content: I read this book when I was in 10th grade and thought it one of the best books I'd ever read - I later read the author's "HMS Ulysses" which is even better - and still feel that way almost 40 years later. It is one of the best-written, most intricately plotted novels I know: action-packed from beginning to end, loaded with interesting, complex characters. It is the first novel I remember where I was conscious of the writing itself - the long, involved sentences, the better-than-average vocabulary - and years later, as a professional writer, I look back to this book as one which helped me understand just what good writing is. A superior book.