and historical backdrop.

A ripping yarn, 19 Oct 2007
An action-packed tale that is, as far as I can tell, historically accurate in most respects. Not the author's best book, but very good.

A classic Reeman book, 30 Mar 1999
An action packed book, describing a fight against the odds. Inclusion of heroics and an impossible romance add to a great reading experience.

A truly great book, 27 Dec 2000
This follows the same pattern as a lot of his previous WW2 books, still proving that this formula works, and works well. This book is longer than his average, although this makes it all the more interesting. A worthy read.

War on sea and land in the meditaranian during 1943., 28 Sep 2000
Douglas Reeman works his magic again. This time following the wartime career of Mike Blackwood, the latest in a long line of Royal Marines. Newly gazzeted Captain Mike Blackwood, Royal Marine Commando, is being sent on a number of special missions in the meditaranian sea. This book doesn't have quite as much action as the other books I have read in this set. The book loses none of its shine though, as a very deep love interest more than makes up for the loss. The love interest is very well incorporated into the tale,as Reeman links everything together with his usual seemlessness, to make this instalment of the Blackwood family saga pull you in deeper than Badge of glory or The fist to land(the only others I have read as yet). Its references to the forefathers of the Blackwood family from the other books is a welcome touch especialy if you have read some of them already. I have only given this book three stars as I am a lover of action and this book has a tiny bit less than the others I have read, but I still wouldn't have missed it! Enjoy.

Solid WW1 actioner, 11 Aug 2008
Here the prolific author turns his focus to his Blackwood saga and the Gallipoli aspect of the Dardanelles Campaign followed by action at Flanders. The Blackwood saga (which covers a number of generations of the Royal Marines) allows a slight diversion from navel warfare to a bit of land based action. In The Horizon the horror and incompetence of the Gallipoli campaign is well described although the bravery and loss of the ANZACs could have been more detailed. It was a time of poor leadership and ill considered strategy and this comes over well and Reeman avoids the usual obvious bad guy characters. Blackwood, for much of this, feels more like an observer then a participant although he is shown as being a good and thoughtful officer but then we see him trying to cope with loss and the family reputation and it gets more interesting.
This is very easy reading, it ticks all the boxes of action and history and sits very well with the other books the author has turned out, although it is interesting how his style changes as the years of writing have gone by. This is not a novel that will stay with you for long but will still give you an entertaining couple of hours.

the fog of literature, 15 Sep 2008
A very vague presentation of a naval story. Which character is talking to which character? No explanation of navy slang or jargon. A "fanny of war fog" perhaps.

as it must have been, 12 May 2000
I would suggest this book to any one, it made me feel that at times i was standing on the bridge of HMS Gladiator.

Oh dear, 06 Dec 2007
I have been a fan of his previous books and also his books under the name of Alexander Kent. This book appears to be a series of notes. I failed completely to pick up any story line and very much doubt I will get to the end of it. It is a shame such a great writer appears to be losing it.

Enjoyable but not accurate, 16 Sep 2007
I am a fan of many years standing of both the Reeman and Kent books and am very aware that the author must now be 'getting on in years'. Another reviewer says that this book is disjointed and jumps backwards and forwards too much. To some extent I must agree with this assessment but I did find the book very enjoyable on the second reading. I am not sure if two readings should be necessary but I find that the author is using a more abbreviated style than usual in this book. My feelings about this book are that the author has written it based on previous knowledge and research but has not researched the specialist areas of this book at all well or at all. A major section is based in Derry (Londonderry) for example but the city is not in the least recognisable to someone who is familiar with it.

Knife Edge, rather blunt, 01 May 2006
This book is a great disappointment, too "bitty" to follow with the usual ease and enjoyment of a Douglas Reeman tale, it almost seems to be a copy of the author's early notes of ideas for another book!


Knife Edge. Douglas Reeman, 09 Mar 2006
Having read and enjoyed many of the books by Douglas Reeman, this book has been very disappointing. There has been little flow to the narrative and the action is very disjointed. Too much use of flashback,too much having need to backtrack for clarity. Characters not developed as in other books. Too much chopping and changing prevented enjoyable reading.

Rare poor offering, 06 Mar 2006
Douglas Reeman has given us some great tales over the years and he has certainly evolved and changed as a writer, his early works are very different to his later ones.
So I hope I have established that I am a fan and in that context I was very disappointed with this one. This is the latest in the author’s theme of the Blackwood family, a ‘Marine’ family involved in most conflicts since the Marines were first formed. This one has Ross Blackwood as the lead and we see him from the 1970’s through to the Falkland’s conflict.
My problem was that the narrative was dis-jointed and on many occasions I had to re-read things to understand them. Things that Reeman normally handles well do not work in this one and on more then one occasion just as the action hots up, the story jumps to the aftermath. Many threads of plot are presented and then sadly not followed up, an example being the lead character and his relationship with the sergeant who is also a relative.

I hope the author gets back on track with his next one.

Excellent, 26 May 2008
The First to Land is in my opinion one of the best novels dealing with small scale combat in one of Britain's 'little wars'. The characters are well developed, the story is interesting, the romance is just right and the battles are exciting and believable. The story follows on well from the equally excellent Badge of Glory. I just wish it was a longer tale.

Royal Marines Saga 2, 13 Apr 2008
This is the second book in the Royal Marines Saga/Blackwood novels. I found this a good read and an excellent follow on from book 1 in the series (Badge of Glory). The Blackwood family theme continues but with a fresh complement of characters,events and historical backdrop.

A ripping yarn, 19 Oct 2007
An action-packed tale that is, as far as I can tell, historically accurate in most respects. Not the author's best book, but very good.

A classic Reeman book, 30 Mar 1999
An action packed book, describing a fight against the odds. Inclusion of heroics and an impossible romance add to a great reading experience.

A truly great book, 27 Dec 2000
This follows the same pattern as a lot of his previous WW2 books, still proving that this formula works, and works well. This book is longer than his average, although this makes it all the more interesting. A worthy read.

War on sea and land in the meditaranian during 1943., 28 Sep 2000
Douglas Reeman works his magic again. This time following the wartime career of Mike Blackwood, the latest in a long line of Royal Marines. Newly gazzeted Captain Mike Blackwood, Royal Marine Commando, is being sent on a number of special missions in the meditaranian sea. This book doesn't have quite as much action as the other books I have read in this set. The book loses none of its shine though, as a very deep love interest more than makes up for the loss. The love interest is very well incorporated into the tale,as Reeman links everything together with his usual seemlessness, to make this instalment of the Blackwood family saga pull you in deeper than Badge of glory or The fist to land(the only others I have read as yet). Its references to the forefathers of the Blackwood family from the other books is a welcome touch especialy if you have read some of them already. I have only given this book three stars as I am a lover of action and this book has a tiny bit less than the others I have read, but I still wouldn't have missed it! Enjoy.

