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bollig posted:Hey so, while I am not completely prepared to break my 'one book by an author a year' rule, I was thinking that maybe I could read a non-fiction book pertaining to the age of sail. I see the recommendation of A Sea of Words, but is that something I can kind of just sit down and read? Or is that more of a reference book? The little I see on the preview on Amazon makes it look like a pretty decent read. Your rule is silly. What if you die, huh? What then guy? There's not a moment to lose, not a moment. I would recommend Cochrane by David Cordingly. A biography of a man whose life, his trials and triumphs, heavily influenced characters and events in the novels. Very engrossing. I also enjoyed The Wooden World by N.A.M. Rodger, about the Royal Navy circa the Seven Years War. It's not exactly the navy we read about in the novels, but there's much that's the same, so if you ever wanted to learn about food, discipline, the Impress Service, what a Purser does, etc etc, it's good. You can check out the table of contents on the amazon preview to see if it's for you. There is a big section to A Sea of Words that isn't just a dictionary of jargon and references, so it's good to pick up and read a bit of and then use when you're reading a novel.
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Sep 16, 2014 04:42
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Bingeing on an entire series in one hit - preferably by taking a couple of weeks leave from work and parking yourself on a recliner - is one of the most satisfying things you can do. It's a fabulous luxury to come to a series after it has been published in its entirety.
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Sep 16, 2014 04:47
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Yeah my rule is kind of silly. I used to write book reviews for part of my living, so it stems out of that. That having been said, I read two ASOIAF books this year, so all bets are off. The Wooden World sounds pretty good. So far I'm planning on loading up a bunch of them on the ol' e-reader for airplane reading.
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Sep 16, 2014 09:26
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Anyone who regularly trawls carboot sales, these are everywhere. I'm quickly amassing a set of physical copies, at about 20p each, Wine Dark Sea was this week's grab. Also my copy of Sea of Words finally arrived, about a month after I ordered it... Yay for having to import books! Been reading other things at the same time so I've been going slow, but I've now pretty much finished the first book, I didn't expect it to be so funny, going off half remembered film trailers I thought it was going to be a lot more boring than it was. Onwards to book 2!
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Sep 16, 2014 11:35
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Nettle Soup posted:Anyone who regularly trawls carboot sales, these are everywhere. I'm quickly amassing a set of physical copies, at about 20p each, Wine Dark Sea was this week's grab. Also my copy of Sea of Words finally arrived, about a month after I ordered it... Yay for having to import books! The film was pretty awesome too, if you haven't seen it. It was a conflation of a couple of the books though, with bits strewn in from other books, and a basic plot skeleton from 'the far side of the world'.
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Sep 16, 2014 11:44
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I would definitely read at least one of the books before watching the film, just so you understand that the casting is drat near perfect for every character EXCEPT Maturin. We've discussed it earlier in the thread, and certainly Paul Bettany is a fine actor, but I always pictured Maturin more Catalonian than Irish.
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Sep 16, 2014 12:26
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Colonial Air Force posted:I would definitely read at least one of the books before watching the film, just so you understand that the casting is drat near perfect for every character EXCEPT Maturin. We've discussed it earlier in the thread, and certainly Paul Bettany is a fine actor, but I always pictured Maturin more Catalonian than Irish. I can't say I've ever had a problem with Paul Bettany as Maturin, but I must confess to having seen the movie before ever reading the books. Isn't he described as pale in the books? If he looked more Catalonian he'd have a more olive skinned mediterranean appearance - I don't think he's ever described in such a way. He also spent his childhood and early adulthood in Ireland. The Lord Bude fucked around with this message at 12:57 on Sep 16, 2014 |
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Sep 16, 2014 12:54
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I think his acting is spot on. It's just the look.
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Sep 16, 2014 12:55
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Yeah he's too good looking for Maturin. It's forgivable though, because he does an amazing job otherwise. He and Crowe have great chemistry in the movie. Bonden though. Seriously?
