|
Molybdenum posted:I finished To Rule The Waves. Pretty interesting stuff. Any other recommendations? I enjoyed "The Billy-Ruffian" which charted the history of "The Bellerophon" - a ship which saw a lot of history around that time. And if you want to read about the most fascinating mutiny (and the bloodiest) that ever took place, I recommend "Batavia's Graveyard". Incidentally I got to go on board the replica they built in the Netherlands. It was very cool.
|
#
?
May 15, 2012 17:38
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 00:55 |
|
|
Every so often I will check amazon to see if this series has been put up in ebook format. Last night when I checked I became a very happy Aubrey & Maturin fan. I haven't had a chance to read any of them on my kindle yet so I don't know how the conversion went, but the fact that they are now available is awesome. Looks like they are going for about $9.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2012 17:13
|
|
|
Piedmon Sama posted:It's a interesting to contrast the younger and older Jack and Stephen--Jack seems to have gotten a lot stricter and more authorative, while Stephen's mellowed out since they were in their 30s. In M&C Stephen muses to himself on the nature of aging, authority and congeniality. I have to think this foreshadows Jack and Stephen's development.
|
|
#
?
Jun 6, 2012 12:00
|
|
|
Just got to the bit in H.M.S Surprise with Jack and the sloth. I couldn't stop laughing, even though I was in public. O'Brian writes so well about whatever he puts his hand to. He completely captures the movements and mannerisms that make a sloth endearing and translates those to paper. I've read over thirty novels this year, three of which have been O'Brian books, and everything I've read from O'Brian easily tops anything else I've read in any genre save for maybe Use of Weapons by Ian M . Banks. And I have no interest in sailing or nautical adventures whatsoever.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2012 03:59
|
|
|
BananaNutkins posted:Just got to the bit in H.M.S Surprise with Jack and the sloth. I couldn't stop laughing, even though I was in public. O'Brian writes so well about whatever he puts his hand to. He completely captures the movements and mannerisms that make a sloth endearing and translates those to paper. I love Jack addressing it with a, "Now see here sir." when it's chewing on his hat.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2012 05:38
|
|
|
Currently reading The Fortune of War. I was a bit disappointed about the near lack of naval action in the book before, but I actually find I'm enjoying all the espionage and intrigue in Fortune more than I ever did the battles.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2012 06:25
|
|
|
'Jack, you have debauched my sloth.' is one of the best things I've ever read. The part where Stephen brings a beehive aboard is pretty great too, though.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2012 00:56
|
|
|
Raskolnikov2089 posted:I love Jack addressing it with a, "Now see here sir." when it's chewing on his hat. It appears I remembered the wrong book. I found the relevant passage 'Now, sir,' cried the Captain, striding into the great cabin, a tall, imposing figure. 'Now, sir,' - addressing the wombat, one of the numerous body of marsupials brought into the ship by her surgeon, a natural philosopher - 'give it up directly, d'ye hear me, there?' The wombat stared him straight in the eye, drew a length of gold lace from its mouth, and then deliberately sucked it in again. 'Pass the word for Dr Maturin,' said the Captain, looking angrily at the wombat: and a moment later, 'Come now, Stephen, this is coming it pretty high: your brute is eating my hat.' 'So he is, too,' said Dr Maturin. 'But do not be so perturbed, Jack; it will do him no harm, at all. His digestive processes -,
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2012 06:31
|
|
|
Thank you for making this thread. Patrick O'brian helped me sail through many a day of data entering drudgery after I found his books on tape at my library a decade ago. After I finally gave Master and Commander a try I realized I was almost looking forward to going into work so I could find out what adventures Jack and Stephen would be going on that day. One thing I enjoyed discovering from these books is how many of our sayings come out of British naval tradition. "let the cat out of the bag" "the devil to pay (and no pitch hot)" "by and large" - you could easily come up with dozens of of these sayings, most still in common use, passed down from the British navy. Now that I am actually reading throughout the series I am finding many things, sometimes entire subtexts that I missed the first time listening to the books. It is a pleasure to read a book written by a master who so clearly loves the characters they are creating.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2012 05:49
|
|
|
Blog Free or Die posted:'Jack, you have debauched my sloth.' is one of the best things I've ever read. I've been rereading them over the last few weeks (started with The Letter of Marque, though, since that's when Jack's more free-wheeling adventures begin) and I laughed out loud when Babbington's cook uses a "Papin's digester" (a pressure cooker, I assume) to cook a pudding more rapidly, only to have it explode when the cook and his mates put a smoothing iron over the safety valve to make it cook faster.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2012 06:53
