Take, Burn or Destroy (The Adventures of Charles Hayden) Paperback – March 4, 2014

Sean Thomas Russell is as good as the author of the Hornblower series.

There is no one -- and I mean no one -- who is better at writing action at sea adventure than S. Thomas Russell in his "Captain Hayden" seafaring books, but come on -- this latest installment is a joke. Russell must have been sick or or out of sorts or his editor has become a crack addict. This book is all over the place, the time sequences are crazy, plot threads come and go with no resolution and the ending is not satisfying or intriguing in the least. I waited over a year to get hold of this volume to see what would happen next to Hayden. I thought the twists and turns of the romantic plot were quite good but the conclusion was handled poorly. And on top of that the scene jumps from one section to the next were jarring to say the least. I have nothing but praise for the action -- one's eyes can hardly move over the text fast enough -- but really -- in one moment, the ship is being pounded by cannon fire, splinters everywhere, spars falling...and the next, they are sailing merrily home for ruddy old England with nary a scratch. There are far too many hands that fall as cannon fodder while British officers are immune from death and destruction. It's the "Rat Patrol" syndrome in book form. In that show, the hapless Germans could use an entire Panzer division worth of ammunition against the heroic Brits and miss every time, but the Brits need only shoot in the general direction of the Germans to knock out the entire army. Well come on. How could it be that so few officers take casualties? How could it be that such a green crew, that Russell tells us is green every time, score so many successful hits on the French in so short a time? The whole book reeks of inattention to detail and a lackadaisical approach to the character. Is Russell tiring of the character after only 3 books? Say it isn't so...but at the same time, let's make Hayden a little more flawed. He seems altogether too heroic... even Horatio Hornblower was enigmatic; even Jack Aubrey was an unrepentant adulterer...yet Hayden is burdened not by any flaws of character and too much conscience. Make him get drunk from time to time. Make him do something foolish. Make him take his anger out on the crewman once or twice. Make him cause the death of beloved shipmates by accident, error or necessity. Here's a guy who has had his heart broken and yet he carries on as if it's a trifle. Come on, man! Anyone else would be reckless, foolhardy and cynical. Let the man screw up...no one loves a saint. And let a few more key characters either be severely wounded or killed. That's what makes suspense -- if we KNOW it's going to be alright in the end, what's the point of reading? And while I love the historical accuracy, a few actions or adventures that didn't really happen won't destroy the story...and while we are on that topic -- let's make the French a little more competent...their ineptness plays into Hayden's hands just a little too frequently and some of the plot lines seem just a little too familiar to Hornblower. The war lasted almost 20 years, for God's sake, surely there are more depths to plumb and more adventures for our stalwart hero. And meanwhile, half the book takes place with the characters on shore -- but after the resolution, no mention is made of them again, what they think or feel or say. Lazy and inexcusable to dispose of critical characters this easily. I look forward to the next adventure...more than a year from now no doubt...but I sure hope Russell does a better job...he has the potential to be listed with the likes of Lewis and O'brian...but not with stuff like "A Ship of War"... at least O'brian didn't fall apart til "Letter of Marque" but that was 8 books into the series.

just like Douglas B. Hermann said in his review

If you enjoyed the first two you will like this one. However, way too many pages devoted to his troubled romance. Found myself skipping over those sections that did not move the plot forward.

I read a LOT of books and I've completed Hornblower, Bolitho, Drinkwater, Ramage, and am completely up to date with Lewrie and Kidd. Did I miss anyone of note? So when I began reading "Take, Burn and Destroy" I started out thinking, "what a nice job". Russell writes as well as any of the authors of the above series and when he takes pause to write about Henrietta Carthrew, he does a splendid Jane Austen impersonation. However, as I read along, I began saying to myself, "Self, I have never read this book before....but this is going to happen next and then....that....and then ....that." I keep all my non fiction books and donate my fiction ones so I couldn't run down to the bulging basement to pick up previous Russell works but then I read one of these reviews. "Take, Burn or Destroy" IS "A Ship of War" with an English title. WHY they market books in England and USA with different titles that change things not a whit and cannot be argued the change is a selling point in each nation is beyond me. HOWEVER do NOT buy both books. They are the SAME and I think it is a bit callous of book sellers NOT to mention this fact for both titles. It is, in fact, rather a disgraceful rip off. Buy either of them; the story is quite good even if, as had been said elsewhere, the sailing detail and maneuvering, which all sea writers engage in just to display their bona fides, is a bit over the top at times. I mean, just say the ship turned to port or starboard and stop with all the luffs and backing the sails already. Right, left, FIRE, thank you. Enjoy the book but don't buy both.

