A Divided Command
John Pearce, Book 10
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Narrated by:
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Peter Wickham
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By:
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David Donachie
About this listen
Unbeknown to John Pearce, the private letter he is delivering on behalf of the prime minister carries the dismissal of the very man he is sailing to see. The need for a government majority to pursue the war with France means John Pearce must step down as Britain’s best sailor, regretfully relinquishing the position to the incompetent Admiral Hotham.
Hotham is equally less than pleased about John Pearce, as he is the one person who knows the truth about his dishonest naval career. Pearce knows Hotham will try and destroy him any way he can to keep from being exposed, so he must navigate the dangerous waters whilst trying to return to Emily Barclay, the woman he loves.
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At the heart of this vibrant saga is an immense ship, the Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean, its purpose to fight China's vicious 19th-century Opium Wars. As for the crew, they are a motley array of sailors and stowaways, coolies and convicts.
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ignorance may be bliss
- By Evelyn M Kloepper on 07-27-09
By: Amitav Ghosh
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His Majesty's Dragon
- Temeraire, Book 1
- By: Naomi Novik
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes its precious cargo - an unhatched dragon egg - fate sweeps Captain Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarified world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle.
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Excellent AU period fantasy
- By Melanie on 07-08-10
By: Naomi Novik
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A Beautiful Blue Death
- Charles Lenox Mysteries Series #1
- By: Charles Finch
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Charles Lenox, Victorian gentleman and armchair explorer, likes nothing more than to relax in his private study with a cup of tea, a roaring fire and a good book. But when his lifelong friend Lady Jane asks for his help, Lenox cannot resist the chance to unravel a mystery. Prudence Smith, one of Jane's former servants, is dead of an apparent suicide. But Lenox suspects something far more sinister: murder, by a rare and deadly poison.
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I like cozy
- By Sheryl on 05-21-12
By: Charles Finch
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Billy Budd
- By: Herman Melville
- Narrated by: Peter Joyce
- Length: 3 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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On one level...Melville’s tale is an historical adventure telling the story of life aboard ship shortly after the mutiny at Spithead in 1797. Billy is taken from a homeward bound merchantman to serve on the ‘Seventy Four’ HMS Indomitable. He falls foul of Claggart, the ‘Master at Arms’, and the final confrontation results in death. Billy becomes an unwilling martyr - what passes for justice must be implemented because of the rebellious climate of the time.
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Well done, a pleasure to listen to!
- By Kindle Customer on 10-17-18
By: Herman Melville
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The Lion of St. Mark
- By: G.A. Henty
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Of The Lion of St. Mark, G.A. Henty wrote: "I have laid my story in the time not of the triumphs of Venice but of her hardest struggle for existence, when she defended herself successfully against the coalition of Hungary, Padua, and Genoa, for never at any time were the virtues of Venice, her steadfastness, her patriotism, and her willingness to make all sacrifice for her independence more brilliantly shown.
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A Great Listen
- By Jef on 04-04-05
By: G.A. Henty
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John Paul Jones
- Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy
- By: Evan Thomas
- Narrated by: Dan Cashman
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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John Paul Jones is more than a great sea story. Jones is a character for the ages. John Adams called him the "most ambitious and intriguing officer in the American Navy." The renewed interest in the Founding Fathers reminds us of the great men who made this country, but John Paul Jones teaches us that it took fighters as well as thinkers, men driven by dreams of personal glory as well as high-minded principle to break free of the past and start a new world. Jones' spirit was classically American.
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Swashbuckler or Saviour
- By Bruce on 03-16-04
By: Evan Thomas
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A Rage for Glory
- The Life of Commodore Stephen Decatur, USN
- By: James Tertius de Kay
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Acclaimed author James Tertius de Kay recounts the lifeof Commodore Stephen Decatur in the first new biography of the great naval hero in almost 70 years. De Kay draws on material unavailable to previous biographers to explore Decatur’s extraordinary life. From his burning of the Philadelphia to his capture of the HMS Macedonian, Decatur demonstrated his legendary bravery at every turn.
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Excellent writing and exciting story
- By mikey on 08-02-19
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Sacred Hunger
- By: Barry Unsworth
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 22 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In this Booker Prize-winning work, Barry Unsworth follows the failing fortunes of William Kemp, a merchant pinning his last chance to a slave ship; his son, who needs a fortune because he is in love with an upper-class woman; and his nephew, who sails on the ship as its doctor because he has lost all he has loved. The voyage meets its demise when disease spreads among the slaves and the captain's drastic response provokes a mutiny.
