In the tradition of Patrick O'Brian and C. S. Forester, Poyer offers the
second volume of his novel-cycle titled The Civil War At Sea. A
story of brother against brother, in the campaign across the waters of
the world that decided the outcome of the most bitter struggle America
has ever waged.
We first met Lt. Ker Custis Claiborne, formerly of the United States Navy,
in Fire on the Waters. By his own admission, Claiborne
is "no admirer of the institution of Hamitic slavery." Its horrors
struck home on antislavery patrol along the Coromandel Coast in the 1850's.
But he's also a Virginian. When the North decides to preserve
an outworn Union by force, his course is clear. In A Country
of Our Own, he "goes South", joining first the Virginia Navy,
then the fledgling Confederate States Navy in April, 1861.
After defending the shores of the Potomac alongside the hastily mustered
troops of the Army of Virginia, Ker runs the blockade out of New Orleans
aboard a converted sidewheeler turned Confederate raider. He and
his saturnine mentor Captain Parker Trezevant burn, sink, and destroy
across the Caribbean, to undermine the Union's financial might and force
a truce favorable to the Confederacy.
But when that first cruiser proves unstable, under-armed, and short-legged,
Ker joins Commander James Bulloch in England, to buy or build a ship
of war that can sweep Union commerce from the seas. When a daring
coup puts Ker in command of the fastest, most dangerous raider ever to
range from Brazil to Boston -- the ex-opium clipper C.S.S. Maryland
-- he'll set Yankee seamen a-tremble wherever the water's salt and
seagulls scream. And maybe even, decide the issue of the war.
A Country of Our Own is historical sea fiction at its best -- authentic, engrossing, vivid, and masterfully paced, from the master sea-yarner whose tales some critics have ranked with those of Joseph Conrad and Herman Melville.
Hardcover ISBN... 0-684-87134-3 PRICE...25.00
Reviewers -- for review copies call Tracey Guest, Simon & Schuster,
(212) 698-7533.
Stores: To stock book at your location: Retail and Wholesale
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See the First Editions/Collector's Items page for autographed copies of the first edition hardcover.
from Kirkus Reviews:
Volume two of Poyer's ambitious trilogy about the
Civil War at sea.
In Fire on the Waters (2001), US Navy Lieutenant
Ker Claiborne, Annapolis graduate and the very model of a career officer,
faced the most painful decision of his young life -- the need to make an
irrevocable choice, the same one confronting other ardent Virginians --
Robert E. Lee, for instance. As this sequel gets underway, it's clear
that Claiborne and Lee have cast their lots similarly: They've resigned their
US commissions and signed on with the secessionists, Ker now a lieutenant
in the infant Confederate navy. Among his fellow Southrons, however,
there are those who simply don't trust him, who see cowardice and self-seeking
in a decision too long delayed. Fire-breathing Mississippian, Henry
Minter -- like Ker, an Annapolis graduate and CSA naval lieutenant -- challenges
Ker to a duel, interdicted at the climactic moment by navy brass (good men
are nonexpendable). Soon thereafter, Ker finds himself reporting for
duty as first officer aboard the CSS Montgomery, an old paddle-wheeler
skippered by longtime friend Captain Parker Trezevant. Their charge:
to undertake a watery version of Sherman's march: that is, to torch as much
of the North's maritime trade as possible, and, by burning ships and destroying
cargo, make the war increasingly unattractive to Yankee business interests.
Ker, an apt pupil, learns from Captain Trezevant and later succeeds
him when the latter's luck runs out. As a marauder, Ker performs
brilliantly, even infamously, infuriating the enemy and earning the accolade
of having a price put on his head. But his domestic life is complex.
There are a son and a wife home in Richmond, terribly missed. And
there's also a shipmate, a fierce and intransigent warrior woman, who he's
unwillingly drawn to.
Will receive -- and deserves -- a warm welcome
from the C.S. Forester/Patrick O'Brian audience.
Cover Art by Tom Freeman
From GONE WITH THE WIND to COLD MOUNTAIN, no other theme has
gripped the American imagination like the Civil War. John Jakes,
Bernard Cornwell, Shelby Foote, and others have crafted hugely popular
works portraying the clash of the Northern and Southern armies.
At the same time, devoted fans devour the historical sea adventures of C. S. Forester, Alexander Kent, and Patrick O’Brian.
Yet till now no one has welded the two genres together, to produce a fictional saga woven around the events and characters of the American Civil War, at sea.
