Yesterday I finished reading Diane Carey's Banners, a novel about the War of 1812, published last year by Koehlerbooks, presumably to commemorate the 200th-anniversary of the attack on Fort McHenry and the writing of "The Star-Spangled Banner."
I've said for a long time that I really wanted to read a Horatio Hornblower-esque novel from Diane Carey. She has a clear love for the sea and the men who challenge it, and I loved the holodeck recreation from her Star Trek: The Next Generation novel Ancient Blood. Banners wasn't quite that. Men at sea is certainly a large part of the book, but Banners is broader than that. I'd liken it, come to think of it, to one of Harry Turtledove's alternate histories, maybe a book in the Great War series, with a sprawling cast of characters, on both the American and British sides, dealing, in various capacities, with the war. It's micro-level historical fiction, dealing with the doers and the people on the front lines rather than the people back in Washington or London.
Like a Turtledove book, there are several storylines in motion. There's Tom Boyle, the American smuggler/privateer, who feels feels most free when he's pushing his ship and his men to the absolute limit as he raids British shipping on the high seas. There's James Gordon, the privileged Royal Navy leftenant who wants to hunt down Boyle and bring him in. There's Francis Scott Key, a lawyer and pacifist opposed to the war, who feels it's still his patriotic duty to contribute something to the war effort. There's Mary Pickersgill, a flag maker who has been commissioned by the commander of the fort commanding the approach to Baltimore's harbor to make the largest flag anyone has ever seen. These storylines develop and intersect in various ways as the novel progresses toward its resolution.
I'd rate Banners good, but not great. Carey's writing was fine, though I occasionally wanted to take a red pen to it. She evoked a nice sense of place; an especially nice touch was her use of smell. Scenes at sea, especially the ship-to-ship action, were well done. The characterizations were nicely drawn, and there were several scenes that were exactly what I expected from a Diane Carey novel, scenes with people discussing leadership, the nature of command, what good is government for, and ship porn as captains look lovingly and longingly at the ships under their command. The novel moved at a good pace.
So why did I say "good, but not great"? The last eighty-ish pages needed... more. There are two major events that take place off-stage, and they're narrated by a character to another after the fact. Frankly, I would have liked to see Carey write a land battle (or two) with the Bladensburg Races or the Battle of North Point. There's a lot of Hornblower happening in the book; it needed a chapter or two of Sharpe. And the book's "antagonist," Gordon, disappears in the middle of the book; I'd have liked to see another chapter or two with him, especially one that shows his growth, where he figures out how to be a leader. The conversation Gordon had with Tarkio needed to come earlier, and under different circumstances.
I liked it. It was, by and large, what I wanted from a Diane Carey novel about the War of 1812. I'll shelve it with my Hornblowers and my Sharpes and my Bolithos.
Now, for a couple of other thoughts...
The United States frigate Enterprise makes a cameo appearance, and some characters discuss the historical incident from Carey's Enterprise Logs story, "Veil at Valcour."
Boyle is cut very much from the same cloth as Carey's interpretation of Kirk. He's the best, he knows it, he has the best crew, he knows every inch of his ship and what it's capable of. He has an easy rapport with his crew, especially his first officer, and he commands the loyalty of his crew because he's earned it. Boyle and Kirk, especially the Kirk from Wagon Train to the Stars, would be kindred spirits.
There's a Deep Space Nine quality to Carey's Baltimore, specifically Fells Point. It's a crossroads and a dockyard, this is where the future begins, there are all sorts of people there with their stories and agendas. It was rather easy to see the French Jew (yes, that's the character's name) as Quark. And the final chapter really does feel like a Deep Space Nine scene.
