January 2020 Read - Gone to Sea in a Bucket by David Black
I have long threatened to do this, and I generally do what I say I am going to, so January's read will be Gone to Sea in a Bucket, a modern entry in the genre of WWII Submarine Novel. The book is the first of a series, currently 5, tracing the career of young Harry Gilmore in the Royal Navy, and in particular, the rakish Submarine Service. Harry is a Scot from a moderately well-off family, and his father is infamously a strict pacifist.
I fully expect to be reading this book by myself, so hoot away. And before I am castigated for it, there is indeed a WWII Submariner RPG - US centered, it is true, but easily adapted to British Service.
Comments
I'm in
Well, then! It won't be a complete waste! Glad to have you aboard, Richard!
Awesome! So we three against the world! Athos, Porthos, and Aramis! All for one, one for all!
And congratulations on the anniversary! We've come a long way from Roludo!
I'm happy to give it a go. I struggle with military RPGs, especially how to give the players agency while keeping a military feel. More examples from literature are good.
Hopefully it will work out. We'll see. It's an experiment.
Antoine Vanner writes some interesting naval fiction set at the end of the 19th century, ie during the very transition from the Age of Sail to the modern era. In a span of time rather less than a single lifetime, naval warfare transitioned to include steam power, turret mounted guns, torpedoes, submarines, wireless... pretty much everything except carrier-based aircraft. So a person who was a junior midshipman at Trafalgar might have ended their career aboard a recognisably modern vessel.
I have always wanted to get into Dawlish, but never made the plunge, @RichardAbbott! Sounds fascinating!
Woot! - Gone to Sea in a Bucket is on sale at Audible.co.uk for less than the cost of a credit - boughtenanted!
Link for the others, Chris?
I'm in. I like for example the Master and Commander series, so I have enjoyed at least one piece of naval fiction.
Age of Sail fiction was the gateway drug for me. I literally grew up with Mister Midshipman Easy and Horatio Hornblower on my bed headboard mini library.
Link to Audible.co.uk version currently on sale - no idea if Audible.com is also having a sale.
https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Gone-to-Sea-in-a-Bucket-Audiobook/B017XX8IDM?qid=1576818316&sr=1-2&pf_rd_p=c6e316b8-14da-418d-8f91-b3cad83c5183&pf_rd_r=RMAW2VYHFCGZ5P3KS0XC&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_2
I had a chance to listen to the first 5 chapters of this while shoveling up after the weekend snow. Really enjoying it so far! I expect I'll be listening to more of this series in the future.
Awesome! Glad you are enjoying it!
I've just finished the Kindle version, great stuff
I'm late to the party, but I've still got a few weeks so I looked at the Amazon price. I don't know if I hit a one-day sale or something, but the regular price for the audiobook was $10.49 on Audible (owned by Amazon), or $8.99 if I bought it on the Amazon site. The Kindle version was $0.99 and if I bought it and added the audiobook at the same time, the audiobook was only $1.99. So, for $2.98, I got both. And I ordered on smile.amazon so they donated at least a few cents of that three bucks to the Red Cross.
Living in the future is weird.
I guess I know what I'll be listening to on my commute for the next two weeks! Thanks.
I will need a bit more time on this - my wife is in the hospital recovering from an unanticipated major surgery, and I am spending a great deal of time there. She will hopefully be coming home tomorrow, so it will only be a few days to get my questions together.
Thanks, Chris! You're the only one here who has met her, and she remembers you! And thank you Richard! We are hopeful, though this is the first of three operations to correct the problem, so we will be going through this again soon!
Thank you very much, Paul! She was looking chipper and confidant today! That was good to see!
Really sorry to hear that, Clash. Take what time you need, and I hope your wife recovers quickly.
Thank you, Neil! I expect she will be home today!
Surgeries are no fun. Hope that your wife is on the mend soon.
She is home, and in great spirits! Very happy! I will be posting my questions in a few minutes - thank you all for being patient!