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Sep 16, 2014 16:05
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Raskolnikov2089 posted:Yeah he's too good looking for Maturin. It's forgivable though, because he does an amazing job otherwise. He and Crowe have great chemistry in the movie. Nobody would have had the slightest problem with Billy Boyd if he hadn't been hugely recognizable due to lord of the rings. It's basically a kneejerk reaction to seeing a very recognizable face in a bit part.
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Sep 16, 2014 16:12
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bollig posted:Hey so, while I am not completely prepared to break my 'one book by an author a year' rule, I was thinking that maybe I could read a non-fiction book pertaining to the age of sail. Six Frigates Colonial Air Force posted:I would definitely read at least one of the books before watching the film, just so you understand that the casting is drat near perfect for every character EXCEPT Maturin. We've discussed it earlier in the thread, and certainly Paul Bettany is a fine actor, but I always pictured Maturin more Catalonian than Irish. Killick in particular was perfect.
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Sep 16, 2014 16:57
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Bubbacub posted:Six Frigates Seconding this.
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Sep 16, 2014 17:18
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Maturin was ok in the movie, I would have prefered him to be scruffier and more Irish sounding.
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Sep 16, 2014 18:57
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For some reason I've always pictured Bonden as looking like a young Neil Young. The films casting is pretty loving great. I always liked the quick snippet, during the final boarding action, of Killick going absolutely apeshit in the melee with a giant sword. In the books he never seems to take part in the fighting does he? Regarding Maturins accent, it's worth considering that, even though he was bastard born, he came from a monied family and had a first rate education in top universities. I thought Bettanys rather crisp English-ish accent was just fine at showing his background. I recall there's a scene early on in the series, I think when they are prisoners in America, where Jack is dead drunk and cracks a joke about Ms heritage to a guest who had been prosing away on an anti-Irish bent. This fellow is then very embarrassed and attempts an apology, which led me to surmise that Maturin can't have had much, if any, of an accent. BeigeJacket fucked around with this message at 20:34 on Sep 16, 2014 |
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Sep 16, 2014 20:17
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BeigeJacket posted:For some reason I've always pictured Bonden as looking like a young Neil Young. He always takes part in the fighting "curling his pigtail into a tight bun" or something like that. And the problem that I (and others) had with the casting of Boyd was Bonden's a prize-fighter. In my mind he's always looked a bit beefier than Boyd.
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Sep 16, 2014 20:25
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The Lord Bude posted:I can't say I've ever had a problem with Paul Bettany as Maturin, but I must confess to having seen the movie before ever reading the books. Isn't he described as pale in the books? If he looked more Catalonian he'd have a more olive skinned mediterranean appearance - I don't think he's ever described in such a way. He also spent his childhood and early adulthood in Ireland. Pale and sallow, I think, but he is described as going very dark on long voyages in sunny parts. Apparently tans in the nude too. I wonder what the rates of skin cancer were for sailors back then? I'm sure I'd have died of melanoma pretty quickly. Octy fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Sep 17, 2014 |
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Sep 17, 2014 02:50
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Octy posted:Pale and sallow, I think, but he is described as going very dark on long voyages in sunny parts. Apparently tans in the nude too. I wonder what the rates of skin cancer were for sailors back then? I'm sure I'd have died of melanoma pretty quickly. He got shipwrecked on that tiny island full of birds after the French tortured him and it helps him recover some use in his hands (and really tans *all* of him). I think he's more tan after that for quite a few books. Don't worry about skin cancer, just take this blue draught.
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Sep 17, 2014 04:00
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Even anglo-Saxon people can go pretty dark if they spend enough time in the sun. I'm curious to know what the skin cancer rate was in those times. Europe would have a lower rate than say Australia I'd imagine but hasn't the damage done to the ozone layer during the 20th century increased people's UV exposure? Or am I misremembering high school science?
