The Golden Ocean

Rating:
Summary: armchair adventure
Review: I was LIVING this story (amazing historical detail and sympathetic characters). Particularly enjoyable for the Irish colloquial terms. The descriptions of scurvy were heartbreaking but the homecoming was just right!

Rating:
Summary: armchair adventure
Review: I was LIVING this story (amazing historical detail and sympathetic characters). Particularly enjoyable for the Irish colloquial terms. The descriptions of scurvy were heartbreaking but the homecoming was just right!

Rating:
Summary: Historical fiction at its finest.
Review: In a genre that so often disappoints, The Golden Ocean both thrills and informs. Characters emerge early and are beaten by the sea, ship and shipmates as the arduous circumnavigation continues. Anyone who appreciates crisp prose, sly dialogue and a limitless knowledge of subject will be enthralled. Written over forty years ago, it is the freshest of reads.

Rating:
Summary: Another wonderful sea story
Review: In the Aubry/Maturin series, Mr. O'Brian shows us life in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars from the perspective of an officer. In the Golden Ocean, we get a glimpse of what life was like as a midshipman and a closer look into the lower decks during war with the Spanish. Like Mr. O'Brian's later works, the characters are likeable but also completely human and therefore fallible. Newcomers to Patrick O'Brian's works might be put off early in the book by the British and Irish colloquialism and the seemingly lengthy delay in getting to sea and thus the meat of the story. However, it's worth the initial learning curve because both of these apparent shortcomings are actually the jewels that make Mr. O'Brian's books so great. The colloquialism is easy to get used to and adds colour (u added in honor of Mr. O'Brian) to the story. At the same time, the apparent delay serves to give the reader insight into what it must have felt like for a seaman utterly dependent on wind and tide and just as eager to get to sea. That's the beauty of Mr. O'Brian's stories, they really draw you into them.

For me the experience of reading this book is a Microcosm of the Aubry/Maturin series, in the beginning I wasn't sure I would enjoy or even stick with it, but shortly I would find I couldn't put it down and was sad to see it end. I would recommend this book with the caveat that if you like it you'll love the Aubry/Maturin series.

Rating:
Summary: Another wonderful sea story
Review: In the Aubry/Maturin series, Mr. O'Brian shows us life in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars from the perspective of an officer. In the Golden Ocean, we get a glimpse of what life was like as a midshipman and a closer look into the lower decks during war with the Spanish. Like Mr. O'Brian's later works, the characters are likeable but also completely human and therefore fallible. Newcomers to Patrick O'Brian's works might be put off early in the book by the British and Irish colloquialism and the seemingly lengthy delay in getting to sea and thus the meat of the story. However, it's worth the initial learning curve because both of these apparent shortcomings are actually the jewels that make Mr. O'Brian's books so great. The colloquialism is easy to get used to and adds colour (u added in honor of Mr. O'Brian) to the story. At the same time, the apparent delay serves to give the reader insight into what it must have felt like for a seaman utterly dependent on wind and tide and just as eager to get to sea. That's the beauty of Mr. O'Brian's stories, they really draw you into them.

For me the experience of reading this book is a Microcosm of the Aubry/Maturin series, in the beginning I wasn't sure I would enjoy or even stick with it, but shortly I would find I couldn't put it down and was sad to see it end. I would recommend this book with the caveat that if you like it you'll love the Aubry/Maturin series.

Rating:
Summary: O'Brian's First Foray
Review: Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novel cycle is an epic work of literatue, one with a legion of fans and likely to explode after the Russell Crowe movie is released.

Before there was that famous meeting in an octagonal music room, there was O'Brian's first prototype of the naval fiction adventure story, set on Anson's circumnavigation, where the main characters are a scurvy crew of midshipmen having too much fun entirely.

It's a pleasure to read this book and to see the first occurrences of some of O'Brian's later and long-running jokes, characters and situations. It's fun and it's educational, as well as being a great read.

Highly recommended in its own right, but mandatory for anyone who is a fan of the later books. In fact, I'd finished the opus and was feeling rather flat when I discovered this book and its companion - The Unkown Shore, and the magic returned.

Rating:
Summary: An incredibly entertaining account of an incredible voyage.
Review: Patrick O'Brian's fans who mope about hoping for still another Aubrey/Maturin masterpiece should read this, his first historical tale of the sea. An incredible adventure surrounding the true account of Commodore Anson's small fleet intent on circumnavigating the globe. Some of the most gut-wrenching tragedies imaginable are tempered with subtle humor and sidesplitting hilarity. The fleet is eventually reduced by the ravages of the sea to one ship, Anson's Centurion, but it returns to England laden to the gunnels with an incredible fortune wrested from a Spanish galleon.

You few million Aubrey/Maturin addicts out there will love this book as well as any of the seventeen in the Aubrey/Maturin series. You'll notice that his superb writing skill was wholly present then as now, treating us to every human emotion in his uniquely masterful style. I've heard him compared to Conrad in his ability to describe the terror of an ocean run amuck, ravaging those small ships,the desp! ! erate efforts of the mariners to save their ships -- and themselves, sometimes successful, sometimes not. But after going back to Conrad for a fresh look at his work, my opinion is that O'Brian excels him.

Following this brilliant work is The Unknown Shore, O'Brian's account of what might have happened to the survivors of one -- or was it two? -- ships in Anson's fleet that were wrecked during the voyage.

In The Golden Ocean, as in all of O'Brian's stories, the characters live and breathe, love and hate, are often courageous but sometimes are not, often behave as we would wish but occasionally veer off the straight and narrow. Above all, though, they are always true to their individual characters.

Readers who lament that they have read all his novels -- thereby feeling themselves left dashed on a lee shore -- might do as I do, keep reading them over and over. I promise there is more there in each book than can be gleaned in a single reading. I'm on my sixth pass through ! ! the Aubrey/Maturin series and loving every story anew.

Th! e Golden Ocean, like everything else from O'Brian's pen (yes, he writes with a pen) is an exquisite example of the true craft of writing.

I put no writer above him in craftsmanship. Writers wishing to sharpen their own skills would do well to carefully study O'Brian's work. I shamelessly admit to adopting as much as I can from his compact yet radiantly illustrative style.

Rating:
Summary: Historical fiction at its finest.
Review: Some of my friends, to whom I've enthusiastically recommended O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series, complain that the naval jargon is too dense or that there's too much talk. I suggest they try The Golden Ocean. In the mid-1700's, Commodore Anson's mission was to explore the Pacific, extend British trade, and capture the fabulous Spanish treasure that sailed from South America to the Philipines. By good fortune, Peter Palafox (whose naval experience was limited to small fishing boats) was able to join the expedition as a midshipman on Anson's ship. Since the book is written strictly from Palafox's point of view, the reader is introduced to the jargon and oddities of the Navy along with our hero. After this book, one should read The Unknown Shore, which is the account of another ship in the same expedition, with quite a different fate.

Rating:
Summary: The best introduction to O'Brian's fiction
Review: Some of my friends, to whom I've enthusiastically recommended O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series, complain that the naval jargon is too dense or that there's too much talk. I suggest they try The Golden Ocean. In the mid-1700's, Commodore Anson's mission was to explore the Pacific, extend British trade, and capture the fabulous Spanish treasure that sailed from South America to the Philipines. By good fortune, Peter Palafox (whose naval experience was limited to small fishing boats) was able to join the expedition as a midshipman on Anson's ship. Since the book is written strictly from Palafox's point of view, the reader is introduced to the jargon and oddities of the Navy along with our hero. After this book, one should read The Unknown Shore, which is the account of another ship in the same expedition, with quite a different fate.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good, But...
Review: The Golden Ocean provides a servicable account of the exploits of Commodore (soon to be Admiral) Anson on his heartbreaking, devastating, but ultimately triumphal voyage around the world. O'Brian's description of the voyage, ships, and life at sea are certainly compelling, but the fictional part of his prose, particularly the dialogue, leaves something to be desired.

The casual reader, unused to O'Brian's often inane descriptions of the characters' conversations, may understandably think from their speech that many of the characters had taken leave of their senses. Young midshipman Keppel is the classic example in this story. Given the words put into Keppel's mouth by author O'Brian, you'd conclude that Keppel would be taken away to the nuthouse upon his return in England. His constant repetition of the ditty, " a FILL IN A WORD HERE ho, a FILL IN A WORD HERE hee" (in China, upon being carried around in a palanquin, Keppel was reported to have sung out "A palanquin ho, a palanquin hee") would not fill you with confidence in this person's thinking capability. Yet Keppel, despite O'Brian's depiction, turned out to be a first-rate thinker.

This unusual problem with O'Brian's replication of characters' conversations is undoubtedly part of the vast split of opinion of his work, particularly in the Aubrey - Maturin series. Most love it, some hate it.

As for me, I've found that the definitive work of historical fiction about Anson's tragic voyage is the long-out-of-print "Manila Galleon", by F. Van Wyck Mason. It is still possible to get copies from used book sellers (I got one via ... recently). The dramatic sweep and emotion of that book puts it head and shoulders above The Golden Ocean.