Thursday, May 21, 2009

Advice

There was an episode of Hornblower on ITV3 yesterday afternoon. Its a series that has passed my by and that got me thinking I have NEVER read any of CS Forester's books either.

I was reading reviews on Amazon and someone said that "it wasn't bad but after reading the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin stories it was disappointing.".

Now O'Brian's series is another I haven't read, with the exception that some 9 years ago I tried to reader Master & Commander and gave up very quickly.

O'Brian gets rave reviews and should I go back and try it again? and are the Hornblower books worth reading? One review of Master & Commander said

After all the hype over O'Brian you finally read this novel, persevere with it till the end and think 'well, it was all right, but it wasn't that good. What's all the hype about'? Then you read the next novel and think exactly the same. Then you read the third novel and halfway through O'Brian finally kicks into gear (a phrase I very much doubt he would approve of!) and suddenly you realise what all the fuss was about.


is this right? is it a series worth getting into?

many thanks

8 comments:

ShySongbird said...

Hi Pete, HLH (His Loyal Highness, my husband :-D ) says he read the Hornblower books when he was a teenager and enjoyed them, he hasn't read the O'Brian books but says have you read the Richard Bolitho novels by Alexander Kent which is the pseudonym of Douglas Reeman who wrote sea stories set in the 2nd world war?

The Quacks of Life said...

no i haven't I'll stick them on the list

Eagleseagles said...

Hi Pete

I read the Hornblower series when I was a teenager and enjoyed them as a change from all those serious books we had to read for school.

Not read O'Brian ...

I am just reading the comment above...by shy song bird...sounds familiar!
Was going to say the same!!LOL!

C

Jan said...

Never mind the books, watch Hornblower the tv show - Ioan Gruffudd is a hunk! ;)

The Quacks of Life said...

why am i not surprised? he's not bald though?

ShySongbird said...

Just a thought Pete, and apologies if you have mentioned it in the past, but have you read any Ray Bradbury such as Fahrenheit 451; Something Wicked This Way Comes, or any of his many collections of short stories, some of which HLH is re-reading at the moment. If you haven't read any of his work yet I really urge you to give it a try.

The Quacks of Life said...

hi ss

i have read some Bradbury, years ago now! Never read something Wicked tho. I'll add to the list !

Anonymous said...

I read the Hornblower books when I was young, and enjoyed them. It was exciting reading about the ship battles and various strategies and adventures... I haven't read the books more recently, so don't know what I would think about them now... would still like them, I suspect.

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