The beginning to the sweeping Aubrey/Maturin series. “The best sea story I have ever read.” — Sir Francis Chichester
This, the first in the splendid series of Jack Aubrey novels, establishes the friendship between Captain Aubrey, R.N., and Stephen Maturin, ship’s surgeon and intelligence agent, against a thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Details of a life aboard a man-of-war are … are faultlessly rendered: the conversational idiom of the officers in the ward room and the men on the lower deck, the food, the floggings, the mysteries of the wind and the rigging, and the roar of broadsides as the great ships close in battle.
more
Love Patrick O’Brian’s novels of the sea. Only book set I ever kept.
Master and Commander was my favorite movie. Like the Music, and young man and his bugs. Doctors interest in nature, together was different in a war ship.
The opening volume of one of the great sea story serials ever written. A must for those in love with the sea.
Loved this and the movie. Fantastic….!
This book is the beginning of probably the best written series in the last century. It caturesn
Much better than good. The first in a wonderful series. I’ve read all of them
The first Jack Aubrey novel, leads into an unforgettable series that follows this courageous Royal Navy officer from a sloop to his admiral’s pennant.
This book sets the stage well for O’Brian’s nautical stories. Forget Russel Crowe’s movie (though it was pretty good) – the books build this world so much better.
The first volume of the marvelous Aubrey Maturin series introduces naval officer and 18th century man, Aubrey, and scientist, doctor, and spy, Maturin. They become lifelong friends and allies in adventures that take them around the world in British naval vessels, revealing the culture and customs that allowed several hundred men to live and work …
Patrick O’Brian is the master of the early 1800s British sea-faring genre. His meticulous research and attention to details combines with his storytelling abilities and sense of adventure to produce a masterful series of stories.
this one introduces the ship’s surgeon – originally from Catalan – who comes to play major roles and add political …
I didn’t expect to like this book but I did. The language is very formal but it transports you to the time period and is very entertaining.
Linda Spalding has a beautiful turn of phrase, and through the eyes of her characters you see the effects that the strain of tragedy, error, casual malice, and the vastness of this continent bring about. There are no heroes, no demons; only people; and they are sinful (as they and many of us would describe them even now); and they suffer. Still, …
O’Brian writes in one of my favorite genres, but as Age of Sail goes, this book is very slow with long, run on sentences that often lost the subject as they meander down the page.
Scenes of suspense and action are often undercut by sudden switches to long discourse that would be more appropriate to a Larry Durell naturalist book than AoS. When …
What a story! Every page filled with amazing information about ships, crews, and sailing in the distant past. Who knew? Fascinating read.
Wonderful writing with British dry humor and tall ship excitement!
I didn’t think I’d like “Master and Commander” because I’m a woman and it’s a male-oriented, early 1800’s seafaring, cannons-blazing tale of adventure. But a friend was so persistent in recommending it that she walked me to the bookstore, found the book, and paid for it.
I loved it. It didn’t grab me from the first page, but my interest was …
Overloaded with nautical terminology and no actual story apparent. Got about half way through and quit reading.
Great with authentic characters and period.
This whole series is great.
O’Brien is a masterful historical fiction writer. Excellent characters you come to care about. Interesting and highly entertaining accounts injecting his fictional characters into meticulously researched historical events. Sailing the seas w/ “Lucky Jack” Aubrey and his friend and ships physician, physician, mind you, not surgeon (which was little …