Captain's Surrender in Q&A with Alex Beecroft

Aug 25, 2008 Erastes rated it it was amazing

Shelves: gay-historical

Now this is what I’m talking about. If you want a taste of what floats my boat when it comes to gay historical fiction, (no pun intended), then this is it.

I’m not mad on the cover, but that won’t be a surprise to any regular reader of this blog. It doesn’t sum up any part of the book (so readers – don’t expect nakedness on a beach somewhere), doesn’t look like the characters and doesn’t explain it’s a historical. I would find a detail of a naval captain (oo all those lovely brass buttons) to be Now this is what I’m talking about. If you want a taste of what floats my boat when it comes to gay historical fiction, (no pun intended), then this is it.

I’m not mad on the cover, but that won’t be a surprise to any regular reader of this blog. It doesn’t sum up any part of the book (so readers – don’t expect nakedness on a beach somewhere), doesn’t look like the characters and doesn’t explain it’s a historical. I would find a detail of a naval captain (oo all those lovely brass buttons) to be much more sexy and more in keeping with the era – so if I hadn’t read the blurb I wouldn’t buy this.

But don’t let that stop you, for God’s sake.

There are so many reasons why I liked this book. The writing is formal enough to give more than a flavour of the era, but not so formal that you are tied up in huge run on sentences. If, like me, you are not an expert in the Age of Sail, it matters not. With Beecroft you feel that you are in a “safe pair of hands” right from the word go. In every scene there is enough detail to paint the pictures needed, and she paints them richly, but not so fussily that you roll your eyes and shout “enough about ropes and knots already, just cast off!” The blurb says “let yourself be transported to a time…” and that’s just what Beecroft does.

But be warned, this is accurate. Shipboard life was no picnic. Although in the main, English sailors were well looked after on good ships, even in good ships the discipline was unforgiving. The Captain of Peter and Josh’s ship is a tyrant of the first water and the punishments he metes out are over the top but historically correct and are described in some detail. At times it’s hard to read but I found it fascinating and illuminating to see such barbarism in a so-called age of enlightenment.

But what I liked most is that this is a story; granted yes, there is a romance at the heart of it, a coming of age romance if you like – implicit by the title; but the romance is not the mainstay of it all – there’s a lot going on and the threads work well together. There’s enough yearning and forbidden love to keep a m/m lover happy, but please note – this isn’t an erotic romance and if you are looking for more sex than plot you won’t find it here. The sex is present, not it’s not often, not graphic but it’s beautifully written. The second kiss for example is one of the best kisses I think I have ever read in an m/m book so far.

The author does some clever things with characterisation – she uses the minor characters to observe what’s going on and I really appreciated this. There’s one scene when a character is watching the goings on on deck and it’s truly nerve-wracking – I was right there with the watcher and was (almost) as worried as he was. I had (as had the character) been given the choices of what might happen but there was no way to know which way it could go. It’s a scene that wouldn’t have worked so well from either of the main protagonists point of view because they would have been thinking completely different things from the layman watching on. It’s hard to believe that, with this level of skill, that this is Beecroft’s first book.

Peter and Joshua are such excellently drawn young men, as different as can be – Joshua has experience and knows what he is, and although comfortable with that, he’s petrified of the very real danger that puts him in. The Navy at this time were generally less forgiving than the land-based justice system, and men could be hanged on the say-so of sodomy, rather than requiring any evidence.

Peter, however, has only had experience of women and his reasons for succumbing so readily to Joshua’s advances begin with friendship and then work rationally and logically to a passionate conclusion. Peter reminded me a little of Carrot in Discworld; “Personal is not the same as important” says Carrot and it could well be Peter’s motto. Without spoiling you for the plot, all I can say is that there’s a section just toward the end where the Peter is working all this out in his head and the decisions that he nearly makes made me hate him. I hated him merely for being able to consider the things he was considering, but it’s a necessary right of passage for him as he moves towards the reason for the book’s title.

If I have one quibble it’s that the middle section seemed rushed, and I had the distinct feeling that perhaps the book had been edited for length, and if so, that’s a shame. Again, without spoiling you for a very vital plot point, all I can say if that there is a lot dealt with in one chapter that, for my money, should have been given more time to mature and develop from all sides. I felt a little cheated after the wonderfully rich build up for the first half of the journey.

But, altogether a very good book, a definite keeper and one I shall read and re-read. It’s absorbing, well written and exciting. The only thing that stops it hitting five stars is the slightly rushed middle section. Any lover of historical fiction should love it, whether an afficianado of homosexual romance or not, and I look forward to Alex Beecroft’s next book with anticipation. ...more

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Apr 14, 2009 Elisa Rolle added it · review of another edition

When I was young I read a lot of classics and enjoy them very much. Strong stories with well written characters and able to take you awake till late and eager to read more. Sometime romance, cause there were a love story on them, but not erotic cause there were no sex on them. But I didn't miss the sex, cause I could imagine in my mind what happened behind the closed door of a bedroom, usually between a married couple. Captain's Surrender is a such story? in some way yes. In an epublished world When I was young I read a lot of classics and enjoy them very much. Strong stories with well written characters and able to take you awake till late and eager to read more. Sometime romance, cause there were a love story on them, but not erotic cause there were no sex on them. But I didn't miss the sex, cause I could imagine in my mind what happened behind the closed door of a bedroom, usually between a married couple. Captain's Surrender is a such story? in some way yes. In an epublished world where sex is the easiest way to drawn the reader (and I'm first in line to it, as I always say I like my sex scene...) Alex Beecroft has chosen the hardest way, writing a very good story, with wonderful but very human characters and giving us a lot of love but very few sex, barely some hints. I'm accusing her for it? Oh, no, not at all. Cause her book is right like it is and one of that book I will read again and again, to find every time something new in the very rich prose she has used.