Solid WW1 actioner, 11 Aug 2008
Here the prolific author turns his focus to his Blackwood saga and the Gallipoli aspect of the Dardanelles Campaign followed by action at Flanders. The Blackwood saga (which covers a number of generations of the Royal Marines) allows a slight diversion from navel warfare to a bit of land based action. In The Horizon the horror and incompetence of the Gallipoli campaign is well described although the bravery and loss of the ANZACs could have been more detailed. It was a time of poor leadership and ill considered strategy and this comes over well and Reeman avoids the usual obvious bad guy characters. Blackwood, for much of this, feels more like an observer then a participant although he is shown as being a good and thoughtful officer but then we see him trying to cope with loss and the family reputation and it gets more interesting.
This is very easy reading, it ticks all the boxes of action and history and sits very well with the other books the author has turned out, although it is interesting how his style changes as the years of writing have gone by. This is not a novel that will stay with you for long but will still give you an entertaining couple of hours.



A non stop action story based on land and sea in the 1850's., 25 Sep 2000
The first of an ongoing saga about a family within a family. The name Blackwood has a reputation to be proud of in the Royal Marine Corps. Young Phillip Blackwood has a lot to live up to as he heads for the rugged coast of Africa to put an end to what has come to be known as the Afric trade. Slaves. Douglas Reeman has a unique style of writing, which allows him to take you from one battle to another and still keep a very intricate story line which will take you in a vice like grip from start to finish. At times it is unclear on things, but I think it is intentional as these facts always get clarified later in the book. This only makes the story more compelling, as Douglas Reeman (Alexander Kent) uses his amazing talent to draw you into anything from a smoke filled battle field, to an ongoing feud with a superior officer which dates back to when their Fathers served together. If you are like me, and you have just finished reading another set of books (sharpe, Hornblower, etc.) and don't want to go through the rigmarole of reading one book and then waiting weeks until you find another one then this is definately the way to go. You can't help but become addicted to Reemans style of writing. After the Blackwood saga there are dozens of books along the same lines that I am looking forward to reading including his famous Bolitho family saga which he wrote under his sudonym Alexander Kent. Read this book and you will end up reading all of them.

the fog of literature, 15 Sep 2008
A very vague presentation of a naval story. Which character is talking to which character? No explanation of navy slang or jargon. A "fanny of war fog" perhaps.

as it must have been, 12 May 2000
I would suggest this book to any one, it made me feel that at times i was standing on the bridge of HMS Gladiator.

Oh dear, 06 Dec 2007
I have been a fan of his previous books and also his books under the name of Alexander Kent. This book appears to be a series of notes. I failed completely to pick up any story line and very much doubt I will get to the end of it. It is a shame such a great writer appears to be losing it.

Enjoyable but not accurate, 16 Sep 2007
I am a fan of many years standing of both the Reeman and Kent books and am very aware that the author must now be 'getting on in years'. Another reviewer says that this book is disjointed and jumps backwards and forwards too much. To some extent I must agree with this assessment but I did find the book very enjoyable on the second reading. I am not sure if two readings should be necessary but I find that the author is using a more abbreviated style than usual in this book. My feelings about this book are that the author has written it based on previous knowledge and research but has not researched the specialist areas of this book at all well or at all. A major section is based in Derry (Londonderry) for example but the city is not in the least recognisable to someone who is familiar with it.

Knife Edge, rather blunt, 01 May 2006
This book is a great disappointment, too "bitty" to follow with the usual ease and enjoyment of a Douglas Reeman tale, it almost seems to be a copy of the author's early notes of ideas for another book!


Knife Edge. Douglas Reeman, 09 Mar 2006
Having read and enjoyed many of the books by Douglas Reeman, this book has been very disappointing. There has been little flow to the narrative and the action is very disjointed. Too much use of flashback,too much having need to backtrack for clarity. Characters not developed as in other books. Too much chopping and changing prevented enjoyable reading.

Rare poor offering, 06 Mar 2006
Douglas Reeman has given us some great tales over the years and he has certainly evolved and changed as a writer, his early works are very different to his later ones.
So I hope I have established that I am a fan and in that context I was very disappointed with this one. This is the latest in the author’s theme of the Blackwood family, a ‘Marine’ family involved in most conflicts since the Marines were first formed. This one has Ross Blackwood as the lead and we see him from the 1970’s through to the Falkland’s conflict.
My problem was that the narrative was dis-jointed and on many occasions I had to re-read things to understand them. Things that Reeman normally handles well do not work in this one and on more then one occasion just as the action hots up, the story jumps to the aftermath. Many threads of plot are presented and then sadly not followed up, an example being the lead character and his relationship with the sergeant who is also a relative.

I hope the author gets back on track with his next one.

Excellent, 26 May 2008
The First to Land is in my opinion one of the best novels dealing with small scale combat in one of Britain's 'little wars'. The characters are well developed, the story is interesting, the romance is just right and the battles are exciting and believable. The story follows on well from the equally excellent Badge of Glory. I just wish it was a longer tale.

Royal Marines Saga 2, 13 Apr 2008
This is the second book in the Royal Marines Saga/Blackwood novels. I found this a good read and an excellent follow on from book 1 in the series (Badge of Glory). The Blackwood family theme continues but with a fresh complement of characters,events and historical backdrop.

A ripping yarn, 19 Oct 2007
An action-packed tale that is, as far as I can tell, historically accurate in most respects. Not the author's best book, but very good.

A classic Reeman book, 30 Mar 1999
An action packed book, describing a fight against the odds. Inclusion of heroics and an impossible romance add to a great reading experience.

A truly great book, 27 Dec 2000
This follows the same pattern as a lot of his previous WW2 books, still proving that this formula works, and works well. This book is longer than his average, although this makes it all the more interesting. A worthy read.

War on sea and land in the meditaranian during 1943., 28 Sep 2000
Douglas Reeman works his magic again. This time following the wartime career of Mike Blackwood, the latest in a long line of Royal Marines. Newly gazzeted Captain Mike Blackwood, Royal Marine Commando, is being sent on a number of special missions in the meditaranian sea. This book doesn't have quite as much action as the other books I have read in this set. The book loses none of its shine though, as a very deep love interest more than makes up for the loss. The love interest is very well incorporated into the tale,as Reeman links everything together with his usual seemlessness, to make this instalment of the Blackwood family saga pull you in deeper than Badge of glory or The fist to land(the only others I have read as yet). Its references to the forefathers of the Blackwood family from the other books is a welcome touch especialy if you have read some of them already. I have only given this book three stars as I am a lover of action and this book has a tiny bit less than the others I have read, but I still wouldn't have missed it! Enjoy.

