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Richard Bolitho #8
Command a King's Ship
1784: His Majesty’s frigate Undine weighs anchor to begin a voyage to India with her new Captain, Richard Bolitho on a mission to safeguard trade and colonial development in little-known areas of the East Indies.
314 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
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About the author
Alexander Kent
228 books199 followersA pseudonym used by Douglas Reeman.
Series:
* Richard Bolitho
* Adam Bolitho
Series:
* Richard Bolitho
* Adam Bolitho
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
January 14, 2020
SINOPSIS
Spithead (Inglaterra), 1784. La fragata de Su Majestad "Undine" se hace a la mar rumbo a la India y otros territorios de ultramar (Mar de la China, entre Borneo y Ceilán). En Europa se ha firmado la paz, pero en las aguas de las colonias poco cuentan los pactos de los políticos, y aún se libran sangrientas batallas por el dominio de los mares.En el transcurso de la misin se pone de manifiesto cuán ciertas fueron las palabras del almirante Winslade a Bolitho: "La tarea que le encomiendo seria mas propia de un escuadrón, dirigido por un almirante."
De toda la saga es el que más consiguió tenerme en tensión hasta ahora, las batallas son de lo más trepidantes y España aparece con un papel secundario. También es en el que más se toca en un plano bastante importante lo relativo a la vida amorosa tan difícil estando años embarcados.
Spithead (Inglaterra), 1784. La fragata de Su Majestad "Undine" se hace a la mar rumbo a la India y otros territorios de ultramar (Mar de la China, entre Borneo y Ceilán). En Europa se ha firmado la paz, pero en las aguas de las colonias poco cuentan los pactos de los políticos, y aún se libran sangrientas batallas por el dominio de los mares.En el transcurso de la misin se pone de manifiesto cuán ciertas fueron las palabras del almirante Winslade a Bolitho: "La tarea que le encomiendo seria mas propia de un escuadrón, dirigido por un almirante."
De toda la saga es el que más consiguió tenerme en tensión hasta ahora, las batallas son de lo más trepidantes y España aparece con un papel secundario. También es en el que más se toca en un plano bastante importante lo relativo a la vida amorosa tan difícil estando años embarcados.
March 25, 2018
Another sea book by Alexander Kent (Douglas Reeman). It is 1784 and Richard Bolitho takes a British frigate to an outpost in Malaysia taking on both pirates and a French frigate. Making good decisions and being a great seaman he wins in the end.
A good quote to remember: "Your responsibility is to me, the ship. and the people you command. Not to your own personal considerations. When a man starts to believe there are no more tomorrows, he's as good as sewn up in a hammock between two round-shot. Think of the tomorrows, believe in them, and the men who believe in your skill, or lack of it, will see there own survival on your face."
A good quote to remember: "Your responsibility is to me, the ship. and the people you command. Not to your own personal considerations. When a man starts to believe there are no more tomorrows, he's as good as sewn up in a hammock between two round-shot. Think of the tomorrows, believe in them, and the men who believe in your skill, or lack of it, will see there own survival on your face."
June 13, 2023
A Great Adventure
The author writes so well that you can almost feel ferocity of the naval battles and the wind in your face.
The author writes so well that you can almost feel ferocity of the naval battles and the wind in your face.
May 28, 2014
Si bien la trama de esta novela tiene desarrollos interesantes y situaciones atractivas, me da la sensación de que los desenlaces son un poco repetitivos y la novela avanza apresuradamente, en ocasiones. Estoy empezando a pensar que las traducciones no son muy buenas, es una sensación solamente.
December 19, 2017
WHO typeset this thing?
Another solid Bolitho adventure RUINED by hyphenated words EVERYWHERE. While I enjoyed the story, hyphenated words all over the place makes me rate this three stars. POOR ATTENTION TO DETAIL on the part of whoever prepared this book for kindle!
Another solid Bolitho adventure RUINED by hyphenated words EVERYWHERE. While I enjoyed the story, hyphenated words all over the place makes me rate this three stars. POOR ATTENTION TO DETAIL on the part of whoever prepared this book for kindle!
