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Title: Ramage's Challenge

Author: Dudley Pope

Narrator: Steven Crossley

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-29-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Admiralty spies are hunting for British officers and allies trapped on the mainland, among them Ramage's first love, Gianna, the Mmrchesa di Volterra. Ramage returns to the Tuscan coast, where Bonaparte holds a group of hostages for an unknown fate.

Members Reviews:

Good premise with a lot of filler. Read it anyway.

First, I'll get my negative criticism out of the way. One thing I find most annoying about all of the series writers is their propensity for repeating the history of the series in snippets designed to educate the reader who steps into it at book number 15. I can see the value in that instance and have done so when I served on active duty in the U. S. Navy for 30 years. Sometimes books 1 through 14 just cannot be had when you're out at sea on a deployment so you begin with the book you've got. In this book, Pope reiterates the past quite a bit more than in others and on occasion does so within pages of the last reiteration of the same past. He primarily uses his main character, Ramage, in frequent daydreaming episodes to recount something he thinks we need to know again. It's clever but still annoying when you've read the series through from the first book. Now that's out of the way; on to the story.

Dudley Pope is one of my favorite writers and this story doesn't disappoint. Whatever style criticism a reader may have of the series I think it is fair to say that Pope's plots are solid, memorable and entertaining. He is a master at finding twists and turns intended to trip Ramage up in solving whatever problem lies in front of him. Pope builds expectation as if where he is leading the reader is all important and everything rides on Ramage's success in completing the next trial. Pope always rips some important element of the expectation he's so meticulously built from under the reader and delivers Ramage a curve ball that is surely going to result in a swing and a miss. After that, you don't know what may be ripped from under you but he meticulously leaves hints along the way so the reader can look back and realize the puzzle actually does fit together.

This book may feel like it's not up to Pope's usual standard but it is still a good story and I recommend it. If you've read all the other books you'll be disappointed if you allow a sour review to cause you to skip this one. Don't skip!

Rampage does it again

Pope's Ramage has the best of all luck. Even when his plans go awry, everything seems to fall in his favor. Rescue British hostages? No problem. Sink a French frigate? Done before breakfast. Attack a fort? Right after supper, if you please. Even Aubrey, Bolitho and Hornblower had their set backs but Ramage seems to be impervious to any turn of fortune and that is the great weakness of the series.

OK but not one of his best Ramage books.

I have read all the "Lord Ramage" series to this point. The author feels he has to rehash the whole history in each book which makes for dull reading in the first part. Too much history and background and not enough action in this one. I enjoyed it but not as much as some of the earlier ones. Too much to wade through to get to the story.

Five Stars

Loved it

A Good Read

This is a good read. It'll never be great literature, but is well written with a plot that "fits together".