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I recently started reading this series. Or rather, listening to the audiobooks. I've listened to a lot but I think this is easily the best narration I've ever heard, it really brings things alive. I'm just getting into Post Captain now, and I have two notes so far - Hearing a delightful British man read about a great big horse fart had me laughing for 10 minutes. And then the line of "I thought it was the horse". And it seems like poor Maturin is getting friendzoned. A Proper Uppercut fucked around with this message at 10:26 on Sep 8, 2022 |
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Sep 8, 2022 10:23
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 06:48 |
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It really blows my mind how the Austen-ish humor in these books is just dead on. The poor guy who tries to rob Aubrey in Post Captain describing how bad he is at robbing people just killed me.
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Sep 10, 2022 13:38
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I'm almost done with Post Captain, so maybe it's addressed later, but what's up with the duel between Jack and Stephen? It got pushed off because of the attack on the French port and also Jack saw Diana with that other guy. But it seems like they're just cool now that they are on the Lively, and I wouldn't think their sense of honor would just let that whole challenge to. Also, is it ever really explained how Jack got into so much debt?
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Sep 15, 2022 09:32
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Yea it's great. This is my first time through the series so only my second book. Did not expect the absurdity of the whole walking across France in a bear's skin. I'm also a big fan of Austen and a lot of the interactions with/about the women have that air.
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Sep 15, 2022 21:31
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Just finished HMS Surprise. drat, poor Stephen. He really got kicked around in this one.
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Sep 24, 2022 22:50
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:For comparison, the fastest clippers and windjammers of the late 19th/early 20th century topped out at 20-25kn in perfect conditions, which I would imagine is pretty much the limit for a square rigged ship until Elon Musk gets interested in tall ships or something. What exactly changed to almost double the speed? Engineering? Materials? From some of the descriptions in the books it sure sounds like there was already a lot of advanced engineering involved with ship geometry.
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Oct 12, 2022 14:14
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ChubbyChecker posted:steel made the hulls lighter, stronger, smoother, and especially longer I guess I never realized that steel and sails overlapped at any point.
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Oct 12, 2022 14:34
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God drat I can't believe these books are actually getting me interested in sailing, or at least the mechanics of it.
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Oct 12, 2022 16:14
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I just started The Reverse of the Medal. Sounds like Jack is going to get taken in by another con man, what a doofus.
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Dec 10, 2022 19:23
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Raskolnikov2089 posted:My favorite scene in the entire series takes place in this book. You'll know it when you get to it. Looking forward to it. I think my favorite bit in all the books so far was the James Bond poo poo Maturin pulled with the French agents, I can't remember the book. Also this current one is looking really bleak still, I know POB doesn't really linger on the sad stuff , but it really feels like something bad is looming. He's really a master of things left unsaid.
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Dec 11, 2022 16:27
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yaffle posted:There's a clip of Patrick Tull reading it on YouTube, he's very good. Oooh almost clicked that spoiler up there. Yea I'm actually listening to all his audiobooks. He's amazing. I feel like it makes it easier to let all the naval terminology wash over you because he narrates it like he knows what he's 5wlkint about. I'll probably go back through in print once I'm done.
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Dec 12, 2022 14:33
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MockingQuantum posted:Which one, out of curiosity? The scene where all the sailors show up to protect him when he's in the pillory? I can't remember if that happens in Medal or not, but it was one of my favorite moments. I was listening in the shower and this part came up, literally had me sobbing. Incredible.
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Dec 13, 2022 21:14
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Huggybear posted:Can't second this enough. Austen is a delight to read, except I had to get older and gayer to realize this. My first introduction to Austen was Pride and Prejudice came downloaded for free on one of the first Kindles I got. Randomly decided to read it and loved it.
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Jan 20, 2023 18:23
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Arglebargle III posted:The Cacafuego was not sold to the admiralty at all, so its prize was many times lower than they expected. Young Jack wasn't exactly cautious about prizes he brought in, and he was sued by neutral owners for monetary damages from seizing and condemning their ships which he had no right to do. In course after such a successful cruise this wasn't a problem as Jack could easily pay damages if he lost his suit. But however after the prize agent absconded to South America with Jack's fortune, the liabilities from the suits against him were far, far larger than his net worth. Hell I totally missed all of this. I'm almost done with my first read (listen)through, I'll probably start right back over again and see a lot of stuff I missed, but will probably pick up the books this time.
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Jan 25, 2023 00:49
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I'm sitting in an airport terminal and just finished Blue at the Mizzen. Definitely teared up a bit. Seems to be about as good an ending as you could ask for, with it being unplanned.
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Feb 26, 2023 23:10
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Nice meltdown. I always pictured Bonden as like, Herc from The Wire with long hair and pigtails. My headcanon Maturin is Eddie Marsan in the BBC Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Also Ip Man is a masterpiece. A Proper Uppercut fucked around with this message at 12:01 on Jun 8, 2023 |
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Jun 8, 2023 11:25
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I'm on my second go-round with A-M, however I've been listening to the audiobooks. Maybe it's the way Patrick Tull reads it, but I loved Post Captain both times I've listened to it. The audiobooks are insanely good and I would actually really recommend them for a first time through as his narration gives a lot of context to some things that might be otherwise confusing.
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Sep 13, 2023 10:28
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TerminalSaint posted:Ric Jerrom's narration was spectacular, so if Patrick Tull's is even better on my second circumnavigation I don't know how I'm going to handle it. In previous experience with other audiobooks that switched narrators in the middle of a series it can be really hard to make that switch when you're already used to another.