|
|
|
Has anyone listened to any of the audiobooks? I've read most of the books, and thought listening to them might be a very pleasant way to pass the time during my commute, but only if the reader's any good. Disappointing egg fucked around with this message at 10:46 on Jul 5, 2012 |
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2012 10:20
|
|
|
Disappointing egg posted:Has anyone listened to any of the audiobooks? There are two readers. Get Patrick Tull. I don't remember the other guy's name because he seriously pales in comparison to Mr. Tull. Patrick Tull was a genius and you'll be very very happy you listened to his versions.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2012 13:49
|
|
|
Simon Vance is the other reader, and I like him in a lot of other readings but yeah Patrick Tull really owns this series. but be careful not to get the abridged audiobooks.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2012 02:25
|
|
|
Raskolnikov2089 posted:I love Jack addressing it with a, "Now see here sir." when it's chewing on his hat. I ran into this part yesterday. You're right, its great. But not as great as the sloth 
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2012 16:08
|
|
|
So I'm up to The Surgeon's Mate and it's currently about 1812-13 and time has seemingly sped up for the two characters. Only a few books ago it seemed to be about 1808 or so, I think. There are lots and lots of books in the series left so am I right in thinking that a few of the later ones go back to his early career, in the same way the Hornblower series did? I'd read the wiki only I'm afraid of accidentally spoiling myself in some way.
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2012 23:56
|
|
|
Octy posted:So I'm up to The Surgeon's Mate and it's currently about 1812-13 and time has seemingly sped up for the two characters. Only a few books ago it seemed to be about 1808 or so, I think. There are lots and lots of books in the series left so am I right in thinking that a few of the later ones go back to his early career, in the same way the Hornblower series did? I'd read the wiki only I'm afraid of accidentally spoiling myself in some way. Patrick O'Brain himself actually answered this one. He said that it soon became apparant that if he kept going at his current pace, he would soon run out of time for the interesting things to happen in, so he came up with what I consider a brilliant solution. He used imaginary years, "an 1813a and an 1813b if you will". Don't worry, the books are all linear, they just stop mentioning what the year actually is.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 01:17
|
|
|
It's best to just not think about the years. That way when you get to the last book, it makes it easier to think that Jack and Stephen and Killick are still out there somewhere, exploring and fighting the French.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 01:41
|
|
|
Raskolnikov2089 posted:It's best to just not think about the years. That way when you get to the last book, it makes it easier to think that Jack and Stephen and Killick are still out there somewhere, exploring and fighting the French.  We're all thinking that, you're just saying it 
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 01:53
|
|
|
Raskolnikov2089 posted:It's best to just not think about the years. That way when you get to the last book, it makes it easier to think that Jack and Stephen and Killick are still out there somewhere, exploring and fighting the French. I'm not too hot on what happened between 1812 and 1815 so that shouldn't be a problem.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 02:11
|
|
|
While futzing around and looking up some terms I came across this, which was pretty cool: a working model of the HMS Victory's capstan. It's great for understanding what's going on when they raise the anchors, with their talk about "messenger lines", "nippers", "cathead", etc... http://nautarch.tamu.edu/model/report2/
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2012 20:09
|
|
|
I'm coming to the end of "The Hundred Days." Bonden. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2012 08:17
|
|
|
Bonden is probably the only casting misstep that really stands out from the movie for me. He just wasn't 'salty' enough, didn't look like someone who had spent his whole life on the sea and fought bare knuckle matches against pros.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2012 13:24
|
|
|
Started re-reading Horatio Hornblower. I don't remember him being near this Aspie.
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2012 03:36
|
|
|
CarterUSM posted:I'm coming to the end of "The Hundred Days." Bonden. Argh, I accidentally scrolled over that as I was coming down the page. Oh well, I only just bought The Ionian Mission today so hopefully I'll forget it by the time I reach The Hundred Days which is... eleven books away.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2012 10:03
|
|
|
CarterUSM posted:I'm coming to the end of "The Hundred Days." Bonden. Didn't O'Brian's wife die around the same time?