Solid WW1 actioner, 11 Aug 2008
Here the prolific author turns his focus to his Blackwood saga and the Gallipoli aspect of the Dardanelles Campaign followed by action at Flanders. The Blackwood saga (which covers a number of generations of the Royal Marines) allows a slight diversion from navel warfare to a bit of land based action. In The Horizon the horror and incompetence of the Gallipoli campaign is well described although the bravery and loss of the ANZACs could have been more detailed. It was a time of poor leadership and ill considered strategy and this comes over well and Reeman avoids the usual obvious bad guy characters. Blackwood, for much of this, feels more like an observer then a participant although he is shown as being a good and thoughtful officer but then we see him trying to cope with loss and the family reputation and it gets more interesting.
This is very easy reading, it ticks all the boxes of action and history and sits very well with the other books the author has turned out, although it is interesting how his style changes as the years of writing have gone by. This is not a novel that will stay with you for long but will still give you an entertaining couple of hours.



A non stop action story based on land and sea in the 1850's., 25 Sep 2000
The first of an ongoing saga about a family within a family. The name Blackwood has a reputation to be proud of in the Royal Marine Corps. Young Phillip Blackwood has a lot to live up to as he heads for the rugged coast of Africa to put an end to what has come to be known as the Afric trade. Slaves. Douglas Reeman has a unique style of writing, which allows him to take you from one battle to another and still keep a very intricate story line which will take you in a vice like grip from start to finish. At times it is unclear on things, but I think it is intentional as these facts always get clarified later in the book. This only makes the story more compelling, as Douglas Reeman (Alexander Kent) uses his amazing talent to draw you into anything from a smoke filled battle field, to an ongoing feud with a superior officer which dates back to when their Fathers served together. If you are like me, and you have just finished reading another set of books (sharpe, Hornblower, etc.) and don't want to go through the rigmarole of reading one book and then waiting weeks until you find another one then this is definately the way to go. You can't help but become addicted to Reemans style of writing. After the Blackwood saga there are dozens of books along the same lines that I am looking forward to reading including his famous Bolitho family saga which he wrote under his sudonym Alexander Kent. Read this book and you will end up reading all of them.

Story of a fictional sister ship to Renown and Repulse, 23 Nov 2007
The story begins three years into World War II, as the new captain of the fictional battlecruiser HMS Reliant, a sister to Renown and Repulse, attends the funeral of his predecessor before going to Scotland to take command.

Douglas Reeman, who served in the Royal Navy during world war II, has become a very prolific author of seafaring novels. This is his 55th published nautical adventure: he has written 32 under his own name and 23 novels in the "Bolitho" series under the pen-name Alexander Kent.

It would be slightly cruel to say that this is his 55th variant of the same book, but only slightly. The books he wrote as Douglas Reeman are mostly tales of war at sea in the 20th century, covering almost every type of ship and every theatre of war in which the Royal Navy saw action. The Bolitho novels span the Nelsonian era from the American War of Independence to the end of the Napoleonic wars, and detail the naval careers first of a fictional naval officer, Richard Bolitho, from Midshipman to Admiral of the Fleet and then of his nephew Adam.

But although these books, just like the historic service history of the Royal Navy, cover a huge range of ship types and just about every part of the world, they all have almost identical plots and essentially the same cast of characters under different names.

There is the bog-standard primary hero, who is almost invariably the commanding officer of a ship or occasionally a squadron, and most often a captain RN, except that in the chronologically first few Richard Bolitho novels the hero has not yet reached the rank to command a ship and in the later ones he is an admiral. In "Battlecruiser" this character is the new commanding officer of HMS Reliant, Captain Guy Sherbrooke. As usual he is a competent, brave, and considerate officer who has been promoted steadily but not as fast as some of his flashier colleagues, and who is wrestling with inner demons, in this case from the loss of his previous ship with almost all hands.

There is the hero's superior, an aggressive, glory-hunting, ruthless, interfering, and totally unprincipled flag officer, who in this book is called Admiral Vincent Stagg. As in many of the Douglas Reeman and Alexander Kent books this character is the darling of the press and the Admiralty, aggressive to the point of lunacy, and nearly as dangerous to the men under his command as he is to the Germans/French.

There is always at least one secondary hero, a younger officer or seaman under the command of the book's central figure, and the secondary plot is usually a kind of bildungsroman for that character. In "Battlecruser" the secondary hero is the pilot of HMS Reliant's auxiliary flying boats, a young Canadian reserve (RCNVR) officer called Dick Rayner.

There is the obligatory love interest for the primary hero, and as often applies, another for the secondary hero. In this book, Guy Sherbrooke meets a beautiful civil servant when she is assigned to assist some press and a retired naval hero visiting HMS Reliant. Unusually this relationship has to be a chaste one, as her husband is a prisoner of war held by the Japanese and she isn't going to cheat on him. So instead Dick Rayner gets to enjoy the statutory love scene which always appears about two-thirds of the way through a Douglas Reeman book, usually shortly before our heroes set sail for the climactic final battle.

The plot development is just as formulaic as the characters.

Where Reeman scores, however, is in his descriptions of life at sea and of the tensions leading up to battle. He also makes some pithy and accurate observations on the problem with the entire class of Battlecruisers. These ultra-glamorous, and beautiful ships, once nicknamed the "great cats," were powerful, fast and deadly - both to the enemy and to their own crews.

Battlecruisers were a product of the same brilliant but unhinged mind which was also responsible for the concept of the dreadnaught battleship, Admiral Jacky Fisher, but where the dreadnaught was to dominate the seas for nearly half a century, the battlecruiser was a romantic disaster.

Conceived as super-heavy scouts and cruiser-killers, battlecruisers were the size of a battleship, had the armament of a battleship, and the speed of a destroyer.

HMS Reliant in this book, like her real historical sisters Renown and Repulse, has a main armament of six "fifteen inch" guns, each firing shells six foot long and 15 inches in diameter which weighed a ton and a half. If you could stay afloat yourself long enough to do so, that gave you enough firepower to smash any structure ever built or sink any ship, but the catch was that staying afloat for long in a battlecruiser if you were up against a battleship, or even another battlecruiser, was not easy.

To get their tremendous speed, battlecruisers sacrificed protection and armour - usually they were not much better protected than a heavy cruiser half the size.

So when battlecruisers came up against any enemy warship smaller than a capital ship, their speed and firepower enabled them to hunt it down and blow it out of the water very quickly. But sooner or later, most battlecruisers had to fight battleships, or came under heavy air attack, and then their lack of adequate armour protection was nearly always fatal.

Summary: this novel was written by a man who knows what it was like to go to sea in fighting ships of the second world war, and it shows. He is also a highly competent writer, and the book flows easily and is entertaining to read. Some of the negative reviews of this book are over the top. Provided you don't mind his re-use of plots and characters, there is no reason why you should not enjoy this book or any of Reeman's other novels.

Where he suffers is by comparison with the truly great writers of 20th century naval fiction. As another reviewer has pointed out, Reeman knows far better than Alistair Maclean what life on a WWII warship was like, but Maclean is a brilliant writer while Reeman is only a good one, and so "HMS Ulysses" is in a different league to anything Reeman has written.

