The Lion at Sea (Captain Kelly Maguire, #1) by Max Hennessy

The Lion at Sea (Captain Kelly Maguire, #1) Reviews

• 
  Clay Davis

  A very good ebook about World War I naval warfare.
• 
  Chaplain Stanley Chapin

  A story of World War 1
  
  The English seem unprepared politically, and definitely military, with most of the verbiage and action Naval. Great action and heroism at the end
• 
  Sandy

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• 
  Viva

  I got recommended Max Hennessy after reading Douglas Reeman's books and I have to say Hennessy is a much better writer, in fact I've found him to be one of the best historical military fiction writers that I've ever read. More ever, he isn't just one genre, he's done RAF and Royal Navy that I've read so far. And it's difficult to write in more than one genre because you need the knowledge behind the writing.
  
  Spoilers ahead/Plot:
  Kelly Maguire is a young man just getting into the navy. His family are all military but he doesn't rely on them for favors. It's just before the beginning of WW1 and the book starts him off as a midshipman aboard an armored cruiser the Huguenot. There is some backstory between him and fellow midshipmen Kimister and Verschoyle. We aren't really told much about it, only that the latter is a bully and he helps the former. They reappear occasionally in the book and I'm sure they will play more significant parts in the future. He also saves the life of a drowning sailor (Rumbelo) who appears as a companion to him later in the book.
  
  After that he gets into a series of adventures. He serves in an old cruiser, which is outdated, being neither fast nor armored enough and it's sunk by a submarine. In between ships he is sent off to Belgium to rescue some marines as he was available. He finally gets the commission he wants, which is to serve in the submarines.
  
  As a submariner he is sent to the Dardanelles where his sub wrecks havoc in the Sea of Marmara but his sub is caught by a surface ship and is sunk. He is rescued and captured by the Turks with a few survivors and sent to live in various dungeons. He is rescued by a band of Arabs who are sabotaging the Turkish war effort. They are on the side of the British because they think the Brits will help them throw off the yoke of the Turks. He is released and sent to Cairo to help plead their case where he meets Lawrence of Arabia.
  
  Finally in Part 3, he is sent to serve as the 1st Lt of a destroyer. It's in this destroyer he participates in the Battle of Jutland. His ship is damaged and nearly sunk but he is horribly wounded and manages to sail the ship back to port.
  
  The book is well written and I followed the story effortlessly. All in all, a lot happens in this book. Maguire serves on many fronts and on many ships, gaining recognition and experience. There are also a lot of romantic interests. I usually don't like them as they take away from the action but in this case the author does a good job of segueing the romance to the plot so it doesn't feel gratuitous. There's also a bit of politics in it and a little commentary on the competence or incompetence of the high command and how they're not in tune of modern times and modern warfare. He also writes about how the country felt about the navy not engaging the Germans while the army were bleeding to death on land, so there's a bit of everything. I really enjoyed this book and I am now reading the next one in the series.
• 
  Stephen

  
  "The atmosphere was electric and exultant. They were sailing into history at thirty knots. But what history? Defeat or victory?"
  
  Kelly McGuire never consciously intended to follow his old man into the Royal Navy, but sometimes fate has a way of dragging you along in its wake. An efficient young officer, McGuire spends the first two years of the Great War escaping sinking ships, evading Germans, Turks,and other enemies of the Empire, and falling into pretty young ladies’ beds. The battle of Jutland introduces the young lieutenant to his first command after his captain is lost, along with many of his shipmates, and it’s clear he has a bright future to blaze. The Lion at Sea is my first WW1 naval novel, I think, and it’s awfully exciting considering how little naval action there was. McGuire always seems to find himself in the middle of whatever that is, for in this book he’s all over the map: the North Sea, Gibraltar, the Dardanelles, and even Egypt. I’m accustomed to the protagonist’s friends being introduced and killed off fairly quickly because of Harris/Hennessy’s aviation novels, but here we run into a few people over and over again — to a degree that even the main character finds it absurd. He simply can’t escape one of his old shipmates, an odious son of privilege who reminded me very strongly of Courtney Massengale, the cynical and sly officer who made his way in the world by cultivating and exercising ‘pull’. Readers will witness a young man very uncertain of himself become a highly-decorated, admired, and accomplished senior lieutenant — one more than capable of sitting in the captain’s seat. I found this one delightful all around, especially the bit in which Kelly encounters some Lawrence fellow bumming around in an office and shares intelligence with him about some promising Arab allies.
• 
  Tim Clouse

  An OK novel covering an unusual time period
  
  Not many naval novels cover WW I. This one jumps all over, with Maguire being present at the first sinkings of British warships, then at the Dardanelles in a submarine and then in a destroyer at Jutland. Quite a bit of travel. One jarring note is the author's tendency to put quotes from various historical figured into the mouths of his characters. Still a worthwhile book for airline travel.
• 
  Don

  After a slow start the characters started to develop and so the story lines became more interesting and exciting leading to a gripping final third of the book.
  Based on other books I've read I can in all fairness only give "The Lion at Sea" three stars, but again based on its final third , so the trilogy as a whole has the potential to be very good and , if you are a patient reader and can ignore its slow start , I would certainly recommend it .
• 
  Mr Michael R Stevens

  Interwoven With History
  
  I purchased the Jelly Maguire trilogy because of the price and because as ex Royal Navy the subject t interests me.
  What a great read, the lead character's story is interwoven with historical events and moves along at a great pace.
  The first one finished its immediately into the series of.
• 
  Tom Mahan

  A fictional take on naval warfare during WWI. The main character served in three different types of ships, so you got a inside view of the workings and routines aboard these classes of ships during war over a hundred years ago. The battles were correct in fact, and not glossed over for the fictional story, and if you have read about WWI it was quite interesting.
• 
  Alfredo

  Very entertaining and depicts the very colorful rendition of the Jutland battle I've been looking for years. And certainly, I would NEVER be in a ship with Kelly Maguire, the survival odds are just too low.
• 
  David Pospisil

  This is an outstanding piece of historical fiction.
  I learned so much about the WW2, especially the war at sea.
  Amazing action and characters.
  Looking forward to the next book of Captain Maguire's war adventures.
• 
  Anthony Cassidy, Mr

  Excellent Read
  
  Don’t know how I missed these when they first came out. No mess, no fuss - just good story telling based on facts.