Now at Amazon.com

The book can now be ordered through amazon.com as well.

More background: The Finnish War

Several Readers have expressed the wish to read some more about the Finnish War of 1808-1809, a part of the Napoleonic Wars that isn't very well known outside Scandinavia. I found a very good summary of the events on this website. There is a special section dedicated to the coastal fleets as well as the involvement of the Royal Navy.

New alternative download site

The ebook is now available in yet more file formats on the Smashwords site. These are pdf, epub, Kindle, PalmDoc and several more. The downloads are still free, of course.

First printed copies

I got the first printed copies yesterday and they really look good. For now they are available from Lulu directly, but soon they will appear on amazon.com as well.

Background facts: The gunboats

If you are interested in the vessels used by the inshore fleet, and the gunboats like our dear Number 14, this site is a good resource. Unfortunately the author mistranslated the Swedish term "kanonslup" into "Gun Sloop" which isn't very accurate considering that in English, a sloop is a completely different kind of vessel (in the Royal Navy the term could be applied to all kinds of vessels up to the size of a corvette). Otherwise, the site does provide a good summary of the vessels and tactics of the inshore fleet (army fleet).

There are some models of Chapman type gunboats, for example in the maritime museum in Stockholm. The only good picture I have seen on the web, however, is of an early type, with the removable land artillery carriage.

The picture above, albeit not as good, shows the later type of gunboat, like the ones in my novel.

A short review...

If you liked Patrick O'Brian's naval war stories, but wished there was a little more sex sprinkled through them, Gunboat # 14 is the book for you.

George Bollenbacher, USA

Audio book version

Upon request there is now an audio book version. It's a quick and dirty conversion via espeak, so the voice is a little Star-Trekish. On the other hand, the guy does pronounce Lieutenant the British way, which may counterbalance my American spelling a little...

Edit: I have taken away the file - the quality is just too bad.

It's published

Well, it's all done. The book is now available at Lulu's for order as a paperback as well as a free download if you want to read it on your screen. It has been a long journey to write this book (I started in February this year), have it proof read and my English dissected. It feels good to finally have made port with this project.

To download or order the paperback, please use the links to the right. Oh, and please comment, if you like the book, or if you don't...

Below on this site are still some chapters available as a preview. But please bear in mind that these are not proof read, spell checked or updated in any way - they are the first, unedited version.

Soon...

The novel is practically finished and currently being proof read. In due course it will be available here for free download as well as a pocket book (at a cost). So please, stay tuned.

Meanwhile, you can read a few chapters here, look at the blog archive to the right. Mind, though, that the texts available here are the first, unedited versions, so if you want a spellchecked and consistent version, wait for the final PDF release.