April 13, 2020
Exhilarating!
September 27, 2021
Spoilers ahead: I've been reading this series chronologically. This is the 8th book I've read and it seems to be going downhill.
Summary: Richard Bolitho (RB) is given a new frigate (Undine) and a mission to take over a Spanish settlement in Teluk Pendang, Indonesia. With the end of the last conflict, there has been a swapping frenzy all over the world with the late belligerents all trading possessions to each other to tighten up their empires or streamline their trading routes. But first RB is to head to Madras, India to pick up the governor and an advisor.
This is when it starts to get awry. They leave with a Spanish frigate but it gets destroyed when chasing a mystery brig. Later on RB has to stop to replenish his water supply on the west coast of Africa. When getting water RB spots what he thinks is a slaver and decides to attack it. I start disliking books when they make no sense. Here is when it makes no sense. RB is under orders to go to Madras. Why is he risking his ship and his own life to do something outside of orders? I get that he is the most righteous c̶a̶p̶t̶a̶i̶n̶ man in the world but his orders should come first.
He gets to Madras and picks up the new governor who happens to be the old captain of the Gorgon and takes him to the settlement. Here he finds out that a French ship is helping a local pirate establish supremacy in the area and RB has to defeat his 44 gun frigate in order to stabilize the region so that the British plan to control the area isn't dead in the water.
What I dislike about the writing is that Kent has started to insert a lot of forced, gratuitous, repetitive, overdone and cringy melodrama and melodramatic dialog into the writing. As Hornblower once told Bush "We're King's officers, not actors!"
At the heart, this is a historical naval action series. Don't make it The Crown or some other kind of drama. But it's not even that, the drama and dialog is too heavy handed for it to be good. For it to be good it has to be subtle, done cleverly and what's done isn't clever. It's Allday (the coxswain) telling readers that he will protect Bolitho til his last breath because Bolitho is such a righteous man. And this is repeated by various underlings throughout the book. We get it!
It's also Bolitho making various ethical decisions and ethical pronouncements or thoughts for our benefit. Yes, we get it! Bolitho is the greatest best dude in the world! If this is a movie, this is when I get out to get some air. CS Forester does it much better, he does it in a way that we feel it, not get it hammered into our consciousness. It's like where Hornblower lets his steward escape by pointing out an American ship to him and asking if he can swim. That's elegant and simple. If it was Bolitho, we would have been subjected to 2 pages of his internal feelings that's supposed to make us feel that he is a conflicted hero.
Anyway, Kent should stick to what this series is and not try to make something more than it is. Not because we can't accept it but because he's not skillful enough to do a good job.
Summary: Richard Bolitho (RB) is given a new frigate (Undine) and a mission to take over a Spanish settlement in Teluk Pendang, Indonesia. With the end of the last conflict, there has been a swapping frenzy all over the world with the late belligerents all trading possessions to each other to tighten up their empires or streamline their trading routes. But first RB is to head to Madras, India to pick up the governor and an advisor.
This is when it starts to get awry. They leave with a Spanish frigate but it gets destroyed when chasing a mystery brig. Later on RB has to stop to replenish his water supply on the west coast of Africa. When getting water RB spots what he thinks is a slaver and decides to attack it. I start disliking books when they make no sense. Here is when it makes no sense. RB is under orders to go to Madras. Why is he risking his ship and his own life to do something outside of orders? I get that he is the most righteous c̶a̶p̶t̶a̶i̶n̶ man in the world but his orders should come first.
He gets to Madras and picks up the new governor who happens to be the old captain of the Gorgon and takes him to the settlement. Here he finds out that a French ship is helping a local pirate establish supremacy in the area and RB has to defeat his 44 gun frigate in order to stabilize the region so that the British plan to control the area isn't dead in the water.
What I dislike about the writing is that Kent has started to insert a lot of forced, gratuitous, repetitive, overdone and cringy melodrama and melodramatic dialog into the writing. As Hornblower once told Bush "We're King's officers, not actors!"
