Books like 'The Billy Ruffian'
Readers who enjoyed The Billy Ruffian by David Cordingly also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical action / adventure 20th century military, war & conflict military war nautical classics early-modern
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Manöver um Feuerland (The Far Side of the World) by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsCaptain Jack Aubrey sets sail for Cape Horn, determined to intercept an American frigate before it can wreak havoc on the British whaling trade. As always, he is accompanied by intelligence operative Stephen Maturin, and as always, Aubrey has no idea of what his companion is up to... -
![The Letter of Marque by Patrick O'Brian]()
The Letter of Marque by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsCaptain Jack Aubrey, a brilliant and experienced officer, has been struck off the list of post-captains for a crime he did not commit. His old friend Stephen Maturin, usually cast as a ship's surgeon to mask his discreet activities on behalf of British Intelligence, has bought for Aubrey his former ship the Surprise to command as a privateer, more politely termed a letter of marque... -
![Duell vor Sumatra by Patrick O'Brian]()
Duell vor Sumatra by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsAmid sights and smells of the Indian subcontinent explore ships of the East India Company. Aubrey is on the defensive, pitting wits and seamanship against an enemy enjoying overwhelming local superiority. Somewhere in the Indian Ocean lies the prize that could make him rich - ships sent by Napoleon to attack the China Fleet... -
![Sodan mainingit by Herman Wouk]()
Sodan mainingit by Herman Wouk
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThese two classic works capture the tide of world events even as they unfold the compelling tale of a single American family drawn into the very center of the war's maelstrom.The multimillion-copy bestsellers that capture all the drama, romance, heroism, and tragedy of the Second World War -- and that constitute Wouk's crowning achievement -- are available for the first time in trade paperback... -
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![Sturm in der Antarktis by Patrick O'Brian]()
Sturm in der Antarktis by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsCaptain Bligh (yes, the guy from the Bounty) needs to be rescued, and the Royal Navy has the perfect man for the job: Captain Jack Aubrey. With his friend and cloak-and-dagger expert Stephen Maturin in tow, Aubrey sets off for Australia... -
![Eagles Over Britain by Lee Jackson]()
Eagles Over Britain by Lee Jackson
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe German Luftwaffe attacks Britain from the skies.With no allies, she stands alone.Her fate hangs in the balance.As the first Axis aircraft streak across English Channel airspace, so begins a battle for the ages; one that will determine the trajectory of the war... -
![The Commodore by Patrick O'Brian]()
The Commodore by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsHaving survived a long and desperate adventure in the Great South Sea, Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin return to England to very different circumstances... -
![Geheimauftrag Mauritius by Patrick O'Brian]()
Geheimauftrag Mauritius by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsCaptain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half pay without a command, until Stephen Maturin arrives with secret orders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a commodore's pennant, there to mount an expedition against the French-held islands of Mauritius and La Reacute union... -
![Nutmeg of Consolation by Patrick O'Brian, Simon Vance]()
Nutmeg of Consolation by Patrick O'Brian, Simon Vance
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsShipwrecked on a remote island and threatened by Malay pirates, Captain Aubrey and crew barely escape before facing a diplomatic crisis at the harrowingly dreadful penal colony in New South Wales... -
![Turn Left for Gibraltar by David Black, James Langton]()
Turn Left for Gibraltar by David Black, James Langton
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAs 1941 draws to a close, brave young men are fighting for freedom in countries across the globe. But for Sub-Lieutenant Harry Gilmour, washed up in neutral Spain alongside ‘interned belligerents’ from both sides of the war, hostilities have come to a pause.Before long, his unlikely comrades must once again become his enemies, and he is back at the frontline of the battle for the Mediterranean... -
![The Reverse of the Medal by Patrick O'Brian]()
The Reverse of the Medal by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsAshore between cruises, Captain Jack Aubrey is persuaded to sink some money into an investment scheme. Soon this innocent decision enmeshes him in various criminal and even treasonous enterprises, which threaten to destroy his entire career. Bad luck? A deliberate plot? Read this latest installment of the Aubrey-Maturin saga to find out... -
![The Thirteen-Gun Salute by Patrick O'Brian]()
The Thirteen-Gun Salute by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsCaptain Jack Aubrey sets sail for the South China Sea with a new lease on life. Following reinstatement into the Royal Navy. Maturin climbs the Thousand Steps of the sacred crater of the orangutans. A killer typhoon catches Aubrey and his crew trying to work the Diane off a reef... -
![The Black Obelisk by Erich Maria Remarque]()
The Black Obelisk by Erich Maria Remarque
