The author had a good plot and enough basic knowledge of sailing ships to write a decent book. Unfortunately, he apparently lacked a strong editor to send the book back for a second draft. The vapid dialog needed re-writing and his characters could use a little more depth. In addition, there were several places in the book that read like a paragraph or more was accidently left out. For example, Kilburnie is suddently a captain, but the book doesn't tell us how he found out about his promotion. Finally, Mack's description of how the British Navy operated (for example, how Captains were assigned to ships) is very different from how every other author I've read has descripted it. Overall, there are many better choices to choose from if you want to read about 18th & early 19th Century sailing ships.

A very thinly fleshed out novel, with a bare minimum of the details needed to make it a novel worth reading. Mack's attempt to cover a period of Kilburnie career from before the mast to Post Captain didn't allow room to develope the book properly, making the book read more as a synopsis or outline instead of a stand a lone novel. Mack needs to do much more research about the Royal Navy of that period. His ending was a prime example of the lack of a serious attempt to write a seafaring novel worthy of O'brien and his peers. Capt. Kilburnie has his command sunk and he merrily goes to Scotland with no effort to get to the Admiralty or stand trial for the lost of his ship, which was standing proceedure for the time if all the other top authors of the gernre are to be believed. I suggest that Adm. Mack stick to novels of the 20th century Navy, with which he is more aquainted, also a new publicist couldn't hurt.

I enjoyed this novel even though the format is vastly different from O'Brian, Kent, Lambdin, Pope and the other major writers in this genre. Following the career of Fergus Kilburnie from lowly sailor to Post Captain in one book forces a faster pace and fewer details than is normally encountered. While I prefer the normal format of one ship, one major battle or event per book - which allows for better character development, this was a fun read. When I finished, I immediately ordered the sequel.

While the description indicates that the third edition of this book was revised in 1999, much of the "information" is hopelessly out of date. This book, if relied upon by a clinician, would result in inferior care for patients.

Like all the books of this fabulous series, you get the relevant and usable information (minus the excess) with excellent clinical applications and cases, plus those golden mnemonics to ease the pain of rote learning. Only about 90 pages, so you can read it a couple of times and gain a good basic understanding of psychiatry; it probably lacks a bit of the necessary detail that med school demands, although you can always add this later after gaining the essentials. And of course, the classic style of the text makes it quite enjoyable to read.

After reading every word of the paperback, I find very little to say positive about "The Winter War". Knowing "The Winter War" won the 1961 Western Writers of America Spur Award in the HISTORICAL NOVEL division was probably my motive in selecting the book. It certainly took a lot of stamina and determination to get the book read.

I thought that the book was way to easy and anybody could figure out the answers. I was very disappionted when i was finished with it in a matter of days.