Age of Fighting Sail-- with a Christian Captain

I've just come across a relatively new series that makes the point of this blog:it is not about the genre of Christian fiction, but about genre fiction with Christian content.In this case, the Donland books by Perry Comer recounts the career of a British naval officer named Donland during the decades of off-and-on war between Britain and France climaxing with the Napoleonic conflict. It's a genre populated by heroes named Hornblower, Bolitho, Drinkwater and Aubrey. Donland, however, belongs in this blog because he is unapologetic Christian.When the fate of his ship and crew is in doubt, he prays, and when they survives, he credits God. Comer is a competent writer well versed in nautical affairs. The first book in the series is The Prize. Donland is just a lieutenant when his own ship captures a French frigate and he is given command of it with a small crew to sail across the Caribbean to the naval base at Antigua.There quickly develops a mystery about a boy found on board with a Black slave which is overheated and contrived, and romantic interest involving a passionate American woman who is also overheated. I'm having trouble pushing through the lengthy period ashore as the Donland's crew repair their vessel after a battle. The jury's still out, in other words, thou I'd be interested in other opinions. For better writing, in the Christian age of fighting sail sub genre, I do recommend Jay Worrall's books. They nicely blend naval action with the gentrified life in England in the Napoleonic era. The protagonist romances and marries a Quaker which makes for an amusing clash of cultures. Worrall is himself a Quaker and, like Comer, an American. But he started his series late in his life and has run out of steam , I'd say by book three or four. I hope he is still with us and recovers his earlier energy. As to the point of this blog, it is to highlight Christian content in genre fiction: thrillers, legal novels, mysteries, sports: whatever.

Gus Lee and the Chinese in America

I finished my previous blog, about Gus Lee's legal thriller No Physical Evidence saying I liked enough to go looking for more of his stuff. I really enjoy legal procedurals but Lee actually seems to be doing something different and interesting. His books are semi- autobiographical, but in different genres. He was a prosecutor and No Physical Evidence is, I believe, a fictionalized description of a case he prosecuted involving child abuse, but maybe recounts his experiences in a more general way. His first novel, China Boy, deals with childhood and maybe coming of age for a Chinese kid growing up in California in the 60s-70s--I think. I haven't read it yet.
I've just finished Tiger's Tail,, a thriller set in South Korea in the 1970s. Our hero is again a Chinese American, serving as a lawyer in the U.S. military's judge advocate's corps, investigating the disappearance of a fellow officer, but finding much more sinister goings on.
I've just started his second book, which picks up where China Boy lets off, with a fictionalized version of Gus Lee going to West Point, as he did.
I like books which set the protagonist within a community-bureaucracy like the army or the legal system or big company, where he must work out his destiny, which is to be an honorable person.
But being honorable as a Chinese and as a West Point freshman are two different things, and similarly, as a middle officer in the army and as a troubleshooter among enemies in Korea far from his superiors.
As in No physical Evidence, the hero of Tiger's Tail, is wrestling not only with evil people but with personal demons which have destroyed his religious faith.
But the mystery he must solve for the army leads him to a local Korean shaman, to his own mixed Christian-Taoist spiritual upbringing,his own guilt for misdeeds committed in the Vietnam War, and his own spiritual void.There is a romantic subplot that involved being faithful to a doubtful relationship as well.
The action at the level of techno-thriller is hard to follow but the characters are vivid and the revelations about the different cultures--military, Korean and Chinese--are convincing and fascinating.
The clashes of culture are often humorous and the story is always gripping. For me, the spiritual quest of the hero is what makes this book worth blogging about. It is well done, and respectful of all the faiths involved. (Although, there is a stereotypical reference to the Inquisition which indicates little knowledge about that institution.)It's a good read of a different sort from his first book.
Lee also gives workshop on leadership and with his wife has written a book about it and readers of his novels will be unsurprised to see that, for him, ethical behaviour is a major component.
I think the next blog will be about Lee's book on West Point.