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the author of the masterpiece All Quiet on the Western Front, The Black Obelisk is a classic novel of the troubling aftermath of World War I in Germany.A hardened young veteran from the First World War, Ludwig now works for a monument company, selling stone markers to the survivors of deceased loved ones... -
![The Yellow Admiral by Patrick O'Brian]()
The Yellow Admiral by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsLife ashore may once again be the undoing of Jack Aubrey in The Yellow Admiral, Patrick O'Brian's best-selling novel and eighteenth volume in the Aubrey/Maturin series... -
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![The Truelove by Patrick O'Brian]()
The Truelove by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsA British whaler has been captured by an ambitious chief in the sandwich islands at French instigation, and Captain Aubrey, R. N., Is dispatched with the Surprise to restore order. But stowed away in the cable-tier is an escaped female convict. To the officers, Clarissa Harvill is an object of awkward courtliness and dangerous jealousies... -
![Gone to Sea in a Bucket by David Black]()
Gone to Sea in a Bucket by David Black
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLike all young men of a certain age, Harry Gilmour had his own notion of how a naval battle should be. This wasn’t it.Norway, 1940: Sub Lieutenant Harry Gilmour’s first encounter with battleship action is not the adventure he had hoped for. Faced with a thankless task and ill equipped to handle it, Gilmour’s inexperience leads to a damning allegation. His future hangs in the balance... -
![The Night in Lisbon by Erich Maria Remarque]()
The Night in Lisbon by Erich Maria Remarque
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHistory and fate collide as the Nazis rise to power in The Night in Lisbon, a classic tale of survival from the renowned author of All Quiet on the Western Front. With the world slowly sliding into war, it is crucial that enemies of the Reich flee Europe at once. But so many routes are closed, and so much money is needed... -
![Beat to Quarters by C.S. Forester]()
Beat to Quarters by C.S. Forester
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsJune 1808, somewhere west of Nicaragua-a site suitable for spectacular sea battles... -
![Lieutenant Hornblower by C.S. Forester]()
Lieutenant Hornblower by C.S. Forester
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsIn this gripping tale of turmoil and triumph on the high seas, Horatio Hornblower emerges from his apprenticeship as midshipman to face new responsibilities thrust upon him by the fortunes of war between Napoleon and Spain... -
![A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin]()
A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom acclaimed novelist Mark Helprin, a lush, literary epic about love, beauty, and the world at war.Alessandro Giuliani, the young son of a prosperous Roman lawyer, enjoys an idyllic life full of privilege: he races horses across the country to the sea, he climbs mountains in the Alps, and, while a student of painting at the ancient university in Bologna, he falls in love... -
![Behind the Lines by W.E.B. Griffin]()
Behind the Lines by W.E.B. Griffin
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBehind the Lines is W. E. B. Griffin's powerful novel of World War II -- and the courage, patriotism, and sacrifice of those who fought it.By 1942, the Japanese have routed the outnumbered American forces and conquered the Philippines. But deep in the island jungles, the combat continues. Refusing to surrender, a renegade Army officer organizes a resistance force and vows to fight to the last man... -
![The Commodore by P.T. Deutermann]()
The Commodore by P.T. Deutermann
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsP. T. Deutermann's previous novels of the US Navy in World War II - Pacific Glory, Ghosts of Bungo Suido, and Sentinels of Fire - have been acclaimed by reviewers and readers for their powerful drama and authentic detail. In The Commodore, the Navy in 1942-1943 is fighting a losing battle against Japan for control of the Solomon Islands... -
![Feindliche Segel by Patrick O'Brian]()
Feindliche Segel by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsMaster and Commander raised almost dangerously high expectations Post Captain triumphantly surpasses them a brilliant book Mary Renault... -
![Blue at the Mizzen by Patrick O'Brian]()
Blue at the Mizzen by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsNapoleon has been defeated at Waterloo, and the ensuing peace brings with it both the desertion of nearly half of Captain Aubrey's crew and the sudden dimming of Aubrey's career prospects in a peacetime navy... -
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![Hornblower and the Hotspur by C.S. Forester]()
Hornblower and the Hotspur by C.S. Forester
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsHornblower's reconnaissance mission quickly turns to warfare in this installment of the beloved series of naval adventures by C. S. Forester, "a master of the genre" (New York Times). April 1803. The Peace of Amiens is breaking down. Napoleon is building ships and amassing an army just across the Channel... -
![Back to Battle by Max Hennessy, John Harris]()
Back to Battle by Max Hennessy, John Harris
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe crescendo of war; a crushing blow; a path to redemption... Peacetime political maneuverings are threatening Kelly Maguire’s ambitions for captain’s rank. But the outbreak of war, and the need for those who are willing to risk everything, changes all that... -