He suffers even more by comparison with Nicholas Montsarrat and C.S. Forester, who were brilliant writers who also knew firsthand what it was like to serve on a warship in World War II. Hence "Battlecruiser" is to Montsarrat's "The Cruel Sea" or Forester's "The Ship" and "The Good Shepherd" what the typical Mills & Boon romance is to Jane Austen.

But having said all that, Reeman would never have managed to sell so many books if he was writing rubbish. This is a competently written story of WWII at sea and if you like that kind of novel you will very probably enjoy it.

Another boring Reeman, 30 Apr 2007
And yet another boring repetition of the same old story. Different names, different vessels, yes but exactly the same story. Hero - strong silent type wrestling with unexplained hangups usually to do with a woman. Villain - confident, ambitious, bombastic, senior officer who knows hero's hidden secrets. Worthy, forelock tugging working class cabin steward who understands!!!!.

Good way to make money because we get suckered into paying for them as we continually hope, those of us who like this period of naval history, for something new, something different.

Don't buy this book, you've already read it under a different name
by the same author.


Authentic WWII naval yarn with a human side, 06 Nov 2002
This is a fast-paced, entertaining story of the war at sea, and one of the few to be set on board a capital ship. Gunnery duels with a German heavy cruiser and an Italian battleship are both shown to be less one-sided than they might seem: a single 8-inch shell could pierce the battlecruiser's flimsy armour, while the battleship's greater strength may be outweighed by superior gunnery. As always in war, nothing is certain except that death or injury are only an eyelash away.

The book is by no means one-sided. The action sequences take up only a fraction of the time, leaving plenty of room for character development and even one or two romantic subplots. There is nothing two-dimensional about even the least of Reeman's people.

However there does seem to be a rather breathless quality about the book, as if it had been written in too much of a hurry. Although its technical accuracy is greater than that of a novel like Alastair Maclean's famous "HMS Ulysses", it falls far short in terms of the steadily mounting tension that made that book impossible to put down. Especially towards the end, some of the scenes are almost perfunctory.

The author's grasp of detail and atmosphere is flawless, which is not surprising as he joined the Royal Navy in 1941 and served in the North Sea, the Atlantic and the Arctic. This is Reeman's 32nd book, not counting another 23 written as Richard Kent.

Flawed "documentary fiction" of naval warfare, 16 Nov 1999
Douglas Reeman's books often have the same structure and the plots are disappointingly similar. That said, "Battlecruiser" is an evocative, moving account of a fictional sister ship to Repulse and Renown. The author attempts to subvert the chronology of the tale and to give the ship a mind of its own, neither of which gambits are particularly successful. The characterisations are solid and the overall storyline is engrossing, but the ending is predictable and foreshortened for some unaccountable reason. One feels that the subject matter warranted a bigger book, in all senses of the word.

Exciting and authentic, but could have been even better, 14 Sep 1999
Reeman's personal experience comes through in every line, and renders this book inimitable. Its account of the WW2 experiences of a fictional sistership of Renown and Repulse is convincing and grippingly readable. The characterisation and personal themes - even the romantic interest - are competently wrought.

Unfortunately, I got the unmistakeable impression that for some reason Reeman had rushed the ending. Perhaps this is unfair - the book is very readable as it stands - but the plot would have stood another 100 pages.

the fog of literature, 15 Sep 2008
A very vague presentation of a naval story. Which character is talking to which character? No explanation of navy slang or jargon. A "fanny of war fog" perhaps.

as it must have been, 12 May 2000
I would suggest this book to any one, it made me feel that at times i was standing on the bridge of HMS Gladiator.

Oh dear, 06 Dec 2007
I have been a fan of his previous books and also his books under the name of Alexander Kent. This book appears to be a series of notes. I failed completely to pick up any story line and very much doubt I will get to the end of it. It is a shame such a great writer appears to be losing it.

Enjoyable but not accurate, 16 Sep 2007
I am a fan of many years standing of both the Reeman and Kent books and am very aware that the author must now be 'getting on in years'. Another reviewer says that this book is disjointed and jumps backwards and forwards too much. To some extent I must agree with this assessment but I did find the book very enjoyable on the second reading. I am not sure if two readings should be necessary but I find that the author is using a more abbreviated style than usual in this book. My feelings about this book are that the author has written it based on previous knowledge and research but has not researched the specialist areas of this book at all well or at all. A major section is based in Derry (Londonderry) for example but the city is not in the least recognisable to someone who is familiar with it.

Knife Edge, rather blunt, 01 May 2006
This book is a great disappointment, too "bitty" to follow with the usual ease and enjoyment of a Douglas Reeman tale, it almost seems to be a copy of the author's early notes of ideas for another book!


Knife Edge. Douglas Reeman, 09 Mar 2006
Having read and enjoyed many of the books by Douglas Reeman, this book has been very disappointing. There has been little flow to the narrative and the action is very disjointed. Too much use of flashback,too much having need to backtrack for clarity. Characters not developed as in other books. Too much chopping and changing prevented enjoyable reading.

Rare poor offering, 06 Mar 2006
Douglas Reeman has given us some great tales over the years and he has certainly evolved and changed as a writer, his early works are very different to his later ones.
So I hope I have established that I am a fan and in that context I was very disappointed with this one. This is the latest in the author’s theme of the Blackwood family, a ‘Marine’ family involved in most conflicts since the Marines were first formed. This one has Ross Blackwood as the lead and we see him from the 1970’s through to the Falkland’s conflict.
My problem was that the narrative was dis-jointed and on many occasions I had to re-read things to understand them. Things that Reeman normally handles well do not work in this one and on more then one occasion just as the action hots up, the story jumps to the aftermath. Many threads of plot are presented and then sadly not followed up, an example being the lead character and his relationship with the sergeant who is also a relative.

I hope the author gets back on track with his next one.

Excellent, 26 May 2008
The First to Land is in my opinion one of the best novels dealing with small scale combat in one of Britain's 'little wars'. The characters are well developed, the story is interesting, the romance is just right and the battles are exciting and believable. The story follows on well from the equally excellent Badge of Glory. I just wish it was a longer tale.

Royal Marines Saga 2, 13 Apr 2008
This is the second book in the Royal Marines Saga/Blackwood novels. I found this a good read and an excellent follow on from book 1 in the series (Badge of Glory). The Blackwood family theme continues but with a fresh complement of characters,events and historical backdrop.

A ripping yarn, 19 Oct 2007
An action-packed tale that is, as far as I can tell, historically accurate in most respects. Not the author's best book, but very good.

A classic Reeman book, 30 Mar 1999
An action packed book, describing a fight against the odds. Inclusion of heroics and an impossible romance add to a great reading experience.

A truly great book, 27 Dec 2000
This follows the same pattern as a lot of his previous WW2 books, still proving that this formula works, and works well. This book is longer than his average, although this makes it all the more interesting. A worthy read.

