Rating: 
Summary: A rollicking adventure at sea
Review: This first book in the series featuring Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin is a thrilling and fast-paced adventure set in the early 1800s. Aubrey is given his first command, a slow brig called "Sophie" which is unlikely to help him advance in the British navy. With the help of his friend Maturin and the crew of the "Sophie", Aubrey engages in one battle after another, slowly gaining a reputation and the wrath of the French and Spanish fleets. Now if Aubrey's luck can only hold out as he and his crew are hunted by the best in the Spanish fleet. "Master and Commander" vividly displays life at sea: the food and weather, the floggings for drunkenness, the severe punishments for sodomy, the great excitement of battle. I fully expected to be daunted by the technical aspects of navy ships, but Patrick O'Brian's masterful storytelling kept me wrapped in the jaunty tale to the end. I am surprised at how much I enjoyed this novel because it's so unlike what I usually read.
Rating: 
Summary: Rough Sailing
Review: Some well-read friends suggested I try O'Brian's Jack Aubrey novels, so I've read the first in the series, "Master and Commander." I'm not sure I understand what my friends see in it. While the battle scenes are vivid, much of the narrative is bogged down with nearly incomprehensible naval language. Here is a typical passage:"Hitch on the runners," said Jack. "No, farther out. Half way to the second quarter. Surge the hawser and lower away." The yard came down on deck and the carpenter hurried off for his tools. "Mr Watt," said Jack to the bosun. "Just rig me the brace-rendants, will you?" The bosun opened his mouth, shut it again and bent slowly to his work: anywhere outside Bedlam brace-pendants were rigged after the horses, after the stirrups, after the yard-tackle pendants (or a thimble for a tackle-hook, if preferred): and none of them, ever, until the stop-cleat, the narrow part for them all to rest upon, had been worked on the sawn-off end and provided with a collar to protect them from drawing against the middle. (p. 79) This sort of thing goes on for over 400 pages. If it floats your boat, I'm sure you'll enjoy this book. Otherwise, you may find yourself a bit at sea. Addendum: I saw the film when it first came out, and found it great fun. Of course, the movie is a composite of a couple of the novels, and the "Master and Commander" title is therefore a bit misleading. But in a world where there's too much to read and not enough time in which to read it, I think I'll pass on the other Aubrey novels and look forward to more movies. At least then, I can more easily ignore the language I do not understand.
Rating: 
Summary: Defeated
Review: I always prided myself in finishing every book that I started no matter how bad. Patrick O'Brian managed to give me an Ol' Broadside. I just couldn't finish it. I tried but I realised I was wasting too much of a short life. I was hoping that these books would be like a "Sharpe at Sea" type series. Alas it was not to be and reading this left me in the "Doldrums".
Rating: 
Summary: Okay, but You've Got to Love the Period
Review: If you love this period in time, you'll love this novel. It captures the language and culture of the period, and presents it as a sea tale aboard one of her Majesty's sloops of the line. If the language and the sociology and politics of the Napoleonic period occupy a special place in your heart and your library, Patrick O'Brian's _Master and Commander_ will keep you satisfied, from the first concert to the final court martial. If you don't find this period at all interesting, this book is going to be a disappointment. It takes you on an adventure and you learn as you go, just as the reader's surrogate Dr. Maturin does, but to paraphrase, there's no there there: the story is weak and the character development even weaker. Everything is right there on the surface; nothing, besides the sailing experience, is revealed. It's a great story, just not a great book. That's great if you want to sail along with the crew of the Sophie, but not worth the effort if you want anything else.
Rating:
Summary: Far from the best in the series, but an admirable start
Review: The first clue you have that Master and Commander is not a typical sea adventure is when a sailor is hanged in the opening pages for sexually molesting the ship's goat. This kicks off a gritty, realistic, and scrupulously-researched historical adventure that smashes C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels like a broadside from a seventy-gun frigate. I first heard of Patrick O'Brian when he died three years ago and was movingly eulogized in George Will's column. Now I don't normally read historical fiction, especially military historical fiction, but Will made such a strong case that I felt obliged to at least check O'Brian out. I'm glad I did; Master and Commander is a well-written, powerful book that succeeds as a character study, an obsessively-researched recreation of early 19th-century life, and as an adventure. The novel, the first in a twenty-book series, opens with Jack Aubrey, a young lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy, being granted his long-awaited promotion to the rank of captain (or officially, "master and commander") and the command of the Sophie, a modest little vessel in the Mediterranean. At a concert, Jack nearly comes to blows with the haughty intellectual Dr. Stephen Maturin, but the two quickly reconcile over breakfast and Jack, whose ship is desperately undermanned, offers the penniless Maturin a post as ship's surgeon. The two men eventually become best friends, despite their being a sort of seaborne Odd Couple. Aubrey, unlike most fictional heroes, is not a silent, craggy-jawed Adonis; he's fat, red-faced, good-humored, and a bit of a buffoon, the kind of person who laughs maniacally at his own jokes. As his second-in-command says, "He can be a very agreeable companion, of course, but there are times when he shows that particular beefy English insensibility." Aubrey's counterpart Stephen Maturin is a doctor, a natural philosopher whose idea of a good time is to obsessively catalog his lepidoptera...the very caricature of the effete intellectual. As Master and Commander unfolds, though, O'Brian shows us that both men have hidden depths. Aubrey, so clownish and naive on land, is a brilliant seaman and warrior, with an instinctual understanding of leadership and strategy. And Maturin, treated by everyone as a harmless eccentric, is eventually shown to be a master spy, fluent in a dozen languages and a cold-blooded killer with sword and pistol. Aubrey and Maturin are great characters, and they elevate this book to greatness with them. Their conversations are witty and interesting, and we resent it when they're interrupted by another battle or momentary crisis. That's why, though marketed as a historical adventure, Master and Commander is much more the story of these two: how they interact with one another and with the war-torn but genteel world around them. The fighting is often incidental to the plot, dispensed with in a few sentences...though when he wants to, O'Brian can deliver a white-knuckled chase or a roaring battle as well as anyone. His writing comes across as a sort of widescreen, modernized version of Jane Austen's formalism, combining gritty, bloody reality with arch diction and mordant wit. O'Brian's writing in this book is certainly not without its faults - he glosses over or summarizes conversations and situations that would have been compelling had they been played out, and the book is far too episodic, moving from one incident to the next without enough direction. Most of MASTER AND COMMANDER's flaws are unique to the book, however, and have vanished by the second and subsequent volumes. The fact that O'Brian could polish his literary art to such a high sheen in such a short time is one more testament to the man's vast talent. This book is a great introduction to a great series by a writer whose stature is only going to grow as time passes. Do yourself a favor and pick it up now.