![The Cape Raider by Justin Fox]()
The Cape Raider by Justin Fox
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsA fight to the death in foreign seas…1940Scarred – physically and emotionally – by the brutal warfare at Dunkirk, Jack Pembroke decides to leave his home in England to join his father, Admiral Pembroke, in the South African Cape... -
![The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk]()
The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsUpon its original publication in 1951, this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel was immediately embraced as one of the first serious works of fiction to help readers grapple with the human consequences of World War II... -
![Flying Colours by C.S. Forester]()
Flying Colours by C.S. Forester
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsForced to surrender his ship, the Sutherland, after a long and bloody battle, Captain Horatio Hornblower now bides his time as a prisoner in a French fortress... -
![Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa]()
Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"In the tempestuous closing decades of the sixteenth century, the Empire of Japan writhes in chaos as the shogunate crumbles and rival warlords battle for supremacy. Warrior monks in their armed citadels block the road to the capital; castles are destroyed, villages plundered, fields put to the touch." "Amid this devastation, three men dream of uniting the nation... -
![The Iceman by P.T. Deutermann]()
The Iceman by P.T. Deutermann
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe Iceman is an action-packed World War II military thriller featuring a daring United States Navy submarine commander during the Pacific war in 1942-43.In 1942, off the port city of St. Nazaire in occupied France, a United States Navy S-class submarine assigned to the Royal Navy lurks just outside the borders of the minefield protecting a German U-boat base... -
![The Little Ship: A heart-warming, sweeping wartime saga full of heart which will stay with you for ages by Margaret Mayhew]()
The Little Ship: A heart-warming, sweeping wartime saga full of heart which will stay with you for ages by Margaret Mayhew
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSet largely on the Essex coast before the war, Matt, Guy, and their young cousin Lizzie meet up for holidays and bum around in an old boat. Guy is the eldest, handsome, skilled at everything, a tad selfish. Matt is quieter and has a crippled right arm... -
![Flashman in the Great Game by George MacDonald Fraser]()
Flashman in the Great Game by George MacDonald Fraser
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsOne of literature's most delightful rakes is back in another tale of rollicking adventure and tantalizing seduction. The plucky Flashman's latest escapades are sure to entertain devotees as well as attract new aficionados... -
![Final Harbor: Volume 1 by Harry Homewood]()
Final Harbor: Volume 1 by Harry Homewood
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA DEADLY GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK She was a monster, sleek and gleaming, designed to strike without warning like the dreaded shark. She was the USS Mako, as fearless and bold as any submarine that ever prowled the blue Pacific. Her mission: seek out and destroy the hitherto invincible ships of the Japanese Imperial Navy — and revenge the earlier defeats of a long and dirty war... -
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![Sentinels of Fire by P.T. Deutermann]()
Sentinels of Fire by P.T. Deutermann
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsP.T. Deutermann's World War II navy series began with the award-winning Pacific Glory, followed by the brilliantly reviewed Ghosts of Bungo Suido. His new novel Sentinels of Fire tells the tale of a lone destroyer, the USS Malloy, part of the Allied invasion forces attacking the island of Okinawa and the Japanese home islands... -
![Sharpe's Waterloo by Bernard Cornwell]()
Sharpe's Waterloo by Bernard Cornwell
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsJune 1815: The Duke of Wellington, the Prince of Orange, and Napoleon will meet on the battlefield...and decide the fate of EuropeWith the emperor Napoleon at its head, and enormous French army is marching toward Brussels. The British and their allies are also converging on Brussels - in preparation for a grand society ball... -
![Harm's Way by James Bassett]()
Harm's Way by James Bassett
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsRockwell Terry is a career naval captain who has served since WWI. Now is the dawn of another world war as his ship patrols outside Pearl Harbor. He leads a sheltered life, goes nowhere and sees no one. With the outbreak of the war, his past begins to emerge... -
![Command by Antony Melville-Ross]()
Command by Antony Melville-Ross
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrozen fingers, broken bones, shattered hearts… the situation could not get worse. Or so Lieutenant Peter Harding thought. The Trigger has just left UK shores and is on its way to northern Norway when the relentless storm hits. Harding’s crew are barely surviving the Artic conditions which face them... -
![The Lion at Sea by Max Hennessy]()
The Lion at Sea by Max Hennessy
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMidshipman Kelly Maguire has always had a love affair with the sea. And when war clouds gather over Europe, Maguire is put to the test along with the marine might of the Royal Navy. From the Hellish battles of Gallipoli to the barbarous action at Antwerp, Maguire begins to learn the lessons a sailor must face. Glory and danger abound in this sizzling saga of adventure, blood and guts... -