War on sea and land in the meditaranian during 1943., 28 Sep 2000
Douglas Reeman works his magic again. This time following the wartime career of Mike Blackwood, the latest in a long line of Royal Marines. Newly gazzeted Captain Mike Blackwood, Royal Marine Commando, is being sent on a number of special missions in the meditaranian sea. This book doesn't have quite as much action as the other books I have read in this set. The book loses none of its shine though, as a very deep love interest more than makes up for the loss. The love interest is very well incorporated into the tale,as Reeman links everything together with his usual seemlessness, to make this instalment of the Blackwood family saga pull you in deeper than Badge of glory or The fist to land(the only others I have read as yet). Its references to the forefathers of the Blackwood family from the other books is a welcome touch especialy if you have read some of them already. I have only given this book three stars as I am a lover of action and this book has a tiny bit less than the others I have read, but I still wouldn't have missed it! Enjoy.

Solid WW1 actioner, 11 Aug 2008
Here the prolific author turns his focus to his Blackwood saga and the Gallipoli aspect of the Dardanelles Campaign followed by action at Flanders. The Blackwood saga (which covers a number of generations of the Royal Marines) allows a slight diversion from navel warfare to a bit of land based action. In The Horizon the horror and incompetence of the Gallipoli campaign is well described although the bravery and loss of the ANZACs could have been more detailed. It was a time of poor leadership and ill considered strategy and this comes over well and Reeman avoids the usual obvious bad guy characters. Blackwood, for much of this, feels more like an observer then a participant although he is shown as being a good and thoughtful officer but then we see him trying to cope with loss and the family reputation and it gets more interesting.
This is very easy reading, it ticks all the boxes of action and history and sits very well with the other books the author has turned out, although it is interesting how his style changes as the years of writing have gone by. This is not a novel that will stay with you for long but will still give you an entertaining couple of hours.



A non stop action story based on land and sea in the 1850's., 25 Sep 2000
The first of an ongoing saga about a family within a family. The name Blackwood has a reputation to be proud of in the Royal Marine Corps. Young Phillip Blackwood has a lot to live up to as he heads for the rugged coast of Africa to put an end to what has come to be known as the Afric trade. Slaves. Douglas Reeman has a unique style of writing, which allows him to take you from one battle to another and still keep a very intricate story line which will take you in a vice like grip from start to finish. At times it is unclear on things, but I think it is intentional as these facts always get clarified later in the book. This only makes the story more compelling, as Douglas Reeman (Alexander Kent) uses his amazing talent to draw you into anything from a smoke filled battle field, to an ongoing feud with a superior officer which dates back to when their Fathers served together. If you are like me, and you have just finished reading another set of books (sharpe, Hornblower, etc.) and don't want to go through the rigmarole of reading one book and then waiting weeks until you find another one then this is definately the way to go. You can't help but become addicted to Reemans style of writing. After the Blackwood saga there are dozens of books along the same lines that I am looking forward to reading including his famous Bolitho family saga which he wrote under his sudonym Alexander Kent. Read this book and you will end up reading all of them.

Story of a fictional sister ship to Renown and Repulse, 23 Nov 2007
The story begins three years into World War II, as the new captain of the fictional battlecruiser HMS Reliant, a sister to Renown and Repulse, attends the funeral of his predecessor before going to Scotland to take command.

Douglas Reeman, who served in the Royal Navy during world war II, has become a very prolific author of seafaring novels. This is his 55th published nautical adventure: he has written 32 under his own name and 23 novels in the "Bolitho" series under the pen-name Alexander Kent.

It would be slightly cruel to say that this is his 55th variant of the same book, but only slightly. The books he wrote as Douglas Reeman are mostly tales of war at sea in the 20th century, covering almost every type of ship and every theatre of war in which the Royal Navy saw action. The Bolitho novels span the Nelsonian era from the American War of Independence to the end of the Napoleonic wars, and detail the naval careers first of a fictional naval officer, Richard Bolitho, from Midshipman to Admiral of the Fleet and then of his nephew Adam.

But although these books, just like the historic service history of the Royal Navy, cover a huge range of ship types and just about every part of the world, they all have almost identical plots and essentially the same cast of characters under different names.

There is the bog-standard primary hero, who is almost invariably the commanding officer of a ship or occasionally a squadron, and most often a captain RN, except that in the chronologically first few Richard Bolitho novels the hero has not yet reached the rank to command a ship and in the later ones he is an admiral. In "Battlecruiser" this character is the new commanding officer of HMS Reliant, Captain Guy Sherbrooke. As usual he is a competent, brave, and considerate officer who has been promoted steadily but not as fast as some of his flashier colleagues, and who is wrestling with inner demons, in this case from the loss of his previous ship with almost all hands.

There is the hero's superior, an aggressive, glory-hunting, ruthless, interfering, and totally unprincipled flag officer, who in this book is called Admiral Vincent Stagg. As in many of the Douglas Reeman and Alexander Kent books this character is the darling of the press and the Admiralty, aggressive to the point of lunacy, and nearly as dangerous to the men under his command as he is to the Germans/French.

There is always at least one secondary hero, a younger officer or seaman under the command of the book's central figure, and the secondary plot is usually a kind of bildungsroman for that character. In "Battlecruser" the secondary hero is the pilot of HMS Reliant's auxiliary flying boats, a young Canadian reserve (RCNVR) officer called Dick Rayner.

There is the obligatory love interest for the primary hero, and as often applies, another for the secondary hero. In this book, Guy Sherbrooke meets a beautiful civil servant when she is assigned to assist some press and a retired naval hero visiting HMS Reliant. Unusually this relationship has to be a chaste one, as her husband is a prisoner of war held by the Japanese and she isn't going to cheat on him. So instead Dick Rayner gets to enjoy the statutory love scene which always appears about two-thirds of the way through a Douglas Reeman book, usually shortly before our heroes set sail for the climactic final battle.

The plot development is just as formulaic as the characters.

Where Reeman scores, however, is in his descriptions of life at sea and of the tensions leading up to battle. He also makes some pithy and accurate observations on the problem with the entire class of Battlecruisers. These ultra-glamorous, and beautiful ships, once nicknamed the "great cats," were powerful, fast and deadly - both to the enemy and to their own crews.

Battlecruisers were a product of the same brilliant but unhinged mind which was also responsible for the concept of the dreadnaught battleship, Admiral Jacky Fisher, but where the dreadnaught was to dominate the seas for nearly half a century, the battlecruiser was a romantic disaster.

Conceived as super-heavy scouts and cruiser-killers, battlecruisers were the size of a battleship, had the armament of a battleship, and the speed of a destroyer.