At the heart, this is a historical naval action series. Don't make it The Crown or some other kind of drama. But it's not even that, the drama and dialog is too heavy handed for it to be good. For it to be good it has to be subtle, done cleverly and what's done isn't clever. It's Allday (the coxswain) telling readers that he will protect Bolitho til his last breath because Bolitho is such a righteous man. And this is repeated by various underlings throughout the book. We get it!
It's also Bolitho making various ethical decisions and ethical pronouncements or thoughts for our benefit. Yes, we get it! Bolitho is the greatest best dude in the world! If this is a movie, this is when I get out to get some air. CS Forester does it much better, he does it in a way that we feel it, not get it hammered into our consciousness. It's like where Hornblower lets his steward escape by pointing out an American ship to him and asking if he can swim. That's elegant and simple. If it was Bolitho, we would have been subjected to 2 pages of his internal feelings that's supposed to make us feel that he is a conflicted hero.
Anyway, Kent should stick to what this series is and not try to make something more than it is. Not because we can't accept it but because he's not skillful enough to do a good job.
March 5, 2018
Action & Intrigue on the High Seas
The Richard Bolitho novels continue serving up large portions of naval action and intrigue on the high seas.In addition, we get a dose of history, appealing locations, and colorful characters.Here, in this installment, Richard Bolitho must navigate the difficult area of a naval officer’s duty and the politics of the British Foreign Office. A difficult task for any naval officer, our hero manages to accomplish his mission with skill and diplomacy.
The story moves at an active pace. The characters are all drawn with great detail and attention with only the women in the story a significant weakness. The skill in the command of a warship on a foreign sea, the description the author provides during naval engagements are all here in heart beating detail and leaves us, the eager reader, wanting more.
The Richard Bolitho novels continue serving up large portions of naval action and intrigue on the high seas.In addition, we get a dose of history, appealing locations, and colorful characters.Here, in this installment, Richard Bolitho must navigate the difficult area of a naval officer’s duty and the politics of the British Foreign Office. A difficult task for any naval officer, our hero manages to accomplish his mission with skill and diplomacy.
The story moves at an active pace. The characters are all drawn with great detail and attention with only the women in the story a significant weakness. The skill in the command of a warship on a foreign sea, the description the author provides during naval engagements are all here in heart beating detail and leaves us, the eager reader, wanting more.
December 29, 2019
While I enjoy all of Kent's books, I really enjoyed this one. It seemed to have extra drama with surprise ships, people who did not play by the rules and an unusual (for this series) romantic interest that added to the potential threats.
The action unfolded in the Indian Ocean which brought additional drama due to unfamiliar weather, territory, customs and potentially incomplete maps. For example, the extra length of the voyage needed to reach such a distant destination raised the potential need for a stop over just to obtain fresh water. This disparate need for water raised the potential for mutinous activity among members of Captain Bolitho's green and untrained crew before they were even "on station".
The drama increases from there before it reaching an ending.
The action unfolded in the Indian Ocean which brought additional drama due to unfamiliar weather, territory, customs and potentially incomplete maps. For example, the extra length of the voyage needed to reach such a distant destination raised the potential need for a stop over just to obtain fresh water. This disparate need for water raised the potential for mutinous activity among members of Captain Bolitho's green and untrained crew before they were even "on station".
The drama increases from there before it reaching an ending.
December 1, 2019
War was hell, but peace is worse
Set between the end of the American and beginning of the French Revolution, Britain is in a period of uneasy peace. The Bolitho story continues. During a time of massive demobilization, he is sent on a mysterious diplomatic mission. Needless to say, all is not what it seems and plans do not go as intended. But he does his best and overcomes one crisis after another. Intrigue, action, treachery, and romance are all here.
Set between the end of the American and beginning of the French Revolution, Britain is in a period of uneasy peace. The Bolitho story continues. During a time of massive demobilization, he is sent on a mysterious diplomatic mission. Needless to say, all is not what it seems and plans do not go as intended. But he does his best and overcomes one crisis after another. Intrigue, action, treachery, and romance are all here.