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Sep 17, 2014 04:11
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ItalicSquirrels posted:He always takes part in the fighting "curling his pigtail into a tight bun" or something like that. There's a great part in one of the books describing how Jack feels going into a melee, like he's really living, and everything's extra vivid. Bonden just loves the great excitement of it all. Killick goes totally pissed off and vindictively stabs at people as if they're trying to steal from him. NONE SO PRETTY
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Sep 17, 2014 05:02
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quote:
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Sep 17, 2014 05:05
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The Lord Bude posted:Even anglo-Saxon people can go pretty dark if they spend enough time in the sun. I think it's definitely increased UV exposure in the southern hemisphere, like Australia for instance (god help me, I live here). But back then you're bound to end badly if you work as a farmer outside all day without any proper protection like sunscreen. We're lucky to have the stuff and a bit more savvy about sun protection, I guess, but there's still plenty of people who get skin cancer because they buy into the idea that tans make people that bit more good looking.
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Sep 17, 2014 07:41
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BeigeJacket posted:Regarding Maturins accent, it's worth considering that, even though he was bastard born, he came from a monied family and had a first rate education in top universities. I think it's stated that he's a bastard of a FitzGerald. Specifically that Lord Edward FitzGerald is a cousin. A quick look through wikipedia shows that the FitzGeralds are rife with Earls and Dukes and other such 'peers of the realm'. So, yeah, wealthy and important connections. He was never going to have a lower class thick Irish brogue.
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Sep 17, 2014 18:21
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BeigeJacket posted:The films casting is pretty loving great. I always liked the quick snippet, during the final boarding action, of Killick going absolutely apeshit in the melee with a giant sword. In the books he never seems to take part in the fighting does he? Didn't he fight like the devil when they defended some island?
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Sep 17, 2014 22:11
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Hogge Wild posted:Didn't he fight like the devil when they defended some island? Yup, I think it was at the start of Nutmeg of Consolation
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Sep 18, 2014 15:48
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Having finished this series and gotten a bit burned out on a re-read, I decided to try Hornblower. I'm reading in the written order instead of the in-fiction chronological order, because when I tried to read the Sharpe series I felt like I was missing some foreshadowing by starting at the chronological beginning. Hornblower has a completely different vibe to Aubrey-Maturin, but after the first book and a half Hornblower isn't as insufferable as I thought. He's a lot less likeable than Aubrey, but is still pretty cool in his own way. One of the things I'm enjoying is that Hornblower seems a lot more self-aware than Aubrey. I'm not talking about his annoying habit of doubting everything he does. It just seems that by book 3, he's conscious that he's not just Hornblower the man, but also Hornblower the continuing legend. Aubrey never seems to notice.
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Sep 19, 2014 06:43
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AlphaDog posted:Having finished this series and gotten a bit burned out on a re-read, I decided to try Hornblower. Having read Hornblower both in book order and written order, I never really noticed a difference. I definitely preferred Commodore Hornblower, though, just because that's when he seems to break out of a teenage-level funk and only doubts himself when it seems appropriate. You can definitely tell that Forester's writing improved as he went along because in chronological order there's a huge gap in readability between Hotspur or Atropos and Beat to Quarters.
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Sep 19, 2014 13:13
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ItalicSquirrels posted:Having read Hornblower both in book order and written order, I never really noticed a difference. I definitely preferred Commodore Hornblower, though, just because that's when he seems to break out of a teenage-level funk and only doubts himself when it seems appropriate. You can definitely tell that Forester's writing improved as he went along because in chronological order there's a huge gap in readability between Hotspur or Atropos and Beat to Quarters. Beat to Quarters was written before Hotspur and Atropos. 20+ years before.
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Sep 19, 2014 18:20
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ItalicSquirrels posted:Yup, I think it was at the start of Nutmeg of Consolation Don't forget him fighting like hell to keep the camel with Jack's uniforms from being driven away during the total failure of an expedition to and from the Red Sea in Treason's Harbour.
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Sep 19, 2014 18:37
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Raskolnikov2089 posted:Beat to Quarters was written before Hotspur and Atropos. 20+ years before. Yup. Like I said, it's a bit disconcerting to go from great writing to great writing to not so great writing, and it's because Forester improved his writing as he wrote the series, which happened to be out of order, thus putting the first-written book smack dab in the middle 
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Sep 22, 2014 12:24
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Bubbacub posted:Six Frigates This looks dope, thanks.