HMS Reliant in this book, like her real historical sisters Renown and Repulse, has a main armament of six "fifteen inch" guns, each firing shells six foot long and 15 inches in diameter which weighed a ton and a half. If you could stay afloat yourself long enough to do so, that gave you enough firepower to smash any structure ever built or sink any ship, but the catch was that staying afloat for long in a battlecruiser if you were up against a battleship, or even another battlecruiser, was not easy.

To get their tremendous speed, battlecruisers sacrificed protection and armour - usually they were not much better protected than a heavy cruiser half the size.

So when battlecruisers came up against any enemy warship smaller than a capital ship, their speed and firepower enabled them to hunt it down and blow it out of the water very quickly. But sooner or later, most battlecruisers had to fight battleships, or came under heavy air attack, and then their lack of adequate armour protection was nearly always fatal.

Summary: this novel was written by a man who knows what it was like to go to sea in fighting ships of the second world war, and it shows. He is also a highly competent writer, and the book flows easily and is entertaining to read. Some of the negative reviews of this book are over the top. Provided you don't mind his re-use of plots and characters, there is no reason why you should not enjoy this book or any of Reeman's other novels.

Where he suffers is by comparison with the truly great writers of 20th century naval fiction. As another reviewer has pointed out, Reeman knows far better than Alistair Maclean what life on a WWII warship was like, but Maclean is a brilliant writer while Reeman is only a good one, and so "HMS Ulysses" is in a different league to anything Reeman has written.

He suffers even more by comparison with Nicholas Montsarrat and C.S. Forester, who were brilliant writers who also knew firsthand what it was like to serve on a warship in World War II. Hence "Battlecruiser" is to Montsarrat's "The Cruel Sea" or Forester's "The Ship" and "The Good Shepherd" what the typical Mills & Boon romance is to Jane Austen.

But having said all that, Reeman would never have managed to sell so many books if he was writing rubbish. This is a competently written story of WWII at sea and if you like that kind of novel you will very probably enjoy it.

Another boring Reeman, 30 Apr 2007
And yet another boring repetition of the same old story. Different names, different vessels, yes but exactly the same story. Hero - strong silent type wrestling with unexplained hangups usually to do with a woman. Villain - confident, ambitious, bombastic, senior officer who knows hero's hidden secrets. Worthy, forelock tugging working class cabin steward who understands!!!!.

Good way to make money because we get suckered into paying for them as we continually hope, those of us who like this period of naval history, for something new, something different.

Don't buy this book, you've already read it under a different name
by the same author.


Authentic WWII naval yarn with a human side, 06 Nov 2002
This is a fast-paced, entertaining story of the war at sea, and one of the few to be set on board a capital ship. Gunnery duels with a German heavy cruiser and an Italian battleship are both shown to be less one-sided than they might seem: a single 8-inch shell could pierce the battlecruiser's flimsy armour, while the battleship's greater strength may be outweighed by superior gunnery. As always in war, nothing is certain except that death or injury are only an eyelash away.

The book is by no means one-sided. The action sequences take up only a fraction of the time, leaving plenty of room for character development and even one or two romantic subplots. There is nothing two-dimensional about even the least of Reeman's people.

However there does seem to be a rather breathless quality about the book, as if it had been written in too much of a hurry. Although its technical accuracy is greater than that of a novel like Alastair Maclean's famous "HMS Ulysses", it falls far short in terms of the steadily mounting tension that made that book impossible to put down. Especially towards the end, some of the scenes are almost perfunctory.

The author's grasp of detail and atmosphere is flawless, which is not surprising as he joined the Royal Navy in 1941 and served in the North Sea, the Atlantic and the Arctic. This is Reeman's 32nd book, not counting another 23 written as Richard Kent.

Flawed "documentary fiction" of naval warfare, 16 Nov 1999
Douglas Reeman's books often have the same structure and the plots are disappointingly similar. That said, "Battlecruiser" is an evocative, moving account of a fictional sister ship to Repulse and Renown. The author attempts to subvert the chronology of the tale and to give the ship a mind of its own, neither of which gambits are particularly successful. The characterisations are solid and the overall storyline is engrossing, but the ending is predictable and foreshortened for some unaccountable reason. One feels that the subject matter warranted a bigger book, in all senses of the word.

Exciting and authentic, but could have been even better, 14 Sep 1999
Reeman's personal experience comes through in every line, and renders this book inimitable. Its account of the WW2 experiences of a fictional sistership of Renown and Repulse is convincing and grippingly readable. The characterisation and personal themes - even the romantic interest - are competently wrought.

Unfortunately, I got the unmistakeable impression that for some reason Reeman had rushed the ending. Perhaps this is unfair - the book is very readable as it stands - but the plot would have stood another 100 pages.

Sure-footed story-telling, 02 May 2006
Reeman is on his best form with this one, linking his personal experiences in patrol boats with some fictionalised historical events in Hamburg and the Baltic. A very good portrayal of the situation in Germany in the immediate aftermath of WWII, and the varied activities of the British members of the occupying forces. A good narrative, good action scenes, and a believable hero. I would put this among the top 4 or 5 of Reeman's novels (in his own name).

the fog of literature, 15 Sep 2008
A very vague presentation of a naval story. Which character is talking to which character? No explanation of navy slang or jargon. A "fanny of war fog" perhaps.

as it must have been, 12 May 2000
I would suggest this book to any one, it made me feel that at times i was standing on the bridge of HMS Gladiator.

Oh dear, 06 Dec 2007
I have been a fan of his previous books and also his books under the name of Alexander Kent. This book appears to be a series of notes. I failed completely to pick up any story line and very much doubt I will get to the end of it. It is a shame such a great writer appears to be losing it.

Enjoyable but not accurate, 16 Sep 2007
I am a fan of many years standing of both the Reeman and Kent books and am very aware that the author must now be 'getting on in years'. Another reviewer says that this book is disjointed and jumps backwards and forwards too much. To some extent I must agree with this assessment but I did find the book very enjoyable on the second reading. I am not sure if two readings should be necessary but I find that the author is using a more abbreviated style than usual in this book. My feelings about this book are that the author has written it based on previous knowledge and research but has not researched the specialist areas of this book at all well or at all. A major section is based in Derry (Londonderry) for example but the city is not in the least recognisable to someone who is familiar with it.

Knife Edge, rather blunt, 01 May 2006
This book is a great disappointment, too "bitty" to follow with the usual ease and enjoyment of a Douglas Reeman tale, it almost seems to be a copy of the author's early notes of ideas for another book!


Knife Edge. Douglas Reeman, 09 Mar 2006
Having read and enjoyed many of the books by Douglas Reeman, this book has been very disappointing. There has been little flow to the narrative and the action is very disjointed. Too much use of flashback,too much having need to backtrack for clarity. Characters not developed as in other books. Too much chopping and changing prevented enjoyable reading.

