Robyn Bennis is a scientist who works in biotech but dreams of airships. Her debut novel, The Guns Above, is now available.One of her five favorite books featuring fleet actions, as shared at Tor.com:
H.M.S. Surprise by Patrick O’BrianRead about another entry on the list.
France is out to steal the riches of Asia, but Jack Aubrey knows that’s Britain’s job. Indeed, those riches are already in the holds of British merchant ships bound for home when Admiral Linois, one of Jack’s oldest frenemies, intercepts them with a greatly superior force of French warships. Jack’s H.M.S. Surprise, itself heading home after an aborted mission to deliver an envoy to Kampong, is the only British man-of-war close enough to help. The catch is, the dear old Surprise was only on that mission because she’s small, weak, and ancient, and so can be spared from the war in the Atlantic.
Now Jack’s little frigate must serve as flagship to an under-gunned, under-manned, and often under-captained gaggle of merchantmen as they face offagainst the most powerful fleet in the hemisphere, in one of the most spectacular age-of-sail naval battles in all of literature.
The Aubrey/Maturin Series appears on Jeff Somers's lists of five great books that will expand your vocabulary and top five books and series for old-fashioned adventure in the 19th century, the Telegraph's list of the ten best historical novels, Bella Bathurst's top ten list of books on the sea. Master & Commander is one of Peter Mayle's six best books. Dr Stephen Maturin is on John Mullan's list of ten of the best good doctors in literature.
--Marshal Zeringue
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