![Ship of the Line by C.S. Forester]()
Ship of the Line by C.S. Forester
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsHornblower leads his first ship of the line into enemy waters in this installment of C. S. Forester's beloved adventure series, called "exciting, realistic, packed with grand naval action" by the New Yorker. May 1810, seventeen years deep into the Napoleonic Wars... -
![The Skipper's Dog Called Stalin by David Black]()
The Skipper's Dog Called Stalin by David Black
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSpring, 1941. France has fallen but the Free French naval forces are in no mood to surrender. Royal Navy Sub-Lieutenant Harry Gilmour is also ready for action, despite the horrors of his first taste of submarine warfare.When he is appointed as British Navy Liaison Officer aboard the Free French submarine Radegonde, he finds it anarchic, disorientating—and very French... -
![Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute]()
Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA novel tells the story of a man who leads an ordinary, uneventful life, until overnight he becomes the trustee of his 10-year-old niece, and involved in the search for some missing money... -
![The Steel Wave by Jeff Shaara]()
The Steel Wave by Jeff Shaara
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsJeff Shaara, America's premier author of military historical fiction, brings us the centerpiece of his epic trilogy of the Second World War.General Dwight Eisenhower once again commands a diverse army that must find its single purpose in the destruction of Hitler's European fortress... -
![Das Boot by Lothar-Günther Buchheim]()
Das Boot by Lothar-Günther Buchheim
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIt is autumn, 1941, and a German U-boat commander and his crew set out on yet another hazardous patrol in the Battle of the Atlantic. Over the coming weeks they must brave the stormy waters of the Atlantic in their mission to seek out and destroy British supply ships. But the tide is beginning to turn against the Germans in the war for the North Atlantic... -
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![The Final Storm by Jeff Shaara]()
The Final Storm by Jeff Shaara
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Final Storm opens a new front in Jeff Shaara’s gripping chronicle of World War II as soldiers, sailors, and marines sacrifice all for one final push toward decisive victory in the fierce maelstrom of the Pacific theater. As the war in Europe winds down in the wake of the Normandy invasion, the United States has turned its vast military resources toward an all-out effort against the Japanese... -
![Hornblower and the Atropos by C.S. Forester]()
Hornblower and the Atropos by C.S. Forester
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsIn the wake of a humbling incident aboard a canal boat in the Cotswolds, young Captain Horatio Hornblower arrives in London to take command of the Atropos, a 22-gun sloop barely large enough to require a captain. Her first assignment under Hornblower's command is as flagship for the funeral procession of Lord Nelson... -
![The Wren and the Swordfish Pilot by Stella Hutchinson]()
The Wren and the Swordfish Pilot by Stella Hutchinson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsHeart-warming, courageous, and ultimately uplifting – for all lovers of World War Two historical fiction.When Cathy’s twin brother is called to serve in the Royal Navy, she leaps at the chance to join the Wrens, which by 1942, has grown into a strong force of over sixty thousand women. But she longs to be at sea and prove herself – to fight alongside her brother... -
![Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf]()
Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratings"I, Hasan the son of Muhammad the weigh-master, I, Jean-Leon de Medici, circumcised at the hand of a barber and baptized at the hand of a pope, I am now called the African, but I am not from Africa, nor from Europe, nor from Arabia. I am also called the Granadan, the Fassi, the Zayyati, but I come from no country, from no city, no tribe... -
![Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C.S. Forester]()
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C.S. Forester
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsHere we meet Horatio Hornblower, a young man of 17, in this Volume #1 of what becomes the 11 volume set about the career of this British Naval officer fighting against Napoleon and his tyranny of Europe as an inexperienced midshipman in January 1794. Bullied and forced into a duel, he takes an even chance... -
![A Sailor of Austria: In Which, Without Really Intending to, Otto Prohaska Becomes Official War Hero No. 27 of the Habsburg Empire by John Biggins]()
A Sailor of Austria: In Which, Without Really Intending to, Otto Prohaska Becomes Official War Hero No. 27 of the Habsburg Empire by John Biggins
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn the spring of 1915, a young Austro-Czech naval lieutenant Ottokar Prohaska finds himself posted to the minuscule Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Submarine Service in the Adriatic port of Pola. In some trepidation at first, because he has no experience whatever of submarines, his fears are soon set at rest when he discovers that nobody else has either: least of all his superiors...
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