Rare poor offering, 06 Mar 2006
Douglas Reeman has given us some great tales over the years and he has certainly evolved and changed as a writer, his early works are very different to his later ones.
So I hope I have established that I am a fan and in that context I was very disappointed with this one. This is the latest in the author’s theme of the Blackwood family, a ‘Marine’ family involved in most conflicts since the Marines were first formed. This one has Ross Blackwood as the lead and we see him from the 1970’s through to the Falkland’s conflict.
My problem was that the narrative was dis-jointed and on many occasions I had to re-read things to understand them. Things that Reeman normally handles well do not work in this one and on more then one occasion just as the action hots up, the story jumps to the aftermath. Many threads of plot are presented and then sadly not followed up, an example being the lead character and his relationship with the sergeant who is also a relative.

I hope the author gets back on track with his next one.

Excellent, 26 May 2008
The First to Land is in my opinion one of the best novels dealing with small scale combat in one of Britain's 'little wars'. The characters are well developed, the story is interesting, the romance is just right and the battles are exciting and believable. The story follows on well from the equally excellent Badge of Glory. I just wish it was a longer tale.

Royal Marines Saga 2, 13 Apr 2008
This is the second book in the Royal Marines Saga/Blackwood novels. I found this a good read and an excellent follow on from book 1 in the series (Badge of Glory). The Blackwood family theme continues but with a fresh complement of characters,events and historical backdrop.

A ripping yarn, 19 Oct 2007
An action-packed tale that is, as far as I can tell, historically accurate in most respects. Not the author's best book, but very good.

A classic Reeman book, 30 Mar 1999
An action packed book, describing a fight against the odds. Inclusion of heroics and an impossible romance add to a great reading experience.

A truly great book, 27 Dec 2000
This follows the same pattern as a lot of his previous WW2 books, still proving that this formula works, and works well. This book is longer than his average, although this makes it all the more interesting. A worthy read.

War on sea and land in the meditaranian during 1943., 28 Sep 2000
Douglas Reeman works his magic again. This time following the wartime career of Mike Blackwood, the latest in a long line of Royal Marines. Newly gazzeted Captain Mike Blackwood, Royal Marine Commando, is being sent on a number of special missions in the meditaranian sea. This book doesn't have quite as much action as the other books I have read in this set. The book loses none of its shine though, as a very deep love interest more than makes up for the loss. The love interest is very well incorporated into the tale,as Reeman links everything together with his usual seemlessness, to make this instalment of the Blackwood family saga pull you in deeper than Badge of glory or The fist to land(the only others I have read as yet). Its references to the forefathers of the Blackwood family from the other books is a welcome touch especialy if you have read some of them already. I have only given this book three stars as I am a lover of action and this book has a tiny bit less than the others I have read, but I still wouldn't have missed it! Enjoy.

Solid WW1 actioner, 11 Aug 2008
Here the prolific author turns his focus to his Blackwood saga and the Gallipoli aspect of the Dardanelles Campaign followed by action at Flanders. The Blackwood saga (which covers a number of generations of the Royal Marines) allows a slight diversion from navel warfare to a bit of land based action. In The Horizon the horror and incompetence of the Gallipoli campaign is well described although the bravery and loss of the ANZACs could have been more detailed. It was a time of poor leadership and ill considered strategy and this comes over well and Reeman avoids the usual obvious bad guy characters. Blackwood, for much of this, feels more like an observer then a participant although he is shown as being a good and thoughtful officer but then we see him trying to cope with loss and the family reputation and it gets more interesting.
This is very easy reading, it ticks all the boxes of action and history and sits very well with the other books the author has turned out, although it is interesting how his style changes as the years of writing have gone by. This is not a novel that will stay with you for long but will still give you an entertaining couple of hours.



A non stop action story based on land and sea in the 1850's., 25 Sep 2000
The first of an ongoing saga about a family within a family. The name Blackwood has a reputation to be proud of in the Royal Marine Corps. Young Phillip Blackwood has a lot to live up to as he heads for the rugged coast of Africa to put an end to what has come to be known as the Afric trade. Slaves. Douglas Reeman has a unique style of writing, which allows him to take you from one battle to another and still keep a very intricate story line which will take you in a vice like grip from start to finish. At times it is unclear on things, but I think it is intentional as these facts always get clarified later in the book. This only makes the story more compelling, as Douglas Reeman (Alexander Kent) uses his amazing talent to draw you into anything from a smoke filled battle field, to an ongoing feud with a superior officer which dates back to when their Fathers served together. If you are like me, and you have just finished reading another set of books (sharpe, Hornblower, etc.) and don't want to go through the rigmarole of reading one book and then waiting weeks until you find another one then this is definately the way to go. You can't help but become addicted to Reemans style of writing. After the Blackwood saga there are dozens of books along the same lines that I am looking forward to reading including his famous Bolitho family saga which he wrote under his sudonym Alexander Kent. Read this book and you will end up reading all of them.

Story of a fictional sister ship to Renown and Repulse, 23 Nov 2007
The story begins three years into World War II, as the new captain of the fictional battlecruiser HMS Reliant, a sister to Renown and Repulse, attends the funeral of his predecessor before going to Scotland to take command.

Douglas Reeman, who served in the Royal Navy during world war II, has become a very prolific author of seafaring novels. This is his 55th published nautical adventure: he has written 32 under his own name and 23 novels in the "Bolitho" series under the pen-name Alexander Kent.

It would be slightly cruel to say that this is his 55th variant of the same book, but only slightly. The books he wrote as Douglas Reeman are mostly tales of war at sea in the 20th century, covering almost every type of ship and every theatre of war in which the Royal Navy saw action. The Bolitho novels span the Nelsonian era from the American War of Independence to the end of the Napoleonic wars, and detail the naval careers first of a fictional naval officer, Richard Bolitho, from Midshipman to Admiral of the Fleet and then of his nephew Adam.

But although these books, just like the historic service history of the Royal Navy, cover a huge range of ship types and just about every part of the world, they all have almost identical plots and essentially the same cast of characters under different names.

There is the bog-standard primary hero, who is almost invariably the commanding officer of a ship or occasionally a squadron, and most often a captain RN, except that in the chronologically first few Richard Bolitho novels the hero has not yet reached the rank to command a ship and in the later ones he is an admiral. In "Battlecruiser" this character is the new commanding officer of HMS Reliant, Captain Guy Sherbrooke. As usual he is a competent, brave, and considerate officer who has been promoted steadily but not as fast as some of his flashier colleagues, and who is wrestling with inner demons, in this case from the loss of his previous ship with almost all hands.

There is the hero's superior, an aggressive, glory-hunting, ruthless, interfering, and totally unprincipled flag officer, who in this book is called Admiral Vincent Stagg. As in many of the Douglas Reeman and Alexander Kent books this character is the darling of the press and the Admiralty, aggressive to the point of lunacy, and nearly as dangerous to the men under his command as he is to the Germans/French.

