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I'm on the last chapter of the first book in the series and have really loved it, even if many of the nautical descriptions go by me. The relationship between Jack and Stephen is so genuine, and the book is often really funny. One thing that was a throwaway line from Stephen very early on has me curious though. He mentions - only once - that he's recently been absorbed in cryptograms and so far it hasn't been touched on again. It's kept me guessing at an undercurrent of espionage throughout the whole book. Definitely going to pick up A Sea of Words before starting Post Captain, but I'm glad to hear that the quality of the 20 finished books doesn't waver much.
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Feb 28, 2018 12:41
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Ah, hell you're right 
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Feb 28, 2018 20:25
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I'm nearly done with Post Captain, and it was nice to see some of my suspicions from Master and Commander confirmed. The Jane Austen-ish drawing room drama isn't much to my taste but thankfully only a few chapters are reserved for it and the rest is very good.
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Mar 12, 2018 15:52
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Admiral Bosch posted:Popping in to say this thread is making me actually sit down and read these books... boy oh boy, Post Captain is boring so far. Maybe my temperament would be better suited to Hornblower, but COME ON. get back to sea already. i don't care about maturin getting friend zoned Keep going. HMS Surprise owns.
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Mar 24, 2018 15:05
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The true romance is Aubrey-Maturin. Everything else is window dressing.
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Mar 27, 2018 15:26
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I was just given Patrick O'Brian's Navy: The Illustrated Companion to Jack Aubrey's World as a gift <3 Thanks for making me aware of this. Picked it up and it's a great companion piece to A Sea of Words. It sets the stage for the Napoleonic Wars very well and has tons of great art that has helped me visualize these naval battles more clearly.
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Apr 2, 2018 17:25
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Some of the best passages revolve around Babbington.Master and Commander posted:"Mr. Babbington," he said, suddenly stopping in his up and down. "Take your hands out of your pockets. When did you last write home?" Mr. Babbington was at an age when almost any question evokes a guilty response, and this was, in fact, a valid accusation. He reddened, and said, "I don't know, sir." "Think, sir, think," said Jack, his good-tempered face clouding unexpectedly..."Never, mind. Write a handsome letter. Two pages at least. And send it in to me with your daily workings tomorrow. Give your father my compliments and tell him my bankers are Hoares."
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Apr 7, 2018 15:01
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I'm about halfway through Desolation Island and man I wish Bonden would've gotten an entire novel to himself. His effortless poo poo-talking, his humoring Stephen's pretensions as an old hand at sea...Probably my third favorite character in the series so far.
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May 11, 2018 06:07
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Nuclear War posted:So I've been through this thread and since I've read the books through like three times I figured 'get the audio books everyone's going on about' but Audible doesn't have the Tull versions. I'm shattered. Are the other narrators alright? I've got 5 of the Tull-narrated books, all of them from Audible? They're the Recorded Books editions.
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Jun 19, 2018 15:20
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Class Warcraft posted:The great thing about these books is that there are so many subtle little things that aren't explicitly spelled out throughout the books that no matter how many times I re-read them I always catch on to something new that flew over my head the previous times. I can already tell this is a book series I'll revisit at least once later in life. I finished The Fortune of War a couple months ago and took a break but need to refresh myself on the reference material and start The Surgeon's Mate. I still think about HMS Surprise and the stealthy night raid to save Maturin from French and Spanish interrogators all the time since it's probably my favorite action sequence of the series (so far).
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Oct 7, 2018 17:01
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Sax Solo posted:Oh for me it's gotta be the Waakzaamheid. Yeah, this was definitely a great one. It ends with a real gut punch, too.
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Oct 7, 2018 19:43
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Fortune of War is general was kinda meh except for Maturin ganking some spies.
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Oct 11, 2018 04:17
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Make posset next!
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Oct 25, 2018 22:40
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I've been reading The Surgeon's Mate. I love that Jack's daughters act like ladies in waiting whenever Sophie is in the room but curse like old salts whenever they're outside, thanks to Bonden and Killick's influence.
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Nov 28, 2018 02:18
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Nah, that's definitely it. Jack even says something like "I thought I recognized that tang."
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Feb 9, 2019 04:07
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It's been so long since Post Captain I'd forgotten a lot of that drama, but Stephen's "come below, brother" was such a good way to end it.
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Apr 24, 2019 19:52
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I love the dramatic confrontation between Diana and Jack in one of the early novels where the crescendo is Diana calling him a scrub
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Jun 17, 2019 18:18
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I need to get back into the series. I finished The Surgeon's Mate several months ago and need to start up The Ionian Mission before I start forgetting stuff. Yesterday I re-read some of the essays in A Sea of Words, and the one on medical theory and practice of the time is really interesting. Outside of surgeries like amputations, general medical practice was ineffective, except by accident like when surgeons prescribed cinchona for malaria, which contained quinine unbeknownst to them. But the prevailing idea was that a surgeon's job was to help the body's natural recovery mechanisms run smoothly so it seems like most surgeons were under no illusions about their abilities. The essay even opens with a quote from Maturin lamenting that he could do very little with medicine or surgery. The essay goes into the "solidist" theory of medicine that was popular at the time, where the body's various ills were due to imbalances in the nerves, vessels, and arteries. Bleeding would have been a popular method to fight fevers under solidist theory because draining blood was assumed to reduce the friction caused by blood running through the arteries, and that friction was assumed to be the cause of high body temperature during a fever. Pretty wild.
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Oct 4, 2019 17:22
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The genius of characters like Jack and Stephen is they don't have 20th century morals and attitudes transported back into the Napoleonic era. They very much think and behave in ways appropriate to their class and time period.
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Oct 9, 2019 18:41
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The last chapter of The Ionian Mission is loving incredible
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Oct 17, 2019 17:19
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It would be great if you guys would indicate which book you're posting spoilers from.
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Jan 22, 2020 16:44
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Tull does give people accents, and gives Stephen an Irish-ish one that I think is very appropriate. Jack is more of a John Bull, country squire thing, but none of them are overdone-they're more there to help the listener know who's speaking imo. Tull's narration is amazing, but I always figured that Stephen doesn't have an accent since a few times throughout the series so far people will stick their foot in their mouth by insulting the Irish around him, only to be mortified when they learn he's Irish. That's always given me the impression he has no accent. I love what Tull does for Jack, Bonden, etc. Tull is really great at delivering O'Brian's dry humor.
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Jan 23, 2020 15:12
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Genghis Cohen posted:I think they go ashore to the town where it will be held, but the Polychrest is ordered to sea before the duel can take place. While at sea Maturin informs Jack of an incipient mutiny, presumably out of a feeling it is the right thing to do despite their strained relationship. In the aftermath of the Fanciulla action, where Jack is very dangerously wounded, and Maturin treats him, it's either tacitly written off or an off-screen reconciliation occurs. There's an implied reconciliation after that action. Stephen sees Jack's wounds and says "come below, brother." Probably my favorite moment from Post-Captain.
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May 21, 2020 22:37
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[insert joke from Blazing Saddles here]
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Jun 9, 2020 21:36
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Tias posted:Tag for following. I've only just started reading Master and Commander, is there commentary on it in this thread somewhere? I'm having a lot of trouble getting the slang. A Sea of Words by Dean King is a great companion book if you're looking for something to have onhand while you read. It has diagrams of ships and an extensive glossary of all the slang and terms, along with some essays that give you more historical context.
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Jun 24, 2020 13:08
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The movie adaptation/mishmash of Master and Commander and Far Side of the World is on Hulu now. I told myself I'd wait until I finished Far Side of the World before watching it, but I think I'm gonna break that rule because I'm only up to Treason's Harbor. From everything I've heard the production values and performances are very good.
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Aug 7, 2020 13:19
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I just looked that up and wtf. My mental image of Bonden has always been like Vinnie Jones but more stout and maybe a little fatter.
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Aug 7, 2020 15:24
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Just watched the movie and liked it! I'd agree that Stephen feels a bit off, but his skills as a surgeon and naturalist are shown off enough to get the point across. Crowe played Aubrey perfectly, and the casting for Killick was pretty spot on also. More than anything it's a great visual representation of life aboard a sailing ship and all the battle scenes were solid. Crowe and Bettany had pretty good chemistry, and it was fun to pick out which book this or that line of dialog was pulled from. The movie spent a bit too much time with the young midshipman who lost his arm but by the end I was wishing this had been successful enough to warrant sequels.
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Aug 10, 2020 03:20
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Lockback posted:I have a mental image of Jack as the out-of-shape, in-shape guy. Like he's kinda pudgy but also he can scamper up the maintop as fast as the midshipmen and he's the best swimmer on the boat so he's still pretty in shape. There are a couple instances where circumstances make Aubrey lose a bunch of weight - in Post-Captain and Desolation Island - so I'm fine picturing him on that end of the spectrum for the movie. I'm reading Treason's Harbor and watching the movie yesterday hasn't really affected my mental image of the characters but it has helped make the particulars of the ship a bit easier to visualize.
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Aug 11, 2020 01:21
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I figure that's more because the movie (wisely imo) takes place entirely at sea where Jack is in his element. I'm sure if they had made sequels we would have seen Jack getting swindled at cards or in crackpot investment schemes.
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Aug 12, 2020 13:08
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I feel like The Terror is proof you can do a good 19th century nautical miniseries with some CGI around the edges. Granted those ships barely moved but if an Aubrey-Maturin series was ever made and it approximated The Terror's production then that's good enough for me.
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Aug 15, 2020 15:07
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Treason's Harbor ruled. The surprise attack in Zambra Bay came outta nowhere. Rest in piss Old Harte. Some good espionage as well but it seems out of character that Stephen isn't more suspicious of Wray.
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Aug 16, 2020 23:41
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Genghis Cohen posted:I love that (it's shortly before the spoiler mentioned above). It's not necessarily considered redemption of a thoroughly dislikable character, but I think Jack's slight surprise, because he had known him for years without ever knowing him to do a noble thing, is a great touch. That doesn't quite redeem him for me either, especially considering his insistence on snooping in the bay - even after he was told not to because of the negative impact it would have on the Dey of Mascara - got 500 people needlessly killed. Freeing a couple slaves because of a guilty conscience is pretty paltry by comparison. Still, I was as surprised as Jack when that happened.
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Aug 17, 2020 13:13
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Nektu posted:Which edition of the audio books is the good edition? Patrick Tull's narration
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Sep 8, 2020 23:30
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I like the casting as-is except of course Bonden, who should have been played by Vinnie Jones
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Feb 27, 2021 08:47
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I give a pass to the bear escape because it rules
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Apr 4, 2021 21:20
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It's not something I'm well versed on but presumably the Napoleonic era had its own forms of contraceptives/birth control. Obv nothing as effective as modern methods but maybe she just got lucky. And I forget which book this is from but doesn't Diana approach Stephen about terminating a pregnancy before they're married because Johnson/Johnstone is the father? Iirc she miscarries or it's a false pregnancy or something so it's moot but it does come up at least one.
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May 18, 2021 00:04
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I think what really pushes Stephen to the brink in Post-Captain is Jack pressing him on his intentions with Diana to the point where he says "any bastard can talk around the issue with flowery words" or something like that. I don't think at this point that Jack is aware Stephen is literally a bastard. Obviously this had huge social implications during this time and it would have been a huge point of honor for Stephen to stand up for himself because of it. Goddamn Post-Captain is so good
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May 18, 2021 03:20
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Stringent posted:the next time i read it i'm definitely going to try to correlate his grouchy episodes with his laudanum usage Presumably he's on withdrawals in HMS Surprise while he's on the mend with posset and caudle. I initially read it as just a humorous situation where this incomparable doctor is an insufferable patient, but I tend to forget Stephen is a junkie because he's more or less in the "functioning" category.
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May 18, 2021 17:45
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It'll be interesting to see whether this is actually a prequel or a reboot. M&C the novel is set in 1800 whereas M&C the movie was set in 1805 since they decided not to go for the War of 1812 and an American antagonist. Crowe and Bettany are way too old so hopefully it's an all new cast.
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Jun 5, 2021 12:31
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