Master And Commander

A hoot of a tale. For a sailing nerd I loved the unapologetic technical accuracy even though 80% went sailing over my head (or googling like mad) The characters, so far, are pretty one dimensional, the plot is no more deeper than a shipping log, but I understand that both are fleshed out in subsequent books. It is, however, a very cozy read, familiar, even though I cannot quite put my finger on why. I can myself dipping into the next ones as I get a chance.

These are great books. However, O'Brian is famous for his use very arcane language(party because he is one of the last writers to have gone to sea as a boy in the early part of 20th century). If your unfamiliar with sailing nautical terms you should pick up the lexicon for the series called “A Sea of Words”.

I'm not sure whether to rate this 4 starts or 5 stars. On the one hand, the world-building is amazing and actually feels like the book was written in the 19th Century. On the other hand, the book assumes a virtually expert-level knowledge of 19th Century sailing terminology. How you get on with the book will largely depend on how willing you are to set aside the dictionary and just go with the flow.

In any event, the book is very well written and is genuinely thrilling at times (in fact, one of the battles manages to be thrilling even though witnessed from a distance). I'm very much looking forward to the next in the series...