There is always at least one secondary hero, a younger officer or seaman under the command of the book's central figure, and the secondary plot is usually a kind of bildungsroman for that character. In "Battlecruser" the secondary hero is the pilot of HMS Reliant's auxiliary flying boats, a young Canadian reserve (RCNVR) officer called Dick Rayner.

There is the obligatory love interest for the primary hero, and as often applies, another for the secondary hero. In this book, Guy Sherbrooke meets a beautiful civil servant when she is assigned to assist some press and a retired naval hero visiting HMS Reliant. Unusually this relationship has to be a chaste one, as her husband is a prisoner of war held by the Japanese and she isn't going to cheat on him. So instead Dick Rayner gets to enjoy the statutory love scene which always appears about two-thirds of the way through a Douglas Reeman book, usually shortly before our heroes set sail for the climactic final battle.

The plot development is just as formulaic as the characters.

Where Reeman scores, however, is in his descriptions of life at sea and of the tensions leading up to battle. He also makes some pithy and accurate observations on the problem with the entire class of Battlecruisers. These ultra-glamorous, and beautiful ships, once nicknamed the "great cats," were powerful, fast and deadly - both to the enemy and to their own crews.

Battlecruisers were a product of the same brilliant but unhinged mind which was also responsible for the concept of the dreadnaught battleship, Admiral Jacky Fisher, but where the dreadnaught was to dominate the seas for nearly half a century, the battlecruiser was a romantic disaster.

Conceived as super-heavy scouts and cruiser-killers, battlecruisers were the size of a battleship, had the armament of a battleship, and the speed of a destroyer.

HMS Reliant in this book, like her real historical sisters Renown and Repulse, has a main armament of six "fifteen inch" guns, each firing shells six foot long and 15 inches in diameter which weighed a ton and a half. If you could stay afloat yourself long enough to do so, that gave you enough firepower to smash any structure ever built or sink any ship, but the catch was that staying afloat for long in a battlecruiser if you were up against a battleship, or even another battlecruiser, was not easy.

To get their tremendous speed, battlecruisers sacrificed protection and armour - usually they were not much better protected than a heavy cruiser half the size.

So when battlecruisers came up against any enemy warship smaller than a capital ship, their speed and firepower enabled them to hunt it down and blow it out of the water very quickly. But sooner or later, most battlecruisers had to fight battleships, or came under heavy air attack, and then their lack of adequate armour protection was nearly always fatal.

Summary: this novel was written by a man who knows what it was like to go to sea in fighting ships of the second world war, and it shows. He is also a highly competent writer, and the book flows easily and is entertaining to read. Some of the negative reviews of this book are over the top. Provided you don't mind his re-use of plots and characters, there is no reason why you should not enjoy this book or any of Reeman's other novels.

Where he suffers is by comparison with the truly great writers of 20th century naval fiction. As another reviewer has pointed out, Reeman knows far better than Alistair Maclean what life on a WWII warship was like, but Maclean is a brilliant writer while Reeman is only a good one, and so "HMS Ulysses" is in a different league to anything Reeman has written.

He suffers even more by comparison with Nicholas Montsarrat and C.S. Forester, who were brilliant writers who also knew firsthand what it was like to serve on a warship in World War II. Hence "Battlecruiser" is to Montsarrat's "The Cruel Sea" or Forester's "The Ship" and "The Good Shepherd" what the typical Mills & Boon romance is to Jane Austen.

But having said all that, Reeman would never have managed to sell so many books if he was writing rubbish. This is a competently written story of WWII at sea and if you like that kind of novel you will very probably enjoy it.

Another boring Reeman, 30 Apr 2007
And yet another boring repetition of the same old story. Different names, different vessels, yes but exactly the same story. Hero - strong silent type wrestling with unexplained hangups usually to do with a woman. Villain - confident, ambitious, bombastic, senior officer who knows hero's hidden secrets. Worthy, forelock tugging working class cabin steward who understands!!!!.

Good way to make money because we get suckered into paying for them as we continually hope, those of us who like this period of naval history, for something new, something different.

Don't buy this book, you've already read it under a different name
by the same author.


Authentic WWII naval yarn with a human side, 06 Nov 2002
This is a fast-paced, entertaining story of the war at sea, and one of the few to be set on board a capital ship. Gunnery duels with a German heavy cruiser and an Italian battleship are both shown to be less one-sided than they might seem: a single 8-inch shell could pierce the battlecruiser's flimsy armour, while the battleship's greater strength may be outweighed by superior gunnery. As always in war, nothing is certain except that death or injury are only an eyelash away.

The book is by no means one-sided. The action sequences take up only a fraction of the time, leaving plenty of room for character development and even one or two romantic subplots. There is nothing two-dimensional about even the least of Reeman's people.

However there does seem to be a rather breathless quality about the book, as if it had been written in too much of a hurry. Although its technical accuracy is greater than that of a novel like Alastair Maclean's famous "HMS Ulysses", it falls far short in terms of the steadily mounting tension that made that book impossible to put down. Especially towards the end, some of the scenes are almost perfunctory.

The author's grasp of detail and atmosphere is flawless, which is not surprising as he joined the Royal Navy in 1941 and served in the North Sea, the Atlantic and the Arctic. This is Reeman's 32nd book, not counting another 23 written as Richard Kent.

Flawed "documentary fiction" of naval warfare, 16 Nov 1999
Douglas Reeman's books often have the same structure and the plots are disappointingly similar. That said, "Battlecruiser" is an evocative, moving account of a fictional sister ship to Repulse and Renown. The author attempts to subvert the chronology of the tale and to give the ship a mind of its own, neither of which gambits are particularly successful. The characterisations are solid and the overall storyline is engrossing, but the ending is predictable and foreshortened for some unaccountable reason. One feels that the subject matter warranted a bigger book, in all senses of the word.

Exciting and authentic, but could have been even better, 14 Sep 1999
Reeman's personal experience comes through in every line, and renders this book inimitable. Its account of the WW2 experiences of a fictional sistership of Renown and Repulse is convincing and grippingly readable. The characterisation and personal themes - even the romantic interest - are competently wrought.

Unfortunately, I got the unmistakeable impression that for some reason Reeman had rushed the ending. Perhaps this is unfair - the book is very readable as it stands - but the plot would have stood another 100 pages.

Sure-footed story-telling, 02 May 2006
Reeman is on his best form with this one, linking his personal experiences in patrol boats with some fictionalised historical events in Hamburg and the Baltic. A very good portrayal of the situation in Germany in the immediate aftermath of WWII, and the varied activities of the British members of the occupying forces. A good narrative, good action scenes, and a believable hero. I would put this among the top 4 or 5 of Reeman's novels (in his own name).

Excellent Reeman, 19 Jan 2005
I really do like this book. I do believe it to be it one of Douglas Reeman finer moments. I can really feel the bleakness and desperation of the German people/military in this book. I do not think that anyone could highlight the awful futility of war, yet the necessity of duty any finer. A very fine read!!