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Wise, Perceptive, Heart-breaking
- By S. Coldsmith on 04-16-16
By: Barry Unsworth
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A Conspiracy of Paper
- Benjamin Weaver Series, Book 2
- By: David Liss
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 17 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In A Conspiracy of Paper, Weaver investigates a crime of the most personal sort: the mysterious death of his estranged father, a notorious stockjobber. To find the answers, Weaver must contend with a desperate prostitute who knows too much about his past, relatives who remind him of his alienation from the Jewish faith, and a cabal of powerful men in the world of British finance who have hidden their business dealings behind an intricate web of deception and violence. Relying on brains and brawn, Weaver uncovers the beginnings of a strange new economic order.
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What a narrator!
- By michaelgilboe on 03-24-22
By: David Liss
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Quillifer
- Quillifer, Book 1
- By: Walter Jon Williams
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Quillifer is young, serially in love, studying law, and living each day keenly aware that his beloved homeport of Ethlebight risks closure due to silting of the harbor. His concerns for the future become much more immediate when he returns from a summery assignation to find his city attacked by Aekoi pirates, leading to brigands in the streets and his family and friends in chains.
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The opposite of George R R Martin (in a good way)
- By A reader on 10-30-17
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The Bright and Breaking Sea
- Kit Brightling Series, Book 1
- By: Chloe Neill
- Narrated by: Danielle Cohen
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Kit Brightling, rescued as a foundling and raised in a home for talented girls, has worked hard to rise through the ranks of the Isles' Crown Command and become one of the few female captains in Queen Charlotte's fleet. Her ship is small, but she's fast - in part because of Kit's magical affinity to the sea. But the waters become perilous when the queen sends Kit on a special mission with a partner she never asked for. Rian Grant, Viscount Queenscliffe, may be a veteran of the Continental war, but Kit doesn't know him or his motives....
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It's really good, but not quite great
- By Mariya Joldzic on 11-29-20
By: Chloe Neill
What listeners say about A Divided Command
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- bluefin
- 11-13-23
Recaps
Recaps. Recaps Recaps in this story while well written in between constant regurgitation of previous volumes was so full of recaps that the recaps surely were more than any added new story are definitely a huge attempt to drag out more money for each “story” that in reality without all the recaps is no more than what amounts to a “chapter” in a normal book or story
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- Jean
- 07-16-15
Rehashing
At the end of the last book Pearce left Emily in the Tuscan port of Leghorn and sailed on to fleet command Mediterranean headquarters to deliver a letter from the Admiralty to Admiral Hotham. Unfortunately it was a letter of promotion for the Admiral. Pearce gets tangled in a political plot that puts him and his friends in danger. Pearce fights a duel against a British Army officer which makes Emily upset.
Emily sees no future with Pearce and leaves when he is conveying letters from Horatio Nelson to the British Ambassador. Pearce set off in pursuit and takes on a superior force of Barbary Corsairs who have targeted the merchant ship Emily is on. The book provides sea battles and lots of swashbuckling action and suspense.
Donachie has spent half the book rehashing the prior installments. The series has been dragged out about as far as it can. Let’s end the series. Donachie, it is time to start a new series. Peter Wickham narrated the story.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Robert White
- 04-02-14
Aimless rambling
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
What a disappointment. This series started well enough (although the main character is so self-righteous as to basically be a jerk). But the last book before "A Divided Command" was really just a "half a book" that led me to think the author was just trying to earn a paycheck.
What was most disappointing about David Donachie’s story?
Divided Command is simply a lot of aimless rambling. It's like the plot is stuck in quicksand. The author rehashes and summarizes some of the early story lines but this book just goes nowhere.
What aspect of Peter Wickham’s performance would you have changed?
Peter Wickham is outstanding. He is the one shining aspect of this book.
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from A Divided Command?
There are more bad scenes than good scenes so it wouldn't be a useful exercise.
Any additional comments?
I have read or heard all of the Forester, Kent, O'Brian, Lambdin, the Kidd novels, several others of similar genre and now the Sharp series. These last two by Donachie have been a sad disappointment on what was a good but not great series.
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