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Sep 24, 2014 12:47
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Are the Richard Boiltho books any good? Spotted a whole set in a charity shop earlier so I picked one up.
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Sep 27, 2014 18:36
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I finally got around to reading the whole Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell. They're pretty drat good. They aren't written on the same level as Aubrey/Maturin, but they also don't have the morass of nautical language, but they also don't make any obvious historical mistakes and are better-written overall than most things I've read set in that era -- significantly better-written than the Hornblower books for example. Probably my third favorite overall regency series, just below Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norell and the Aubrey/Maturin books. I think they'd be a really good stepping stone into Aubrey/Maturin for most people. More accessible and more pulpy but they don't cut any corners in the process. Most amusing thing about the series is that while Cornwell clearly can write nuanced and shaded characters, and most of his villains have redeeming features and so forth, every once and a while he'll just throw in an unabashed, mustache-twirling, puppy-kicking cartoon villain just so you can really enjoy hating him. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 13:48 on Oct 20, 2014 |
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Oct 20, 2014 13:46
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I finally got around to reading the whole Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell. That series is something I've planned to read for some time. In which order did you read them?
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Oct 20, 2014 13:59
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Hogge Wild posted:That series is something I've planned to read for some time. In which order did you read them? I read them in chronological order. Normally I read in author's written order but Cornwell had very clearly plotted out Sharpe's entire career start to finish from the time he wrote the first book, so there are very very few inconsistencies, plus a lot of the characters in the Peninsular War books also show up in the India books. Basically, if you read the Peninsular War books first, you'll get a lot of spoilers for the India books, both because you'll know certain characters stay alive till the Peninsular War and because the Peninsular War books talk a lot about Sharpe's career in India. So read in chronological order and avoid spoilers. I also watched one of the Sharpe TV series episodes just to get a feel for the setting etc. Highlight: All the french infantrymen attacking while wearing what looked like pouffy chef's hats (apparently they would wear white cloth bags over their fancy hats to keep them looking nice). Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 14:11 on Oct 20, 2014 |
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Oct 20, 2014 14:04
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I also watched one of the Sharpe TV series episodes just to get a feel for the setting etc. Highlight: All the french infantrymen attacking while wearing what looked like pouffy chef's hats (apparently they would wear white cloth bags over their fancy hats to keep them looking nice). The highlight for me was realizing Daniel Craig was in the second one. That and trying to imagine that six men form a company of soldiers.
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Oct 20, 2014 14:56
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norell I love this book. Anyone who enjoys Aubrey/Maturin will probably like Strange and Norell.
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Oct 20, 2014 16:13
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Raskolnikov2089 posted:I love this book. Anyone who enjoys Aubrey/Maturin will probably like Strange and Norell. I know I did. It does have magic, but it's really good, and all you Aubrey/Maturin fans should try it.
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Oct 20, 2014 16:36
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I've just started rereading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and yeah it's great stuff. One of my favorite paragraphs, if you want an example of the prose:quote:A butler and two manservants approached Mr Drawlight and Mr Lascelles and begged to be allowed to say that if ever Mr Drawlight or Mr Lascelles could benefit from any small service that the butler or the manservants might be able to render them, they had only to speak.