Josh is a midshipman in a ship under the command of a crazy captain. A man who has no problem to beat to death a sailor who has spoken aloud his believes, unfortunately not the same of his captain, and who will have no problem to hang a man framed with sodomy (and in that time he has also the right to doing it). So Josh, who judge himself an abomination to crave the touch of another man, tries to do his work and not react to the captain's wickedness. But he knows that the captain has read into him and soon or later he will hang. And then Peter enters his life: a young lieutenant, third son of a nobleman, but with no money of his own, Peter his the epitome of grace and cavalry. To Josh's eyes he is like an angel, someone he can't dirty with his sin. But Peter his like a magnet, and soon Josh finds himself to surrender to this man, with body and soul.

Josh is a wonderful character. He is the real "noble" man, and even if he is younger, and less cultured than Peter, he is more wise and I think also more brave. He first of all thinks to the better of whom he beloved and then maybe to his desire. Peter instead is like you can imagine a nobleman and a spoilt son: sure he is good, full of his own idea of what is right and what is wrong in the world, but he is also sure that he is like a gift to Josh. He never say it aloud, but sometime his behaviour let me think like he is doing a favour to Josh. Oh, yes, he loves John, no doubt in it, but at what he renounces to stay with Josh? Nothing, and when he has to take a decision, what do you think he will do? So in the end I like a lot Josh and I think he maybe deserves someone better of Peter, and to regain my sympathy, Peter has to behaviour very good.

As you see, every book that manages to awaken in you such strong feelings is for sure a good book. Due to the matter, historical fiction setting in the sea world, I was exepcting it to be maybe a little bit demanding, and instead I have read it in a session, without grown tired neither for a moment, and eager to turn the page to see what would be happened to my heroes (yes even to Peter, cause I wanted to see if he made amends for his selfishness :-) )

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1605047821/?... ...more

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Mar 13, 2008 Stevie rated it it was amazing

I had read a few very positive comments about this book and was keen to read it, and it did not disappoint at all. If anything it was even better than I hoped. Alex had a wonderful feel for the time she is writing about and the characters 'felt' so right. I certainly hope that she writes more stories in the Age of Sail!

Highly recommended! ...more

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Oct 13, 2011 Richard Derus rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This contented sigh of happy gooshy romantic squooshiness has been revised and can now be found at Exendable Mudge Muses Aloud.

***2018 UPDATE***
The original paperback edition I reviewed no longer exists and I'd like a new generation of MM romance consumers to discover and adore this book. So here's the original review, since y'all're a buncha clickaphobes.

I gave this book to my friend Frank the Fireman, since like the main character, Peter Kenyon, he is an adult out-comer. I wanted him to, in pa This contented sigh of happy gooshy romantic squooshiness has been revised and can now be found at Exendable Mudge Muses Aloud.

***2018 UPDATE***
The original paperback edition I reviewed no longer exists and I'd like a new generation of MM romance consumers to discover and adore this book. So here's the original review, since y'all're a buncha clickaphobes.

I gave this book to my friend Frank the Fireman, since like the main character, Peter Kenyon, he is an adult out-comer. I wanted him to, in particular, notice the last chapter wherein Peter goes through the long, dark night of the soul as he struggles between the lifelong conditioning he's heir to...the societal and legal issues surrounding being queer in the Royal Navy of the 18th century...and his love for Joshua Andrews, his best friend, former ship-mate, and one true love.

I didn't mention that I wanted him to notice that chapter, I just sat and hoped. I was rewarded by a phone call. Frank was shaken, saying he'd done almost the precise same minuet of fear, anger, doubt, fear, rage, lust and...in the end...honest peace.

I told him the author was a woman. He didn't say anything for a minute. "Lesbian?" he asked. "No. Married with kids." "That is one lucky man," was Frank's response.

I concur.

This book fulfills a long-felt absence in my reading life. It's an historical sea-novel, with nicely handled battle scenes and an authentic-feeling atmosphere of male camaraderie. Its flaws include a rather cavalier approach to time, as in there is no indication that the characters have to wait the extended periods they would really have been forced to endure for news, for travel, for anything. Also bothersome are some absences...backstory mostly, but also some characters have unresolved storylines, and I don't mean opening-for-sequel unresolved, I mean holes. The antagonist of Peter and Joshua is the first one who springs to mind, since he's presented in one dimension and never seen to have reasons for his actions beyond moving the plot along.

I make this point because the book is getting a four-star rating. It's not perfect, I'd really really like to see more of the men's backgrounds even if in flashback for example, but it's a beautifully realized love story with excellent atmospherics and a happy ending...and a Happy Ending, too. Well done, Author Beecroft, and do it again soon. ...more

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Mar 12, 2008 Alex added it · (Review from the author)

Shelves: books-by-me

This is a gay Age of Sail romance. My aim was to produce something that was a cross between the Patrick O'Brian novels that I love, and Brokeback Mountain - but with a happy ending. I gave it five stars because I like it a lot myself :) ...more

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