Rating: 
Summary: Farewell Jack and Stephen. This great series is history.
Review: Buy 'Master and Commander' through 'The Yellow Admiral' and read them over and again; they may well be the high point of you reading life. But know that the series ends there. The book in question is a hurtful parody of what has been. I wish POB and Norton had warned us.
Rating: 
Summary: After nineteen brilliant books -- you're complaining?
Review: I usually wouldn't bother writing a review of O'Brian's work -- enough people have had great things to say about him. O'Brian is the finest storyteller alive. His books combine a very rare mix of high literary skill and adventure. He has been compared to Forster, Austen and Dickens, accurately and favorably. He can also be compared to Tolkien, Tolstoy and Homer. He is that good. Look at his fans: military history buffs, history buffs, fans of adventure fiction, those who look for great literature -- and those who enjoy a well told story. Some of the negative reviews of his latest book have prompted me to write in response -- I'm sorry you are disappointed. I agree that this may be the weakest book in the series. I agree the deaths of Diana and Bonden are jarring. And I think some of you are missing the point. This is a series. O'Brian doesn't have to tie up everything (including the grieving of his main characters) in this book. And another thing to remember -- he is writing of another time. Some of the most shocking, provocative, and fascinating moments in the books come when O'Brian is speculating about the differences in the different attitudes of this time. Human life, and the end of it, is viewed very differently. Aubrey regrets the death of Bondon, but he has a whole crew to worry about (and consider the irony of Bonden's death -- he's killed by a stray shot just before the war ends -- did O'Brian have to elaborate further). And I would gladly trade a defeated mourning Stephen Maturin for the character O'Brian gave us -- a Maturin who throws himself into action to deal with his grief. And I was terribly saddened by his sudden memory of Diana's blue diamond, his sudden feeling of life's emptiness, and or being told that Diana was buried wearing the Blue Peter. Her death was more startling in that single moment then pages and pages of funery rights would have been. One of O'Brian's greatest skills is knowing what to leave out. I know much of the griping is from disappointed fans -- but please give the man a break -- and give him some credit for taking risks -- even near the end of this series.
Rating:
Summary: The Excitement is Back!
Review: More exciting than the Yellow Admiral. Well written as usual. But I have to agree with other reviewers and admit that I was surprised by the short treatment given to the death of two important characters.
Rating: 
Summary: Angioplasty
Review: For the devoted series fan, The Hundred Days is like angioplasty. You have to have it done, but it's certainly not enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Earlier books in the series are 5+ stars - this is not
Review: This book just can not and should not be compared with the rest of the series. The quality of the prose is, as usual, excellent, however O'Brian's treatment of his characters leaves a lot to be desired. It is almost as if his publisher has pressured him into producing the book to a deadline. To someone who has not read all the others the book would seem excellent (and rate a higher number of stars). To a diehard fan of Aubrey and Maturin this novel just doesn't cut it. While we are, as usual, treated to a good deal of the two principal character's thoughts and feelings it is done in solitary isolation. In addition O'Brian falls down in his treatment of many old friends such as Bonden and Diana. As another reviewer says above it is absurd that their characters (who we have learned to know so well from the excellent in depth description in his other novels) are rubbed out in approximately one line each. It is also wholly inconsistent with the prior volumes in the series. How can O'Brian expect us to believe that Jack Aubrey showed no reaction whatsoever to the death of Bonden, his loyal coxswain over whose injuries we see him worrying in earlier books. Essentially O'Brian has lost the fantastic level of analysis of the many intertwined relationships between the characters that made the earlier novels so superb. The story is still exciting and very well written, but to any new readers contemplating dipping into the series DON'T start with this book. Buy the other nineteen, read them four times over (like I have) and then enjoy this as a good book in isolation. I sincerely hope that the last novel returns to the standard we (perhaps unfairly) have come to expect - perhaps O'Brian can dream up some believable way to reincarnate Diana (Bonden was probably too decisively cut out of the picture in a colourless one liner). Maybe, Mr O'Brian, you can use your wonderful skill to rectify this state of affairs. I have no problem with characters being killed off but let's hope that the author brings back his wonderfully sensitive treatment of the ones that remain and their relationships with each other in the 20th book. It is the character treatment combined with the authenticity, great writing and the setting that makes these books so special.
Rating: 
Summary: Is that all there is?
Review: I don't have problems with authors killing characters (being an author, I've done in a few of my own!). But I believe that Diane's death was handled very poorly. And why was it necessary? One of the pleasures of the books is the fact that while they are filled with macho action, the author still provides us with some interesting female characters. Diane was a truly great character, a strong woman and also believable. I read the books for the naval action, the relationship between Stephen and Jack, and Diane. At the very least, we might have witnessed her death, experienced her final moments, had a chance to grieve for her. And I want to know how Sophie felt about losing her mother! How did Jack feel about any of it? This book had its moments. I just wish there could have been more of them.
Rating:
Summary: Save a tree - avoid reading this book!
Review: What a waste of time! After having read a number of novels from the series, I was quite excited to see this one. Unfortunately, my excitement was premature. The whole book is shallow and not captivating at all. Sorry that the ultimate novel in a great series had to be like this.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty dissapointing book in a GREAT series
Review: I've loved these books, reread the first 18 multiple times. This 19th book seems perfunctory, and ill-at-ease with itself. It feels very distanced to me, not immediate, not compelling as the other have been. The pacing is lumpy. The level of detail is much lower than O'Brian generally uses. Overall, it just doesn't feel like he's in control of it this time.
Rating:
Summary: This joyless travesty should never have been published!
Review: As a reader with an ear for authenticity and literary quality, one who has been immersed for the last month or so in the Aubrey/Maturin world of intricately interlocking personalities, predilections and performances, I opened this nineteenth volume with warm anticipation. By the second page, I was disgusted and angry; by the end of the second chapter, I was convinced that its "author" had not written it. Not only is Mr. O'Brian's voice totally absent in this book, but even its faintest echoes are distorted, inaccurate, even mocking. It is as if O'Brian had turned a sketchy working outline over to a semi-literate, callow young assistant and said, "Here, you patch this one together for me." The publishers, if they had had any respect at all for the literary dignity of their author or the discernment of their readers, would never have foisted this atrocity off on an unsuspecting public. Not even Jack Aubrey would have deemed the considerable "prize" worth the dishonor of its capture.
Rating:
Summary: Running out of steam
Review: The Hundred Days was quite disappointing, as if O'Brian is now runnng on automatic pilot. Maturin is still an innocent landlubber. The battle scenes and the sailing descriptions are as good as ever, but reruns. But like those scenes, much of the rest of the book is a rehash with no more dimension added to the characters. Indeed, O'Brian seems to have abandoned their shore-side existences.
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