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2012 18:45
|
|
|
One of the things that stands out to me about O'Brian every time I read him or any other historical fiction is how drat good he is at navigating the differences between modern and historical social beliefs. People in the 19th century believed some pretty horrific stuff by modern standards - casual racism and classism was a general thing, people weren't so great about personal cleanliness, and slavery was a fact of life. Most historical authors seem to try to deal with that by having the main character be enlightened about racial or gender equality, or have funny ideas about hygene, or something like that, but O'Brian doesn't. Both Aubrey & Maturin have completely consistent and period-appropriate social beliefs, without shying away from the fact that some of them would be weird or offensive by today's standards or making them unapologeticaly horrible to modern readers. Maturin is an abolitionist and a believer in racial equality, but it's fully consistent with his background and education, and he doesn't think twice about things like using dissecting tools to cut lunch meat without cleaning them; while Jack is a kind of unthinking proponent of slavery. In fact, the whole way his beliefs change after seeing industrial slavery is more powerful to me than if he were anachronistically egalitarian the whole time. I really can't think of another author of historical fiction that walks that path as well as O'Brian does - all the others I can think of either ham-fistedly stick in anachronisms or just ignore the issue.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2012 18:57
|
|
|
Notahippie posted:One of the things that stands out to me about O'Brian every time I read him or any other historical fiction is how drat good he is at navigating the differences between modern and historical social beliefs. People in the 19th century believed some pretty horrific stuff by modern standards - casual racism and classism was a general thing, people weren't so great about personal cleanliness, and slavery was a fact of life. Most historical authors seem to try to deal with that by having the main character be enlightened about racial or gender equality, or have funny ideas about hygene, or something like that, but O'Brian doesn't. Both Aubrey & Maturin have completely consistent and period-appropriate social beliefs, without shying away from the fact that some of them would be weird or offensive by today's standards or making them unapologeticaly horrible to modern readers. Maturin is an abolitionist and a believer in racial equality, but it's fully consistent with his background and education, and he doesn't think twice about things like using dissecting tools to cut lunch meat without cleaning them; while Jack is a kind of unthinking proponent of slavery. In fact, the whole way his beliefs change after seeing industrial slavery is more powerful to me than if he were anachronistically egalitarian the whole time. Mary Renault does a pretty good job but she approaches the problem from another angle. The societies she's depicting are so far removed from modern morality that she can just have her narrator be Alexander the Great's homosexual love boy, or a young Athenian in a homosexual relationship, and it's not even a thing, it's just the Way Things Were Then. You're right though that nobody else I'm aware of really compares. Renault and O'Brian are the two grand-masters of historical fiction as far as I'm concerned, in a large part for exactly that reason.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2012 02:34
|
|
|
I finished HMS Surprise a few months ago, after having read Post Captain late last year and Master and Commander a half year before that. Going through the series about one book every 6-10 months is a really nice pace. It'll take me a few years to get through all the books so I don't burn out on them, but often enough that I don't forget what happened in the last one.
|
|
#
?
Nov 18, 2012 19:46
|
|
|
On Amazon's cyber monday Kindle deals there is A Sea of Words: A Lexicon and Companion to the Complete Seafaring Tales of Patrick O'Brian for $3 and Harbors and High Seas: An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Complete Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian for the same price. I picked up A Sea of Words myself. I probably read Master and Commander two years ago, and while I did enjoy it the language was a struggle being inundated with naval jargon and it took me over a month to read. Reading this thread now and knowing that essential information I should know is explained to Dr. Maturin I know I'd still get flustered not knowing enough of all the terms. After watching the movie again recently and playing with the excellent naval battles in Assassin's Creed 3 I've got an itch to get back into these novels. I'm debating with myself whether to re-read Master and Commander or go straight to Post Captain, I'm leaning towards re-reading.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2012 18:34
|
|
|
PlushCow posted:On Amazon's cyber monday Kindle deals there is A Sea of Words: A Lexicon and Companion to the Complete Seafaring Tales of Patrick O'Brian for $3 and Harbors and High Seas: An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Complete Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian for the same price. Really you can feel free to skim the nautical jargon. I have only the vaguest understanding of most of the maneuvers that happen with the ships, and it hasn't detracted from my enjoyment of the series in the least.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2012 19:17
|
|
|
Raskolnikov2089 posted:Really you can feel free to skim the nautical jargon. I have only the vaguest understanding of most of the maneuvers that happen with the ships, and it hasn't detracted from my enjoyment of the series in the least. I will try! Usually when I feel like I'm missing something in a novel I'll end up re-reading the same couple pages multiple times until my brain just shuts down and I go do something else  I will have to let Dr. Maturin be my guide
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2012 19:29
|
|
|
If there is any nautical jargon that is actually critical to understanding the plot then someone will stop and explain it to Dr. Maturin (i.e. you).