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Sep 14, 2023 12:05
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jazzyjay posted:Sure Diana is a handful but counterpoint she is hot AF. So hot she is literally hired to ride in a balloon in a later book. I just got through that section of The Letter of Marque where they describe it and I really wish I could see it. In my head it's just a crayon drawing.
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Sep 18, 2023 13:49
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StrixNebulosa posted:Got into a kind of fever this afternoon and zoomed from where I was to the bottom of the book - the provocation of the duel - through the descent (Stephen practicing with the pistols, Jack finding Canning, The rumblings of the mutiny, etc) and then to the action…and oh, the utter dreamlike emotion of watching the Polychrest sink. At this point I think it’s taken on the symbolic place of the scapegoat - with it gone all of my problems are gone. The tension is gone, the hell is over. I'm glad you didn't give up. I've read a lot of books in my life and this series is head and shoulders above anything I've ever read. I just want more people to experience it.
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Sep 21, 2023 12:22
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That whole things left unsaid is one of the things that really blew my mind in the series,I don't think I've ever seen another author so that. There are so many things that happen over the years that you only kind of learn about later or need to infer. O'Brian absolutely does not insult his readers' intelligence.
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Sep 21, 2023 22:03
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buffalo all day posted:The number one example of this that springs to my mind is what happens after they get shipwrecked toward the beginning of…uh…the fortune of war? cannibalism????! Yea, it was Awkward Davies I think and they just casually mention it a few times later.
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Sep 21, 2023 23:49
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There are a lot of wild highs and lows in the series for the main characters, but on the whole things eventually work out in a good way. I'm on my second go-round and the lovely things that happen definitely got me down again but remembering what happens later makes me feel a lot better about it. Hopefully that's not too much of a spoiler.
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Sep 23, 2023 11:55
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buffalo all day posted:everyone should be reading a bunch of Jane Austen anyway I never really read that style of book until Pride and Prejudice came pre-downloaded on one of my old Kindles. I was really surprised how much I really liked it.
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Sep 26, 2023 12:03
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This was posted in the A-M subreddit, and I always loved how it describes some of Stephen and Jack's relationship. Hell, just reading it again right now made me tear up a bit. Contains minor spoilers from HMS Suprise! -Stephen’s reflexions upon waking up to a distant fiddle at his guest room in Ashgrove: “Like many other sailors Jack Aubrey had long dreamed of lying in his warm bed all night long; yet although he could now do so with a clear conscience he often rose at unChristian hours, particularly if he were moved by strong emotion, and crept from his bedroom in a watch-coat, to walk about the house or into the stables or to pace the bowling-green. Sometimes he took his fiddle with him. He was in fact a better player than Stephen, and now that he was using his precious Guarnieri rather than a robust sea-going fiddle the difference was still more evident: but the Guarnieri did not account for the whole of it, nor anything like. Jack certainly concealed his excellence when they were playing together, keeping to Stephen's mediocre level: this had become perfectly clear when Stephen's hands were at last recovered from the thumb-screws and other implements applied by French counter-intelligence officers in Minorca; but on reflexion Stephen thought it had been the case much earlier, since quite apart from his delicacy at that period, Jack hated showing away. Now, in the warm night, there was no one to be comforted, kept in countenance, no one could scorn him for virtuosity, and he could let himself go entirely; and as the grave and subtle music wound on and on, Stephen once more contemplated on the apparent contradiction between the big, cheerful, florid sea-officer whom most people liked on sight but who would have never been described as subtle or capable of subtlety by any one of them (except perhaps his surviving opponents in battle) and the intricate, reflective music he was now creating. So utterly unlike his limited vocabulary in words, at times verging upon the inarticulate. 'My hands have now regained the moderate ability they possessed before I was captured,' observed Maturin, 'but his have gone on to a point I never thought he could reach: his hands and his mind. I am amazed. In his own way he is the secret man of the world.”
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Sep 29, 2023 11:27
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Lockback posted:That's from the commodore, one of the later books and that quote really hits like a ton of bricks. The light spoilers part was referring to the whole torture thing. But yea, it really does.
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Sep 29, 2023 19:23
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yaffle posted:The description of Brigid's first sea voyage is one of my favorite passages in the books. Just recently got through that part, absolutely love it.
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Nov 1, 2023 21:37
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screaden posted:Coming to the end of The Commodore and man this one is kind of sad? Everything to do with the slave ships (the description of them throwing the children overboard to be torn apart by the sharks was rough), the realisation of their aging, pretty much everything to do with Stephen's life and health, Jack being disappointed with his supposed promotion and his marriage, I have a horrible feeling none of this will end well in the next 30 or so pages. I did really like that passage where Stephen overhears Jack playing outside at Ashgrove and realises he has been moderating his playing in order to play alongside Stephen and his damaged hands. Yes I just posted that passage on the previous page, it really is excellent. I just teared up again reading it. And don't worry too much, things generally work out okay in A-M.
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Nov 15, 2023 01:16
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screaden posted:I finished it for the first time a couple of days ago, it's taking a lot of my willpower to try reading something else instead of starting again straight away. It took me a bit over a year to read the full series. I loved every second of it, it rekindled my love of reading. I can highly recommend the audiobooks if you do that kind of thing. It's a whole different experience.
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Jan 12, 2024 17:05
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 06:48 |
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thekeeshman posted:Get the audiobooks read by Patrick Tull, not Simon Vance (imho) Agreed, those are the ones I listened to.
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Jan 13, 2024 14:07
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