Patrick O'Brian Books

I bought the 18-novel set earlier offered, and wish I'd known about this new one. Lunching with colleagues recently I reported that I had gone through the first three thousand pages of my set of novels. "Haven't you had enough?" one asked, and it took a moment to come back with the reply that no, I hadn't. The momentary delay was because I was puzzled anybody could come up with an idea like that. This is the grip of O'Brian. He is a master story teller with possibly the most erudite mind ever unleashed on the popular narrative market. In the history of the language. References range between (in the first 3000 pages) Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in, classical Greek authors and myriad cultural, scientific, historical, diplomatic and administrative issues in between, all touched so lightly that none slows down the man's relentless narrative drive; all told so relentlessly that they have much of the inevitability of classical drama. Individual Aubrey/Maturin novels are very good: the series read as such moves beyond anything I have earlier understood about how to write very very well, and shows them to be an integrated classic some 7000 words long at present, with more, I trust, to come. You don't have to know the sea to find these books rewarding.

This time the plot involves more than sea, battle, and the natural world. The ship has taken on prisoners consigned to Australia. This feature adds pathos, indigation, and other emotional factors to the usual naval war beteen Britain and France.

The author paints a vivid picture naval life. If you are interested in well developed characters and wonderfully detailed naval battles you will love this book.

I have read all of the O'Brian books twice over and am now listening to them. This cassette with John Lee as narrator, is superb. Lee is my favorite reader of O'Brian, despite Patrick Tull's ubiquity. This is the first Aubrey-Maturin book and deserves special place. It was great to HEAR those immortable words once only read, which describe the meeting of Jack and Steven in Molly Harte's drawing room!

As a general rule people who are sufficiently adventurous to lead unusual lives lack any literay skills whatsoever. Brian's books are some of the best descriptions of sleigh dogs, dog people and sleigh dog racing that have ever been written, and he is able to describe the pain, privations and even the highs of living almost alone in a world that has changed little in a thousand years. His descriptions of winter in the Yukon and Alaska are realistic and yet avoid the sentimentality of lesser writers, and he can describe the people he meets without demeaning them. I don't race but I've travelled thousands of miles behind a team, but I don't feel that background's of any importance to enjoy Brian's books. As a final comment, Brian is the only man in history who ever started first in the Iditarod and came in last in both that race and the Yukon Quest. The two toughest races on earth. And he laughs about it.

This book is an ideal resource for storytellers and players looking to play a "road game" of Requiem. It's got a lot of detail on why specific covenants would send their members on the road, the roles that various clans play in road coteries, specifics on concerns that vampires would face on the road, devotions, Cruac rituals, Theban sorcery, a sample of road antagonists or allies (including the oft-mentioned Unholy!) and a sample setting, Route 666.

All in all, a great book, though honestly a bit heavily priced for such a thin book.

Shipwrecked Aubrey and crew beat back devious pirates, bargain passage back to where they signed the treaty they were trying to deliver to England, and Maturin gets long-awaited news from home. Granted, it is not as rich in battles, sailing strategy, and politics as the others in the series, but "It don't signify" as Aubrey and Maturin's thumping good series continues. I seldom reread books but Patrick O'Brian's are even better the second and third time.

This lovely book -- winner of France's highest literary award -- is an unjustly ignored masterpiece, and one of those books that comprise my 5 or 10 personal favorite novels of all time. The tale of two friends who were stationed together in French Vietnam, the book is mostly about the effect the one friend -- vibrant and full of life -- has on the other, who is quieter, more philosophical and introspective. Full of contemplation, atmosphere, and starkly beautiful poetry, the novel builds up to a meeting of the two friends in the middle of the north Atlantic many years after their friendship has waned, and becomes a tale of what one does with one's life. what influences people have upon each other, and a reckoning of what one's done with one's talents. I discovered this book quite by accident in the library one day years ago, and have been recommending it to people ever since. If you're lucky enough to happen upon it yourself, I hope you find it as meaningful and profound as I have.

I have a hunch that it would take some doing to get these same contributors -- towering literary figures all -- together between any two other book covers. Their essays provide thoughtful insight into O'Brian's writing. They allow me to better understand why I instinctively liked it from the start.

In his opening paragraph of the introduction to this book William Waldegrave says, and so aptly, "Few events in the continuing history of literature are as satisfying as those moments when a writer, leaving behind the dissonance of experiment and imitation, finds his own authentic voice and settles into a lifetime of creativity in a style which he makes his own."

Patrick O'Brian's superb style is his alone, a voice like no other, and when we go back to his earlier works -- having exhausted the Aubrey/Maturin series over and over -- we find that he had settled into his style long ago.

The final contribution sheds some light on why O'Brian was so slow to take off in the U.S., which was not until after he was translated into Japanese. Stuart Bennett's essay is titled Four Decades of Reviews. "Though rarely out of print in Great Britain," he says, "the first five of the Aubrey novels received a somewhat muted reception in the U.S. After 'Desolation Island' in 1979, no attempt was made to present Aubrey to an American readership until Norton's 1990 reissues. Reasons for this long American dry spell can be found in some of the reviews of the early Aubrey novels." Some examples:

"Publisher's Weekly" said of "Post Captain" in 1972: "Overwritten for so little plot, which consists mainly of adventures at sea and the friends's feuding over their rather tedious women."

"New York Times Book Review" on "H.M.S. Surprise" in 1973: "Mr. O'Brian is constantly becalmed in his own diction, which can take a disturbingly giddy turn. Men-of-war with names like 'Belle Poulle' and 'Caca Fuego' just don't inspire confidence." Mr. Bennett responds, "The French quite certainly possessed a ship called the 'Belle Poulle' ... Furthermore the Spaniards often named their men-of-war 'Cacafuego'; one formed part of the Invincible Armada."

I discovered "Master and Commander" and "Post Captain" wholly by chance in 1990, before I or anyone I knew had ever heard of Patrick O'Brian. The reviewers this second time around had not awakened. I was hooked from the start and like a literary Johnny Appleseed began introducing others to this fine "new" writer. And so it has been a wonderfully satisfying experience for me to see the appreciation of O'Brian's craftsmanship blossom, then swell to such heights as it has during the years following. Happily, the reviewers liked Aubrey and Maturin this time around.

I believe this collection of essays was the first of the string of books that now accompany O'Brian's books. In it we learn some things about Patrick O'Brian from himself. Among them: he wrote his first tale of the sea, "The Golden Ocean", "in little more than a month, laughing most of the time." He describes that the story, published in 1956, made no great impression, but led an American publisher to ask for an "adult" sea story. "Master and Commander" was the result. It was published in the late sixties, but would not be successful in the U.S. for another twenty-five years, this time at the hands of another publisher: W.W. Norton. Many American readers are very happy that Norton breathed new life into Aubrey and Maturin, and consequently into Patrick O'Brian's whole works.

The plot thickens in the second book of the trilogy as new villians emerge in the form of the Coven. Lake Monroe is a focal point at the start of this sequel and those familiar with the area can picture the gorgeous water setting and understand why Paul Clouse would want to go out in his boat one last time admist the fall beauty. Many questions will arise as the book progresses. Who is the Coven? Why are they after Paul Clouse and his friends? Will the nightmare ever stop? The murders in this book seem more gruesome than the last, but the descriptive writing keeps the suspense moving along at a fast pace. What are they searching for at the resort and who is the driving force replacing Clouse's brother-in-law? The ending of this book leaves as many questions as it provides answers, but at least one villian (in the familiar reaper costume) will surprise the reader.