Rating: 
Summary: Dangerous - Avoid at all costs!
Review: DO NOT READ THIS BOOK.IT IS DANGEROUS. This book is moreaddictive than the tincture of Laudanum that has consumed the lives ofinnumerable poor mortals. Of greatest concern is that it is just one book in a whole series, with each being more captivating than the last. The poor unfortunate reader is sucked into a world so vivid that it is almost impossible to return. Sleep, loved ones, money, vocation all take second place to O'Brian once the first words have been sampled. Heed my warning. Do not read this book if you value your free time.
Rating:
Summary: This is a great book.
Review: Sailing ship set during the Napoleonic period. A great series in the line of CS Forester's Hornblower series.
Rating:
Summary: Let This Be A Warning
Review: Warning: Do not enter the world of Patrick O'Brian unless you are ready to be swept up into a world that is both wonderful and 20 volumes long. I started with #16 by accident, then bought #1, then #2. Then seven more volumes at one time, then all the others. The other reviews here tell the tale. These books are not adventure stories, although they are packed with adventure. Think of Hawthorne as author of the Star Trek saga. Prepare to have your vocabulary doubled -- and your knowledge of the Royal Navy, the French Navy, the Continental Navy, geography, early medicine, botany, not to mention how to act honorably (or should I say honourably) at every occasion. How to starve. How to sail, how to woo, how to take a cannon ball in the arm. All this useful info and much more await your reading delight. The two greatest paragraphs I have ever read are contained in these volumes. Become a member of an invisible community. Nod knowingly to strangers holding books with that certain cover design on buses and airplanes. I've read them all, and I'm about to buy the last. I have learned to read them slowly, because every page is one page closer to the finish of another great story and voyage of discovery, each one different than the others. I am sad that #20 may be the last. I have been privileged to have made the journey. "Anon, my dears, there's not a moment to spare..."
Rating:
Summary: One of the best series of novels ever
Review: The Aubrey / Maturin series is simply fantastic. The characters, the adventures, the humor, all extraordinary. These are among the most literate adventure novels ever written. Not everyone likes the style, but the lucky ones are true fanatics. This book is certainly worth a try. If you like it, there are 18 more (and number 20 will be released in two weeks).
Rating: 
Summary: the best of the series
Review: master and commander is the best in the series. the books that follow gradually transform the saga into a string of thinly-disguised romance novels -- most of which i was unable to finish.
Rating:
Summary: The Elite
Review: To all those who rate this book, series or author as less than five stars, it's OK, my Mom doesn't get them either. But I have read the entire series over and over, and cannot stop. The cover art hangs on my walls. I've read Forrester, Lambden, Cornwall and a host of other series chronicling the lives of military officers, but none has ever taken me there like O'Brian. I am a military officer, and his insight into leadership, character and duty is without equal. The language is incredible, like listening to voices straight from the 19th century, with the waves crashing in the background. If I had read these in college, my military history senior thesis would have been on Trafalgar and not the Golan Heights. I inflicted the series on my father, and he has now caught up, and like me is eagerly awaiting more. To those who do get it, I wish you the joy of it; to those who do not, my condolences. Just don't spoil it for the rest of us.
Rating:
Summary: A rewarding, though not easy, adventure
Review: Although I started twice, I just finished this novel and wanted more. It's exciting and extremely well written, but is more different than the Hornblower novels than one would expect. Where Hornblower focused more on narrative and action, O'Brien spends a good deal of time developing characters and exploring the relationships between them. His prose is vivid and makes you feel that "you are there" whether it's a room in the governor's house or on deck during a battle. For those who do not wish to spend any time learning the details of naval life at this point in history, the book will seem slow (see comments of others below). If you're genuinely interested in learning about life at the turn of the end of the 18th century, many details are woven skillfully into O'Brien's narrative and will fascinate the curious. If you just want an action story without the intricacies of human nature and naval life, this book may seem to detailed. For the rest of us, Mr O'Brien is encouraged to continue to continue his "lectures."
Rating:
Summary: 3 unnecessary tacks for a detailed series opener.
Review: Master and Commander features two men who apparently will be featured in the series; the earthy Jack Aubrey and the urbane and learned Stephen Maturin. Jack Aubrey is the Hornblower of the series although he is more flawed than Hornblower or many of his clones. Aubrey is out for riches and glory as much if not more than King and country. Where Hornblower was thin and frugal, Aubrey revels in the pleasures of the flesh. Maturin on the other hand is a physician and one of life's scholars. I suspect that O'Brian set up this dichotomy to have the two exposed to each other's worlds as the series progresses set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. O'Brian has created an interesting concept and developed a different market niche from the other post Forester authors. That niche would prefer stories in which there are serious themes to develop, there is much attention to detail and the use of language is front and centre. They are also prepared to wait for 100 pages in the opening entry before a shot is fired in anger. Master and Commander is at the opposite end of the spectrum from Ramage which opens with a battle scene. The novel is reminiscent of historical novels written in the 19th century; long periods of introduction, significant character development, extensive descriptive passages, a great attention to detail and extensive of use of language. I.e. Master and Commander is quite wordy. I haven't read anything about O'Brian but this work strikes me as a novel written by an academic attempting to deconstruct the genre while providing a classic example of it at the same time. I found it vaguely unsatisfying. There are some interesting tensions in the novel. Surprisingly, although their meeting is confrontational, Aubrey and Maturin have no memorable conflicts. This is especially surprising since Maturin must treat the side effects of Aubrey's cruising. There are tensions between Aubrey and his commanding officer, mistress and first lieutenant. The ship's master also has an unrequited love for him. None of these are played out and resolved in a manner that is particularly clear or satisfying. The action scenes are well written although they appear to be more of a backdrop than the focal point of the story. While the extensive description and technical details add a sense of realism, there is no sense of the real carnage created by chain or grapeshot. O'Brian could have used Maturin to show how horrible the injuries and their treatments were in pre-anesthetic days. There is also no focal point from a historical context. The novel doesn't lead to any key historical events, real or imagined, in which Aubrey et al play a pivotal role. I am asking- why was this novel written? Why write in extensive selective detail about events which are not important? I might read subsequent offerings in this series but only after I have run the other series aground.
Rating:
Summary: A real work of art
Review: Having read most of the series (quite unintentionally, as I am well and truly hooked) I have to respond to the reader from Philadelphia who characterized Master and Commander as a "distant second" to the Horatio Hornblower novels. I would recommend the Hornblower novels to young adolescents looking for straight-forward adventure. To lovers of books, O'Brian is far, far, better than C.S. They are not even playing in the same game, so what is the point of comparison? Horatio Hornblower is a great hero, but he is also someone who never existed - he isn't interesting enough to be real. O'Brian's characters (while eccentric) are real, imperfect, striving human beings. Master and Commander made me laugh out loud, and I understood each character...and why we live in a world where decent people can compete with, hate, even kill each other. Master and Commander deals with varying shades and degrees of: love, friendship, honor, and loyalty. At the risk of sounding pompous I have to admit it might be too subtle for some. So, read Hornblower as a youth, but read O'Brian, multiple times, as an adult. It is a far more rewarding experience.
Rating: 
Summary: A (very) distant second to Horatio Hornblower....
Review: The naval descriptions are so voluminous and exact that I suspect the author was showing off how detailed his research was, rather than using it to forward the plot or develop the characters (which, heaven knows, need a lot of development). I am prone to like heroes, especially of the British variety, but this was a disappointment. I'm going back to re-reading H.H. for the hundredth time, and I recommend you all do the same.
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