June 11, 2017
Enjoyed this chapter in the Bolitho series. This time it was a mission to exchange rule of a remote island in the South Pacific. An easy exchange on the surface, but one that will require Bolitho to use all of his skill as a command to defeat forces opposed to the exchange. To say more would give away the action, but just remember this is an adventure not a job.
March 2, 2018
Different seas
Poor old Bolitho doesn't have a lot of luck with women. In fact the female characters are the one weakness of these books. They are apt to make melodramatic utterances and gestures, without ever coming to life as the men do. Happily there are few females on board the 18th century warship.
Poor old Bolitho doesn't have a lot of luck with women. In fact the female characters are the one weakness of these books. They are apt to make melodramatic utterances and gestures, without ever coming to life as the men do. Happily there are few females on board the 18th century warship.
January 23, 2023
Classic maritime age of sail boys own adventure style book. You get a good sense of the maritime aspects of a long voyage and it’s challenges in that period. Kent also starts growing Bolitho as a character from the young and brash man of action to one who is starting to see there is a world outside of the Navy!
Overall a very good read
Overall a very good read
April 8, 2024
Command a Kings Ship.
Lost for words. How an author. With no experience of these great sailing ships, can write and describe battle, as it was in those far off days, so vividly and effectively is quite beyond me and yet he does to the point that I am on the edge of my seat living the moment. Quite, quite, amazing.
Lost for words. How an author. With no experience of these great sailing ships, can write and describe battle, as it was in those far off days, so vividly and effectively is quite beyond me and yet he does to the point that I am on the edge of my seat living the moment. Quite, quite, amazing.
November 28, 2019
Another very good Bolitho book which finds him commanding a ship between the American Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars to go to the Far East. One of his former captains is the ambassador and he finds himself fighting against French Mischief targeting them.
October 11, 2025
Detailed enough that you get a real feel for the running of a ship but not so much that I felt bogged down in the detail. For a relatively short book you really get to know a lot of the senior crew and Bolitho is a great lead character!
May 21, 2020
Perhaps not quite as grand as several earlier volumes, but still worth reading. Needless to say, Bolitho survives more fierce battles. Lady Luck . . . or skill . . . or both?
December 6, 2020
Another excellent book in this series, full of action but also a wonderful depth of character and incredibly vivid descriptions
Read
January 18, 2021Very engaging - one of my favorite on the series.
October 17, 2021
Another success !!
I do enjoy Alexander Kent books very much and I could recommend them if you enjoy stories of great character and excitement.
I do enjoy Alexander Kent books very much and I could recommend them if you enjoy stories of great character and excitement.
April 15, 2022
Another Bolitho, less exciting one. Probably shouldn't read so many in a row as they get a bit same-y. Well worth a read nonetheless.
September 10, 2022
Love the detail in these books. Always learn something too... A great character.
June 19, 2023
Fantastic, I love the description of the fighting, and everything else. It really takes you into Richard’s mind and what life was like.
December 31, 2025
Six-word Review: Best of the Bolitho series yet.
It's peacetime after the Treaty of Paris. France and Spain are no longer at war with England. The American colonies are now the U.S.A. Many naval officers are on the beach without a ship to call their own as the government cuts back on military spending.
Richard Bolitho is offered an assignment to help solidify England's position in the Far East with a Frigate, the Undine, that is only partially staffed. He accepts the job, raises a crew by various means, and sails to the Canary Islands to meet up with a Spanish ship that will accompany the Undine to Malaya where the British will take over a trading post at Pendang Harbor.
The story unfolds from there as the Spanish ship is destroyed, and he learns that the Pendang Harbor is under attack by native forces supported by the French under the fiction of a letter of marque. Bolitho has his usual number of close calls as he navigates the political, personal, and military waters with his usual imaginative approach to each danger, and by the end of the book, triumphs over all.
The story moves along quite well without too many subplots that distract from the main story. I enjoyed the book and can recommend it. Kent does a good job of filling in the past, so it's possible to enjoy this book without having read the previous ones in the series.
