"1803. The Napoleonic War. A Royal Navy warship is ordered to pursue an enemy frigate to the frozen waters of the Southern Seas.
There it must capture the enemy ship and retrieve a mysterious sea-chest, contents unknown.
Failure is not permitted.
For the determined young captain, this already dangerous mission turns into a battle with a mysterious vessel that appears not in the sea, but, unbelievably, impossibly, in the sky above.
And the mysterious vessel is not friendly."
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I saw this one mentioned online and it seemed just my cup of tea so come payday, I was straight on to Amazon to order a copy. The idea of a Hornblower-style hero running into alien invaders is definitely a fascinating one. Without giving away spoilers, hero Captain Alex Burns is an interesting character dealing with something way, way beyond his experience. The mysterious alien ship is not the only problem, either. The writing is solid without getting cliched and MM Holt gives Burns some memorable characters to play with.
For the most part, 50 Degrees South jogs along at a decent pace but I did find the payoff at the end a bit disappointing. Burns and his ship finally catch up with the French ship they've been doggedly pursuing, the aliens interfere and....
It suddenly resolves itself, mostly offscreen. It seemed a bit rushed, to be honest, almost like the author realised he was running out of pages or too close to a deadline. Usually I don't like books that overstay their welcome but in this case, another two or three chapters would have been nice.
There then follows an author's note explaining that there were "Deleted" scenes from the book which could be found at the website. I thought that was a bit naughty, especially since there was space in the book for a preview of the next in the series. I'm not sure how I feel about books having DLC.
To sum up: Worth reading but the ending left me frustrated.
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