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Oct 22, 2014 00:12
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I'm listening to the books on tape narrated by Patrick Tull. He's so good. I listen on my commute every day for the past couple months so I'm nearing Blue at the Mizzen and starting to dread it. I'm halfway through Wine-Dark Sea now and I'm afraid Jack is going to lose that eye. He's come through so many scrapes without permanent damage it feels like his time is finally up and Killick is dosing it with that quack panacea and they're stuck in the half-decked schooner with that easterly wind keeping them off the coast of Peru and no doctor. I got into the books through the movie. It really is great and I love how the movie managed to capture life at sea more than just the battles. I had a friend who didn't get why the story just kept going at the end and the viewer was the one who departed but I thought it was the perfect ending. I can't believe Hollum had an even worse fate in the books than in the movie. Mr. Blakeney is Mr. Reed but is he an amalgamation with a character I haven't run into yet? I don't remember any lords in the midshipmen's berth. Colonial Air Force posted:I would definitely read at least one of the books before watching the film, just so you understand that the casting is drat near perfect for every character EXCEPT Maturin. We've discussed it earlier in the thread, and certainly Paul Bettany is a fine actor, but I always pictured Maturin more Catalonian than Irish. Paul Bettany's got the pale-eyed reptilian glare down though, and he's believable enough as a doctor and a naturalist and a fencer. You can't always cast for physical features. I never got the significance of his line about spies "The French have their spies in England and elsewhere, as do we." in the movie until reading the books. Couple questions: What is a spritsail topsail? Wouldn't that be just another jib? (The Jib of Jibs' Jib?) Where is the capstan exactly? I keep thinking it should be amidships in the waist but apparently it's on the quarterdeck?! (On the Surprise.) What's the difference between a royal and a topgallant? Is the mainsail of a mast the topsail or the course? What are the knees? Hanging knees? I finally figured out the chains (which are not chains  ) but I don't have a good grasp of the rest of the load-bearing structure of the ship.What was the difficulty with the (horrible old) Leopard's newfangled stern post that made them unable to ship the new rudder? What is so objectionable about Dutch-built ships? Is it just the beamy stern? How many degrees is a point on the compass? They always describe their ships/vessels/craft ability to sail close to the wind with points on the compass. And on a slightly different subject that I've had no luck with researching: how is a Chinese junk's hull built? I've heard that junk hulls are uncommonly strong but they don't appear to have a keel as such so they must be pretty different to a ship. Arglebargle III fucked around with this message at 14:29 on Nov 10, 2014 |
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Nov 10, 2014 13:48
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Arglebargle III posted:I'm listening to the books on tape narrated by Patrick Tull. He's so good. I listen on my commute every day for the past couple months so I'm nearing Blue at the Mizzen and starting to dread it. Patrick Tull is best reader I've listened to after Christopher Lee. I got major withdrawals after the last book and tried Hornblower, but it's just not the same. Arglebargle III posted:What is a spritsail topsail? Wouldn't that be just another jib? (The Jib of Jibs' Jib?) A jib is a triangular staysail that sets ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its tack is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bow, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast. The spritsail is a form of three or four-sided, fore-aft sail and its rig. Unlike the gaff where the head hangs from a spar along its edge, this rig supports the leech of the sail by means of a spar or spars named a sprit.   Sail-plan of a schooner: 1 flying jib, 2 jib, 3 forestaysail, 4 foresail, 5 fore gaff-topsail, 6 main-topmast staysail, 7 mainsail, 8 main gaff-topsail Arglebargle III posted:Where is the capstan exactly? I keep thinking it should be amidships in the waist but apparently it's on the quarterdeck?! (On the Surprise.) A capstan is a vertical-axled rotating machine developed for use on sailing ships to apply force to ropes, cables, and hawsers. The principle is similar to that of the windlass, which has a horizontal axle. The quarterdeck capstan was probably used to lift the stern anchor. Arglebargle III posted:What's the difference between a royal and a topgallant? From bottom to top, the sails of each mast are named by the mast and position on the mast, e.g. for the mainmast, from lowest to highest: main course, main topsail, main topgallant ("t'gallant"), main royal, main skysail, and main moonraker. Since the early nineteenth century, the topsails and topgallants are often split into a lower and an upper sail to allow them to be more easily handled. This makes the mast appear to have more "sails" than it officially has.  Cheat sheet for sail-plans: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sail-plan Arglebargle III posted:What is so objectionable about Dutch-built ships? Is it just the beamy stern? I don't remember Dutch ships being objectionable. What was the context? Arglebargle III posted:And on a slightly different subject that I've had no luck with researching: how is a Chinese junk's hull built? I've heard that junk hulls are uncommonly strong but they don't appear to have a keel as such so they must be pretty different to a ship. I think it's because the junk's hold is divided into compartments.
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Nov 10, 2014 14:30
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