The Bolitho novels not only have cameo appearances of Britain’s great naval hero, Admiral Horatio Nelson, in the background, but the events of Bolitho’s life tend to parallel the life of the grand hero more and more as the series continued. At first, Alexander Kent (I will use his nom de plume for convenience and clarity) was content to compare the fictional hero to the historical one. Then, he was putting them into the same historical actions, but from different perspective. Personally, I found this fascinating and creative, if not the essence of what a historical novel should do (provide different perspectives, that is). But for all that I enjoyed Colors Aloft, I felt the hand might have been a bit overplayed. The problem with Bolitho’s eyesight rings far too close to Nelson, as does Bolitho’s risk of his reputation on behalf of a young woman to whom he is not married (although, this event isn’t even close to identical to Nelson’s situation with Lady Emma Hamilton). Admiral Bolitho is now referred to as “Our Dick” in the same way that Nelson was “Our Nel.” For me, it was a bit much.However, what WAS excellent was Bolitho’s journey into darkness with regard to revenge and remorseless. For those of us who knew the compassion under the character through so many novels, this was strange…but credible given the circumstances that pushed him. It was so easy for me to see this happening to a person like Bolitho and it made the naval action so much more intense and important. With this personality crisis of sorts, Kent transformed this novel which could have been “more of the same” into something just a little bit different. In fact, it was different enough to keep me rapidly turning pages such as I did in my first discovery of this series.Even better was the feeling that, with Bolitho’s flag rank putting him more and more distant from the action (as well as his possible new vulnerabilities in terms of sight and politics), it seemed like Kent was readying his books to follow the younger men like Valentine Keen and Adam Bolitho on their distinctive paths to greatness. Indeed, this also “upped the ante” in terms of the cost when supporting characters died in the battles (and die they did!). It seems like the glory to be dispensed in the Naval Gazette (The Naval & Military Record and Royal Dockyards Gazette) was directly proportional to the sum of the “butcher’s bill” in terms of casualties. This high cost of war was vividly portrayed in this installment of the Bolitho legend. Even more vivid was the internecine pettiness which cost some of these lives. In earlier novels, the danger was not nearly evoked so eloquently.