In FIRE ON THE WATERS, Elisha Eaker is twenty, the scion of a wealthy and politically connected mercantile family in Manhattan. As war looms, Eli joins the sloop of war U.S.S. Owanee as a volunteer, as much to escape his impending marriage to his headstrong cousin Araminta as to defend the flag. There he meets Lieutenant Ker Claiborne at his own moment of decision.
Claiborne, an Annapolis graduate, has seen action in the West Indies and the Africa Station as part of the U.S. Navy’s Antislavery Patrol. Cool and competent in storm or battle, Claiborne now faces an agonizing choice between his two loves -- the Navy, and his native state of Virginia, which is on the verge of declaring for the fledgling Confederacy. He knows no matter which he chooses, he'll be called a traitor. How can a man who values honor renounce his oath? But how can a man who loves his family, and his state, fight against them?
These two men, the Yankee and the Southerner, the volunteer and the regular, will personify the two sides in the desperate conflict that begins in 1861. Together with their rationalist shipmate, engineer and freethinker Theodorus Hubbard; Eaker’s cousin and fiancee, horsewoman, thespian, and eventual spy Araminta Van Velsor; and escaped Georgia slave turned Navy gunner Calpurnius Hanks, they will face storms, mechanical breakdowns, official blundering, treachery, and eventually the test of battle in the greatest war in American history.
Simon & Schuster published FIRE ON THE WATERS on July 10, 2001. Sign on for the adventure -- order at your local bookstore today. ISBN 0-684-87133-5.
Click here to read first
chapter!
See the First Editions/Collector's
Items page for copies of the first edition hardcover.
The months prior to the attack on Fort Sumter
found many Americans, both Northerners and Southerners, questioning
their loyalties. Eli Eaker, son of the wealthy and influential
New York financier Micah Eaker, has more than one loyalty to consider.
There is an obligation to his father, a forceful man staunchly opposed
to his son's involvement in the impending war. There is also the
prospective marriage between Eli and his heiress cousin, Araminta, a union
greatly desired by Micah. And finally, there is Eli's loyalty to
his own Republican and Unionist beliefs. Elli enlists in the navy,
joining the crew of the Owanee, recently returned from two years
in West Africa and lead by Capt. Parker Trezevant, a U.S. Naval officer
and Southern gentleman. As the ship heads south to defend Fort
Sumter, the crew must deal with their own divided obligations. This first book in Poyer's Civil War trilogy is an interesting
character study of a young man's coming of age as well as an accurate historical
novel. The author of numerous nautical tales (e.g. Bahamas Blue
), Poyer once again displays his expert knowledge of seamanship. For
all libraries.
---Loretta Davis
From Kirkus Reviews,
April 15 2001:
A stirring story of the Civil War -- maritime
style -- as told by savvy veteran Poyer (China Sea, etc.) in
the first of an ambitious trilogy.
Except for the
zealots and the hotheaded sunshine patriots, it's a war few want, but
in the spring of 1861 it seems inescapable. And good people, on
both sides of the Mason-Dixon line, are forced to scrutinize positions
they had thought fully settled. Aboard the Navy sloop Owanee,
for instance, there are two such: the captain and his executive officer,
both men of honor, both career officers, but both also (Southern)-born
and -bred. And on the day that young Elisha Eaker, recently of Harvard
University, reports for duty, only one of the two has made up his mind.
Though Captain Trezevant's love for his home commonwealth is hardly a secret,
he's told no one that he intends to resign his commission, a fact that will
complicate life for all the ship's company. Eli, too, has some difficult
decisions to make. His, however, have little to do with the war.
He has to decide whether the affection he feels for his childhood sweetheart
is really strong enough for marriage. And he has to decide whether
he will allow his arrogant, plutocratic, tyrannical father to continue going
on forever without a confrontation. When guns open fire on Fort Sumter,
the war few want breaks out for real. Captain Trezevant leaves the
Owanee. Reluctantly, his exec, Lieutenant Claiborne, takes command.
Eli becomes gunnery officer, and to his own considerable surprise performs
efficiently, even valiantly. Finally, on the last day of that fateful
April, volume number one slips safely into harbor, all plot lines neatly
advanced and yet satisfactorily in flux.
Poyer, a former Navy captain, knows his ships, of course,
but his cast is strong besides, and his grip on the tiller of Civil War
history appears reassuringly firm.