Master & Commander

I realized that my library has (almost) the whole Aubrey & Maturin series, and I'd be remiss as a father if I didn't read the dadliest of dadfic, so here we are. Master and Commander works best as a whole mood of an era, with the naturalist Dr. Maturin standing in for the reader as the enthusiast Captain Aubrey goes about the business of naval warfare at the end of the 18th century.

It's a dashing cruise around the Med, taking prizes and running away from bigger ships, as Aubrey tries to work his way up the ladder of promotion and wealth. Meanwhile, there's the business of managing the crew and Lt. Dillion, an Irishman who has a secret history with Maturin. The characterization is amazing, as well as the sheer richness of nautical show more language, but unless you know a fair big about sailing (and my knowledge tops out at the weather gauge) it can be hard to track the action. The pacing and point of view is a little lumpy, though the first entry in a 20+ book series can be forgiving. I'm excited to slip this in between my other reads. show less

I picked this up without really thinking that it was going to appeal to me—the O'Brian books are marketed very much as Boys' Own Adventures, and I mostly find those kind of books shallow on characterisation and poorly written. Yet this book was such a revelation, and the beginning of a true love for this series: though I struggled with the technical terms at time, the beautifully crafted prose and the carefully delineated characters were more than enough to hook me. It's a little more episodic than the later books, but you can really see how O'Brian is finding his feet in a universe he would inhabit so successfully, so convincingly, for the rest of his life.

Oh my stars and garters! What a ride! Thank you, Patrick O'Brian, gods rest your soul.

"Master and Commander" has nothing to do with the synonymous movie starring Russell Crowe. It has the same grittiness, the same smell of the sea and the sound of snapping canvas, but the book is vastly superior in every way.

This book is the first of a TWENTY BOOK SERIES (all caps so you Harry Potter/Wheel of Time maniacs can wrap your mind around a single work of fiction spanning 5000 pages) called by fans "The Aubrey-Maturin books", after the co-protagonists, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, and a more delightful, fully-realized buddy team you will not easily find in fiction. Aubrey is a blusterous, reckless, jovial Epicure who happens to know how to show more fight a brigantine. Maturin is a gentle, introspective, meticulous scientist with a taste for books. Neither are perfect, but both are good company for each other and their conversations make for great tension and reading.

The author does absolutely nothing to spare the reader from the ins and outs of a Napoleonic Era fighting ship. By page twenty your head will be swimming with unfamiliar nautical terms, but much to O'Brian's credit, by the end of the book you will know your stun'suls from your maintopmast gallants, your xebecs from your feluccas and your chasers from your twelve-pounders. The characters sound real and they exchange zingers that will have you chortling for days.

You can bet your flying jib I will be reading each and every single one of these books, and so should you. show less

Brilliant for what it is, an immersive historical fiction that does not halt for any audience member less than willing to roll along with its period jargon and nautical terms. I absolutely loved it, but I love the period of the Napoleonic Wars and I love letting myself sink into a time period even if I do not understand what the author is talking about for pages at a time (though the frontispiece map is very helpful for finding out the difference between a topsail and a royal, for example). If you don't enjoy either of those things, I'm not sure why you'd pick up this book at all. If you do, you will likely also love the bluff narrative perspective of Jack Aubrey, the generally non-toxic relationship between men that is surfaced show more throughout, the oddball characterization of Maturin, and the delightfully true-paced sea battles. This whole series has a very specific reader; you'll know quite quickly if you're one of us (and no, it's not just dudes, I swear). show less

This book is so beloved that it is hard to admit how bored I was with the stream of nautical terminology and sailing minutiae. I was interested in the relationship between Aubrey and Maturin but about 100 pages in I felt like whatever snippets of character and relationship and plot I was getting -- just wasn't worth it.

I hate to give up on a book, especially one as highly recommended as this one. Nancy Pearl says she only gives a book 50 pages to engage her -- I gave Master and Commander twice that.

Also, I'm taking the the time to write this review because I have a vague suspicion that this is not the first time I've tried to read it.

Well-written, engrossing, and dryly amusing. While I tired of the vast amounts of nautical nomenclature, O'Brian did a good job of filling the reader in. This was generally accomplished by having Captain Jack Aubrey and others explain what was happening to physician Stephen Maturin. Maturin is the foil with whom the reader identifies, and whose musings humanize the larger-than-life Aubrey. Maturin is a philosopher who delights in and reflects on the natural world; Aubrey is something of a lout--loud, heavy, insensitive. Their mutual love of music provides the grounds for their nacent friendship and Aubrey's impulsive invfitation that Maturin become the Sophie's surgeon. The characters complement each other and, in their musings and show more their interactions with James Dillon, are revealed in their strengths and failings. The narrative under the jargon is clever, skillful, and often quite funny. I'm not sure I'm ready to commit to the whole series, but I'm glad to know it's waiting for me. show less

I have wanted to dip into this series for a while, and finally stumbled across the first title. It is dense, rich, and very human fiction. For a landlubber, the nautical terms get a tad confusing at times, but like travelling in a foreign land, the lilt of the accent and the slight sense of uncertainty is all part of the enjoyment. Loved it.

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When a key character dies late in the book, I was left with a kind of flat feeling for the rest of the book. This is because of the way it was handled, that he was so very there and then so very gone. He goes so quickly, off stage, and we see so little of the impact on his mates. Clearly, they mourn him, but more weight is given to their irritations earlier in the book than to this devastating loss. show more Still, an excellent book. show less