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2012 20:33
|
|
|
withak posted:If there is any nautical jargon that is actually critical to understanding the plot then someone will stop and explain it to Dr. Maturin (i.e. you). Pretty much this. Try and do like my sister recommended I do and just go, "Bring the <ship bits> to the <other ship bits>." Like in Fortune of War when one of the members of the Java is asking Maturin, "Surely you heard when the vangs parted?" There's no need to know what, exactly, vangs are. The point of the scene is that Maturin's trying to escape so much war talk and can't even do it on a completely different ship.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2012 21:29
|
|
|
Can someone please confirm that the Kindle version of Sea of Words actually has 500 some odd pages and not the 15 that's shown on the page? Surely a misprint? thanks! PFCHudson fucked around with this message at 09:46 on Dec 20, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2012 11:38
|
|
|
PFCHudson posted:Can someone please confirm that the Kindle version of Sea of Words actually has 500 some odd pages and not the 15 that's shown on the page? Surely a misprint? My kindle copy says it has 214 "pages" and 8001 locations. Maybe that 15 pages is just a misprint for the sample of the book? That's a big difference from 500 pages but I'm not sure how Amazon decides how to divide up the text. I've only skimmed a bit since I've a bit of a backlog to get through until I get to the main series, but I don't see it missing anything. The few maps it has are pretty good for a kindle book, the text is small of course but not fuzzy and actually readable, and it has some pictures of the ship types of the time. My complaints so far would be that the list of illustrations in the beginning doesn't link to the actual illustrations like it should, and when you get to the A-Z lexicon, you can't skip between letters by the skip button, but I guess if/when I actually need to look something up I'd just use the search function anyways. Remember that when you buy a kindle book you have like 7 days to return it; you used to have to call customer service but now I think you can just go to the Manage My Kindle on the website, go to your books, find it and under the drop down menu for the book there will be an option to return it if you're within the deadline.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 20:41
|
|
|
Finished Master & Commander and have just jumped into Post Captain. Really amazing journey so far. I had a couple of starts and stops with the first book (can't tell you how many times I read that opening concert scene), but once they got out to sea the pages flew by and I was hooked. I ended up buying Sea of Words and Harbours and High Seas, the latter being nice because it is sometimes hard to picture where they are at currently. While I found most of the scenes on shore in the first book boring, it's completely different in Post Captain and I am enjoying the change of pace. I think I am going to buy a used copy of Stephen Biesty's Cross-Sections: Man-Of-War, it's a "childrens" book that I remember getting all the time in the library, and would probably come in handy for visualizing the life on a ship.
|
|
#
?
Jan 15, 2013 18:48
|
|
|
Someone in CD psoted a link to this thread in The Hobbit thread, so forgive the necromancy. I am currently reading (well, listening to) The Commodore. I love this series.Molybdenum posted:Question from (I think) The Ionian Mission regarding gunpowder... This is from forever ago, but I just found this thread. I'm a reenactor of the American War of Independence, and we had ship's biscuit once. I had forgotten I'd left it in my pocket, and was worried when I remembered that the ants and bug may have infested my clothing. Not a single bug touched that hard piece of wooden biscuit. silly posted:Six Frigates is amazing. One of the best works of military history I've ever read. This is true. I loved this book, it was really great. Anyway, as far as historical fiction goes, I'm surprised no one mentioned Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series, which is another buddy series with two great dudes during the Napoleonic age (but riflemen instead of sailors).
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2013 20:47
|
|
|
Colonial Air Force posted:Anyway, as far as historical fiction goes, I'm surprised no one mentioned Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series, which is another buddy series with two great dudes during the Napoleonic age (but riflemen instead of sailors). Sharpe's good (and one of my guilty pleasures), but I really get a much better historical vibe from Aubrey/Maturin. Or maybe O'Brian's just a better writer. The first time through A/M, their set-backs always seemed like things that might continue in perpetuity. Sharpe and Harper always seem to have either long-running minor problems (oh no, the British don't trust an officer up from the ranks, what ever will Sharpe do oh wait he just saved the day again) or major problems that don't go much beyond the end of the book (don't hook up with Sharpe, it rarely ends well). Aubrey's debt problems, Maturin's drugs, Aubrey's lechery, Maturin's bastardy, all of it feels much better written and much more of a struggle that, if overcome, will only be overcome at a great personal price. No, I think for historical Cornwell, you'd be better off reading the Warlord series (working my way through them now).
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2013 21:20
|
|
|
Well sure, I've never read anything as good as O'Brien, I was just surprised it never came up in the thread.
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2013 21:29
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 00:55 |
|
|
Double-posting, but last night I was going through the pockets of my reenacting clothes, and I found something of interest to the thread: That's the ship's biscuit I was talking about earlier. It's from October, good as new!
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2013 20:42
|
|