Contrary to many of the reviews written before me, I didn't mind the alternating between Hayden's struggles at sea and the situation around Henrietta at home in England. In fact I quite liked how Russell contrasted Hayden's desperate attempt to survive with the lives of Henri's suitor, how he had such an easy life thanks to the hard life of Hayden and other sailors like him. Come on, readers, didn't you pick up on that?That being said, there were a couple of plot events that I thought could have been handled better (spoiler alert). One is that Hayden was desperate to deliver a message to the Admiralty, but there's no mention of him doing that. It would only have taken a page or two and it is alluded to later that he did do this, but it's odd that it wasn't shown in the book. The other point that I found a bit strange was Hayden suddenly getting his own ship out of the blue. After all the trouble he's been having with higher-ups who don't want his career to advance, why does he suddenly get his own ship? It's mentioned that it might be temporary, but that wasn't made clear when he got it. I can see that he needed to have it in order to be involved in the battle at the end of the book, but it still didn't fit the overall tone of the series.I enjoy Russell's writing a lot, especially the puns and humorous banter that occasionally appear. The characters are well-drawn and have distinctive personalities. I'm looking forward to many more books in the series.

I'm a 50 something year old lady, and I'm not a fan of nautical drama - or, more accurately, wasn't one. I bought this because I ran out of Sean Russell fantasy stories to read. Those fantasy books held me spellbound and I was keen to find more of the same. Unfortunately, reading is faster than writing, and I have outdistanced the author already. My only choice was to give his nautical works a chance.WOW! It started off a bit dry (as I expected), but within a few pages I was thrust deep into the story line, and Russell's Charles Hayden quickly became a personal hero of mine. Guided by an inner sense of what is right, Hayden follows his own instincts in a world that is dominated by politics and rules. But his inner guidance system is a good one, and it steers Hayden well, much to the frustration of Navy sticklers who rise to thwart him at virtually every turn. Most delightful is that Charles Hayden does not overvalue himself. He is a humble navy officer, tough as nails, but constantly questioning his own righteousness. Very endearing - Hayden put me a little in mind of the honorable Tristam Flattery in Russell's 'World Without End' books. This guy can write honorable characters like nobody's business.Like all the Russell books I've read, the story is rich with hope, insight, bitter agony and glorious triumph. Buy it, and buy one for your best friend. If they like to read, and enjoy an exciting story with rich characters - they will thank you! I bought one for my father.

Having read Mr. Russell's first 2 books, I thought, mistakenly as it turned out, that with the title 'A Ship of War', this would be another martial story. Well, it was, but it wasn't. Like the Curate's Egg, it was good in parts, but truly, horrendously awful in others. After his weird excursion into Shakespearian theatre, and then Golf (how the niblick may have got its' name!) in previous episodes, the unsuspecting reader was beaten over the head with 'Henrietta' for chapter after chapter. I just about lost the will to live. Add to that the Bourdage saga, and the chance meeting with Madame Adair (a sort of 'things that go bang in the night' encounter), the possibilities of certain things rearing their ugly heads in future are truly horrendous. I don't think I can take much more. When the publishers blurb compares Russell to Cornwell and O'Brian, I can only imagine that the publishers themselves don't actually read the books. Terrible!

Agree with other reviewers, the segment devoted to Hayden's romance is laboured and detracts from the novel (I like to think that this isn't simply because I'm an emotionally illiterate bloke who likes to read naval fiction, but that Mr Russell is trying to inject a bit of Jane Austen to improve the literary credibility of his chosen genre. I'm all for Hayden's character being developed and extended through whatever relationships, shipboard or landbased, that Mr Russell cares to throw at him, but I felt that there was just a bit too much of a disconnect here) I suspect that like other readers I'm still searching for a writer who can fill the void left by Patrick O Brien, STR feels like the closest yet, although he clearly does not have the weather gauge on POB. I'll still give the next volume a go though..

I agree with many other reviewers. This book, the third in the series, was not as good as the first two because the excellent seagoing story was interspersed with whole chapters covering the relationships and social niceties between the ‘well bred’ family of his supposedly scorned lady friend. Without revealing the plot, these chapters would be more suited to a lover of romantic fiction rather than one seeking historical action on the high seas. The book feels like a collaboration between C.S Forrester and Jane Austin. Russell seems to take a long time write each volume in this series and it may be that he is struggling to move his character forward. This would be a pity as he’s an excellent writer of naval fiction, and presumably also romantic fiction too!

The first two books in this series were excellent. The third, not. I very rarely skim passages, but the Mills and Boonery of Henrietta's pondering (one rumour has an effect that a sustained press campaign seems unable to affect, let alone reverse...) was so tooth-achingly dull that a quick skim of those sections was all that I could bring myself to endure. Forester made Hornblower's romances part of the story. Here it felt like those endless, tedious chapters had been stapled in by the provisional wing of the Women's Institute. Russell writes excellent sea stories. Barbara Cartland probably would not have done. The reverse is also true. Please, stick to your strengths Mr. Russell. I am hoping that book 4 is more like the excellent books 1 and 2 than the miscegenatef horror of book 3.