It's peacetime after the Treaty of Paris. France and Spain are no longer at war with England. The American colonies are now the U.S.A. Many naval officers are on the beach without a ship to call their own as the government cuts back on military spending.
Richard Bolitho is offered an assignment to help solidify England's position in the Far East with a Frigate, the Undine, that is only partially staffed. He accepts the job, raises a crew by various means, and sails to the Canary Islands to meet up with a Spanish ship that will accompany the Undine to Malaya where the British will take over a trading post at Pendang Harbor.
The story unfolds from there as the Spanish ship is destroyed, and he learns that the Pendang Harbor is under attack by native forces supported by the French under the fiction of a letter of marque. Bolitho has his usual number of close calls as he navigates the political, personal, and military waters with his usual imaginative approach to each danger, and by the end of the book, triumphs over all.
The story moves along quite well without too many subplots that distract from the main story. I enjoyed the book and can recommend it. Kent does a good job of filling in the past, so it's possible to enjoy this book without having read the previous ones in the series.
July 12, 2008
March, 1784 and the American Revolution has been over for a year. Richard Bolitho has spent that year ashore at his home in Falmouth trying to obtain a peace time naval command along with hundreds of other officers. He is given command of the frigate UNDINE and a secret mission to travel to the East Indies in cooperation with former enemy Spain to relieve a Spanish garrison at a former Sumatra Dutch outpost and establish an English base there. The peace time mission is complicated by the French who are working with an Indonesian pitate leader who is trying to take over the area. The French are using him to further their interests while decreasing English interests. The French presence is bolstered by a firgate larger and stronger than the UNDINE with a well trained crew and very good captain.
As usual, it is Bolitho who shines and the story is filled with adventure and fighting sequences.
As usual, it is Bolitho who shines and the story is filled with adventure and fighting sequences.
June 8, 2007
This one opens the new cycle in the Bolitho's adventures. We find Richard without a ship in a time of peace right after the end of the Revolutionary war. Kent is very good with describing the situation the sailors and soldiers find themselves in. Poverty, rejection, most of them hurt beyond reason physically and mentally. Bolitho is given the command of the Undine to sail to the Pacific and help establish a commercial port in Borneo. Bolitho must sail thru new waters and thru political intrigues during a time when war is over but it embers still hot and where the smallest sparks can make it rage again. I especially liked the way Kent writes the way Bolitho handles command and the friendships he has with his crew and officer. It's a solid opening to the new series of adventures in the Pacific.
October 12, 2013
Not as good as the O'Brian Aubrey and Maturin series, but it'll do. You still get the sense of the god like powers of the navy captain, but it' sty little people that have the characters. We are told of seamen with ragged scars, small portraits of life before the pressgang, foibles of midshipmen...but the captain is aloof. The book needs a map so that the voyage can be visualised: it's only the last 50 or so pages when the writing comes alive. Up to that point the writing is quite ponderous, without those little flashes of wit and humour that O'Brian conjures up. Kent is much more serious..even when Bolitho falls in love (lust?) this is just hinted at and we have none of the passion that was Jack Aubrey's strength and weakness.
June 14, 2015
I am only partially through the Bolitho series and this is the best one yet. The story telling is superb and vivid (I kept picturing the smoke of a broadside and the bellowing sails of a ship at sea.) The plot is more advanced then some of the previous Bolitho novels since the Undine's mission is just as much of politics and espionage, as it is naval battles and hand-to-hand combat. The characters are well developed and Kent does a good job at showing Bolitho's occasional irritation but also admiration for Herrick and Allday. Command A King's Ship is a exciting and fun to read nautical adventure.
January 7, 2011
I can recommend this to people who love adventure tales set in the days of iron men and wooden ships. I think the Patrick O'Brian tales (Master and Commander etc.) were the best of the breed, but the Alexander Kent novels are page turners, and the nautical settings and descriptions seem accurate enough, with occasional lapses. In these tales, the hero may have set-backs but wins, so the outcome is rarely in doubt. I like books about the sea, but this will not be everyone's cup of tea.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews