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I've been listening to the audiobooks, and drat they're good! I've been avoiding this thread so I don't get spoiled, but I wanted to check in and praise the series. I just finished The Fortune of War, so much funny stuff in it. The bloodthirsty clerk bossing Captain Broke around, the Emperor of Mexico giving a land grant to Captain Aubrey and Doctor Maturin playing Hurley-Cricket. After I'm through the series I'll probably die from withdrawal symptoms. Is the Hornblower series any good, or the lobster Sharpe?
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Jul 19, 2013 05:49
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ItalicSquirrels posted:Hornblower's good, but sometimes he has a tendency towards being kinda emo. Drives me up the wall when it happens. Not a bad series, though, and I've read or listened to the whole series twice through. Patrick Tull. His French accent is something everyone should experience.
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Jul 19, 2013 18:07
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The Tall Ship Races visited my hometown last week. Such fine sight! Walking aboard the ships and seeing a whole fleet of large square rigged vessels sailing makes the reading experience so much better. Götheborg, a replica of the Swedish East India Company's teawagon saluted with few cannons and the sound was great. The broadside of a real Man-of-war must be truly something to behold.
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Jul 22, 2013 07:11
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Woe is me! After seven months of listening, I've finally reached to the end. These books are really well balanced. They have humour, action, sailing and other things in perfect amounts. And when the author repeats stuff from book to book, it’s not boring or annoying, but makes you feel more familiar with the characters. Most favourite side characters must have been Aubrey’s little daughters, who curse like the foremast jacks who helped to raise them: “They were also told very firmly that they must not call out after their brother with such words as sod, swab and whore son beast”. And of course there’s the shrewish Killick. I listened the whole series as audiobooks, and I think that from now on I automatically compare other readers to Patrick Tull, and find them lacking. Except for Christopher Lee, whose Children of Hurin is still unsurpassed. As a historical fiction series, this is the best I’ve ever encountered. But if I compare a single book from the series to other historical fiction novels, I’ve read better. Like Mika Waltari's The Egyptian. Even though I’m somewhat a landsman, the naval jargon wasn’t that difficult. If you encounter a new word just put it in a search engine and you get an explanation and probably even a nice picture too. The ending and afterwords to the unfinished book were really bittersweet. And drat I wished to see Maturin talking to Napoleon!
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Nov 28, 2013 18:24
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I learned recently that many of the English place names mean something dirty. Eg. the Reverend Mr Hinksey who was the new rector of Swiving Monachorum was really the new rector of loving of Monks.
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Nov 30, 2013 23:19
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Just finished the first Horatio Hornblower novel and started on the second. The main protagonist is the wettest blanket. Only way for him to get any balls would be if French or Spaniards hit him with cannons or muskets. But the parts about ships are ok, and I don't have anything better to listen to while walking and doing chores. What other wooden ships novel series are there?
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Apr 13, 2014 17:30
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Raskolnikov2089 posted:Hornblower is probably the best after Aubrey/Maturin. drat  . They just aren't as good. I had a moment of nostalgia in Forester's A Ship of the Line, when they spoke of Captain Cochrane's succesful cruises on the Mediterranean. Master and Commander almost completely, and large parts of other Aubrey-Maturin books are based on his life.
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Apr 13, 2014 17:50
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:The only thing I'v e found that's better than Aubrey/Maturin is pure nonfiction, like books that collect period accounts of battles, etc. Sometimes I move over to other non-ship-based historical fiction, like Mary Renault or Robert Graves. I've heard lots of praise for Renault, I'll try her books next. Does she write anything about triremes?
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Apr 13, 2014 21:42
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Raskolnikov2089 posted:Read it slowly. O'Brian's prose is deceptively sparse. Time jumps 6 weeks in the space between two sentenc This is especially a problem in audio books.
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Jun 14, 2014 10:18
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ItalicSquirrels posted:"Log of Captain Henri: June 18, 1809; Day 585 in port. Exercised hands by sending them up and down the rigging. Winds perfect for escape from blockade, but full moon and presence of British squadron makes survival unlikely. May try in two weeks if winds remain favorable and Indomptable is finally able to receive masts. But think of the amount of claret. And a frigate captain or a privateer novel would work.
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Jun 27, 2014 00:04
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I imagine most readers of this thread have seen the Book of the Month thread for this month, but in case you missed it, we're doing Pride and Prejudice; same time setting as Aubrey/Maturin so there's a lot of overlap. What kind of ship does she command?
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Sep 9, 2014 19:30
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:A readership, naturalment.  I'm listening to Arthur Conan Doyle's The White Company at the moment, but when it's done, sure why not.
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Sep 9, 2014 20:26
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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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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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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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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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Maybe it's one of those derogatory expressions against the Dutch like 'going Dutch', 'Dutch courage' and 'Dutch uncle' and has less to do with actual Dutch ships: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_uncle
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Nov 10, 2014 15:16
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Decius posted:I'm always a bit torn about that scene. On the one hand such things happen. Sudden, unexpected death on the road taking away loved ones from one second to the next is after all rather common. On the other hand killing Diana (and Ms. Williams) off unceremoniously between books, especially by the one thing she's always excelled at - driving a coach dangerously fast - reeks a lot like getting rid of a stale character to free Stephen for further story developments. I think that he wrote it like that because his own wife died when he was writing that book.
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Nov 27, 2014 15:19
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Arglebargle III posted:Camera angles are a hell of a thing. Yeah:  Frodo and Gandalf travel together in a cart, and Frodo appears dwarfed by Gandalf.  In reality, the bench is split, and Frodo is sitting a few feet behind Gandalf – Gandalf’s body hides the split in the bench.
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Jan 5, 2015 15:47
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Colonial Air Force posted:For Hornblower, although I know I'll be a little disappointed reading them after I've already finished Aubrey-Maturin, should I read them in chronological order, or published order? It's always the best to read in the published order.
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Jan 7, 2015 17:59
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Murgos posted:Stephen is prone to practicing on those more lubberly than him when they put him out of sorts. Stephen does a very good explanation of wind, tides and leeway to Jagiello at one point with the purpose of scaring him about a nearby lee shore after Jagiello beats him at chess. Stephen also cheats at cards when people annoy him. I don't think that it was cheating, he just had learned to read people from the card player he met in prison.
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May 12, 2015 14:53
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Colonial Air Force posted:Started the Hornblower series, and while I like it, I wish Forester wouldn't remind me that the novel was written in a different time. Like there was a reference to how Florence Nightingale didn't exist in Hornblower's time. Yeah, I remember that part and had the same experience. Didn't like the series much anyway. I stopped reading it at Lord Hornblower. Imo after reading Aubrey/Maturin it's better to go cold turkey than read Hornblower.
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Jul 15, 2015 15:08
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Genghis Cohen posted:I enjoyed Hornblower (I admittedly read them before P O'B) and in fact I still think the single-ship actions are at least as well written. But there's no question that Forester can't match the authentic period feel of Aubrey and Maturin's interactions. Fundamentally different books really, Hornblower is straightforward adventure stories where the heor wins through, albeit in a very neurotic way, A-M are an extended novel of manners where the characters just happen to have amazing adventures. I agree that the ship actions are mostly good, even though the main protagonist is an insufferable wet blanket.
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Jul 16, 2015 00:59
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Genghis Cohen posted:The Master and Commander film, while not 100% faithful, got so much of the look and the feel of the characters right that it would be very hard to make an extended small-screen version that lived up. Such a drat shame they didn't make more of those movies. I haven't read that book, but I just watched the series and imo no one pushed the captain. But according to the guy who wrote his non-canonical biography, Hornblower pushed him.
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Jul 25, 2015 16:46
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Tomorrow dawn at the Gas Chamber. And the weapons:
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Jul 26, 2015 17:30
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Jul 26, 2015 19:57
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Please continue posting when you have tried the recipes!
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Jul 29, 2015 01:14
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Murgos posted:I was going to ask about the recipe for Boiled Fowl with Oyster Sauce but I googled it and there are lots of recipes available and it's as simple as it sounds. No other book has been as arduous for me to read as that one. It's a good book and worth the effort, but it requires a shitload of work.
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Oct 27, 2015 00:49
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Just finished Homage to Catalonia read by Patrick Tull, and at times I was expecting Captain Aubrey to jump behind the next corner brandishing a sword.
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Jan 18, 2016 09:35
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CowboyKid posted:Welp, just finished #21 and I'm bummed. I also read them straight through and felt the same. Could anyone recommend a series that has the same kind of feel to it?
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Feb 9, 2016 22:00
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Colonial Air Force posted:Sharpe. In what order?
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Feb 9, 2016 22:06
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Has anyone "read" Sharpe as audiobooks? And if so, which narrator would you recommend?Hieronymous Alloy posted:Read Sharpe in internal chronological order, not publication order, IMHO. The author planned the series out first then wrote them out of sequence based on what he thought would sell. Ok. Your post also reminded me of the Book of the month thread. I'm listening to a history book atm, but after that I'll try the Anabasis.
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Feb 9, 2016 22:19
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Professor Shark posted:I wouldn't be able to do the cheque, however iirc Sophie was black with a white stripe, c/d? is it for a spaceship?
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May 23, 2016 13:38
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What are you going to do first? Didn't someone itt try some of those?
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May 28, 2016 23:00
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ovenboy posted:I feel I must try the shrubs soon. I've in vain tried getting my friends to join me in the making of a drowned baby, a shrub is probably a better gateway. I've read The Unknown Shore. Like Wikipedia says, the two main characters are like prototypes of Aubrey and Maturin. It was quite good, and I recommend it for all O'Brian fans. Hogge Wild fucked around with this message at 08:56 on Jun 17, 2016 |
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Jun 17, 2016 08:49
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Colonial Air Force posted:If you aren't reading them yourself, the only good alternative is the audiobooks with Tull. And in some ways I think they're superior even to reading them yourself.
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Jul 19, 2016 17:59
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Dec 20, 2016 10:26
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Professor Shark posted:I just finished the first chapter of Fortune and I don't know anything about Cricket... did Maturin play the game right and astound everyone? not quite
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Jan 19, 2017 00:44
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Arglebargle III posted:I started going through the Patrick Tull audio books again on a long car trip. Spoiler alert: it's really good. Same! Just finished the Far side of the world.
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Jun 11, 2017 09:10
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When the crew hears that they are protected from pressing: Jack's mind was still too full of Stephen's paper and its possible implications to take much notice of the din, and he hurried below. But scarcely was his file in its proper place before a far greater hullaballoo broke out: as the Viper filled and gathered way all the men from Shelmerston and all those Surprises who were deserters raced up into the weather shrouds, facing the cutter. The yeoman of the sheets called out 'One, two, three,' and they all bellowed 'Hoo, hoo, hoo' and slapped their backsides in unison, laughing like maniacs. 'Belay there,' roared Jack in a Cape Horn voice. 'Goddamned pack of mooncalves - is this a bawdy-house? The next man to slap his arse will have it flogged off him.'
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Jun 16, 2017 19:37
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