Unto the Breach (The John Paul Jones Saga, Volume 1)
In the first volume of a series intent on dramatizing the life of the “father” of the American Navy, John Paul Jones, author F. A. Schneider focuses on a single year, 1761, when Jones was a 14-year-old Scottish apprentice just learning the ways of ships and the sea.
The young man takes a position on the merchant brig Friendship and goes through a nautical initiation that will be familiar to readers of C. S. Forester and Patrick O’Brian. Young John Paul’s learning curve is steeper than usual in 1761, as the Seven Years War embroils Europe, the New World, and the seas that stretch between them. Schneider conveys the military and political complexities of conflict every bit as effectively and dramatically as he does John Paul’s rude and abrupt coming of age; reading this book really made me want to move on quickly to the next volume in the series.
