Rating: 
Summary: Far too blatant an ending
Review: To Mr. O'Brien: Damn you sir. A well-written book, but you leave the exploits of Aubery and Maturin, and the status of Mss. Sophie and Diana quite unresolved...a blatant call to purchase the next novel. I shall read no more of your scrivening, sir, Forester would not leave his readers hanging so. Your technical knowlege is not sufficient to save you. Were I a Gentleman, I should challenge you at the next opportunity. Enough!
Rating: 
Summary: Book 2 - Relive England in 1804 - Epic Sea Adventure
Review: My favorite book in the series. Almost half the book takes place ashore as Aubrey and Maturin sit out the Peace of Amiens. Here O'Brian introduces Sophie Williams and Sophie's firey, beautiful, unpredictable cousin Diane Villiers. O'Brian has a field day in this book, everything from roamnce to intrigue are touched upon. For a deep understanding of British life at the beginning of the 19th century, you will rarely find its equal in contempory litrature. A great read that will prepare you for the later works in this series.Many have compared O'Brian to Jane Austen. This book will show you how well O'Brian has captured the language and style of a great author that lived in the early 19th century.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent sequel to Master and Commander
Review: I loved this book, although I would have liked a little more action as in the first novel. Iam eager to continue the series.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Great Novels of the Last 25 Years
Review: Patrick O'Brian's works have been compared to those of both Jane Austen and Homer. To those who haven't read the series, this might seem like a strange juxtoposition. But anyone who has read Post Captain understands this. O'Brian's novels are a marvel, mixing the story of life at sea with the goings on in 1800 Britain. Throughout the series, we see most of the world and experience the life of many characters. And all the while O'Brian develops two of the most vivid and well done characters in fiction: Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. Although the series itself starts out in Master and Commander, it really takes off in Post Captain. I've talked to several readers who's reaction to the first book was that it was good but they weren't ready to rush out that night and buy the next half dozen. After Post Captain, they're hooked, and procede to devour the entire series.
Rating:
Summary: Historical fiction that makes the past spring to life.
Review: Once you've read this book (and the numerous others in the series), you'll know what it's like to see action at sea during the Napoleonic Wars; you'll smell the powder, taste the plum duff and soused hog's face, hear the creaking of timbers and the booming of the great guns; feel the not- always-gentle roll of the deck beneath your feet; and see the enemy sail on the horizon. With O'Brian, you are immediately, thrillingly present, in the uncomfortably cramped world of men at sea. The level of accurate historical detail is astonishing; the prose is mesmerizing; and O'Brian always writes with humor and genuine love for his characters. Well, most of them.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've read.
Review: Post Captain is a book teeming with life. You don't have to know anything about foremast, frigates, or a sailor's life to appreciate the sheer vitality and realness of the book's characters. There is Captain Aubrey, longing for marriage but unable to afford it. A Captain Aubrey who is almost sterotypically unsuited for marriage -- he is such a little boy on shore and yet a man who is absolutely convinced that the married state would be "paradise." And there is Stephen, Aubrey alter-ego and best friend who is hopelessly in love with a woman who can only hurt him and worse. A Stephen who is a boy at sea but a cunning and often ruthless English agent on land. There are the men who make up the Gunroom, that incredible self-sustaining world of the ship at sea. And, finally, there are the politics, the battles, the ships themselves and the men's relationship with those ships. For although the ships may not be alive (and at times it is difficult to assert that the ships are indeed inanimate beings) the relationships between the men and the ships are very much alive. All this life is somehow contained between two book covers. And it is this life that will keep the reader not only glued to the book until the final word but will make him/her come back to Post Captain again and again. A must read.
Rating:
Summary: "O'Brian is astonishingly good." -The Times of London
Review: 2. ~Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend, ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin, face even greater
adventure, intrigue and peril in the second of O'Brian's famed series of novels set during the
Napoleonic wars. Now, with a brief pause in the fighting, Jack and Stephen rent a house in the
country, where their friendship meets its first serious test. ~O'Brian has found the perfect sequel to
a perfect first novel: familiarity does not breed contempt, but enables the reader to travel
comfortably and perceptively with his companions through a world the author clearly loves but
does not render untrue. ~(If you have read the first of this marvelous 17-part series, Master and
Commander, you require no convincing of the rewards for continuing. Likewise, you should not be
deprived of discovering on your own the particular storylines; therefore I shall not disclose them,
but in subsequent reviews only remark in the most general and faithful terms my adoration for these
books. They are quite unlike anything I have ever read.)
Rating:
Summary: "O'Brian is astonishingly good." -The Times of London
Review: 2. ~Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend, ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin, face even greater adventure, intrigue and peril in
the second of O'Brian's famed series of novels set during the Napoleonic wars. Now, with a brief pause in the fighting, Jack and
Stephen rent a house in the country, where their friendship
meets its first serious test. ~O'Brian has found the perfect
sequel to a perfect first novel: familiarity does not breed
contempt, but enables the reader to travel comfortably and perceptively with
his companions through a world the author clearly loves but
does not render untrue. ~(If you have read the first of this
marvelous 17-part series, Master and Commander, you require no convincing
of the rewards for continuing. Likewise, you should not be deprived
of discovering on your own the particular storylines; therefore I shall
not disclose them, but in subsequent reviews only remark in the most
general and faithful terms my adoration for these books. They are quite
unlike anything I have ever read.)
Rating:
Summary: Still the best book in the Aubrey-Maturin series
Review: If you want to read the best Napoleonic War at sea series,
start with O'Brian's 2nd book. As charming as it is moving.
Here is early 19th century England with all it's mores and
written in a venacular rare among authors. But this is
O'Brian at his best.
Rating:
Summary: Second in the Aubrey-Maturin series of Napoleonic War tales
Review: If you want to get the flavor of O'Brian's tales of the sea adventures of England's Capt. Aubrey and his close
friend Dr, Steven Maturin this is the best book in the series to stsrt from. Returning from a long campaign as a Commander Jack & Steven spend a long spell in England. O'Brian introduces us to their future wives and his sights
and sounds of English country life will transport you back to
early 19th century England. A rousing tale that ends with
Jack becoming a Post Captain. No one captures the language of the times like O'Brian and you will want to read all of the
16 volumes that make up this series. The Aubrey-Maturin stories are the best in this genre.
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