Rating: 
Summary: A great beginning...
Review: I only got this book to read it before the movie came out later this year, but Patrick O'Brian's brilliant knowledge of late eighteenth century naval affairs had me hooked right away. I find myself diving into the rest of the series and just dying to see how the movie stacks up to this book. I hope that the rest of the series is as well-written as this first chapter was.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Beginning...
Review: I had never heard of the "Aubrey/Maturin" series until I saw a preview for the movie that is coming out later this year. I thought the movie looked interesting so I wanted to get a jump-start and read the book before I saw the movie. Well, even to my surprise, I was almost unable to put this book down. I ordered the second book right away so I wouldn't have to wait to see what happens next, and I'm glad I did. This book was an absolutely fabulous one to read, and really served well to draw me into the rest of the series. I eagerly await the future exploits of the "HMS Sophie" and her crew over the next 19 books!!
Rating:
Summary: A great career launched
Review: Now that the film of MASTER AND COMMANDER is about to be released, starring Russell Crowe, many new readers will be attracted to this, the first of the Aubrey-Maturin series
that launched the 20-book series and consumed the last 30+ years of the author's life. This series established O'Brian as one of the outstanding writers of the 20th century.
Modern readers must attempt a deliberate intellectual change of pace and perspective to acquire empathy with this book and its successors. O'Brian captures with exceptional ability the language, style and pacing of almost two centuries ago, yet such is his skill that within a short time the reader is carried away by his mastery of the subject, clearly based on immersion in the historical record, coupled in O'Brian's case to extraordinary skills of observation and literary execution.
O'Brian works in ways that are significantly different from, even alien to, many modern writers. He takes the time to establish time, place, character and plot, capturing at the same time a master's sense of perspective that is remarkably broad and highly informative in every area he touches, from music to the technologies of sailing and warfare in the era.
Reading M&C will almost certainly launch the new reader on a long and enjoyable journey through the succeeding books of the series, into a period that profoundly affects the world today. It will be time well spent, and will enrich the reader in ways that extend from natural philosophy to world affairs, capturing a time in history when individual character and courage counted.
For a further examination of O'Brian's skills, may I respectfully refer the reader of this review to my review of his novel TESTIMONIES, re-issued by Norton in 1993.
Rating:
Summary: A book with a "hook"!!
Review: I must admit that I found Patrick O'Brian's style a little different from most of the other authors I have been reading recently. Not bad--just different. Conversations and manners of speech were alot different in the time in which these novels are cast than today. A big jump from W.E.B. Griffin to O'Brian! After three books by the author I have finally gotten into a real reading groove and am beginning to enjoy this series immensely! This particular volume is an imperetive "first read" in order to really comprehend the flow of the series. In this volume recently promoted commander Jack Aubrey chances to meet Dr. Stephen Maturin at a concert and somehow manages to strike up a friendship with the somewhat eccentric physician. In fact Aubrey manages to convince Maturin to sign on board his new command ,Sophie , as the ship's surgeon. Dr. Stephen Maturin is a true "lubber" as far as we are able to tell , and he is instructed in the sails of the ship by the bosun's mate in a manner that makes clear some of the nautical terminology later in the book. We are also introduced to the natural scientist Maturin--a role that develops in later books. After running around the the Med chasing prizes and engaging in several nasty battles , the Sophie is captured and ultimately destroyed. Any more detail than this would ruin the book for the reader!
At any rate , I'm hooked now and will read the rest of the series. I'm already on book 7. Recommended for all age groups--something I can't say 'bout much modern literature. Only 4 stars since it is primarily a setup novel for a series. It does get better in the later books.
Rating:
Summary: He's not Grisham or Clancy--he's better!
Review: You can't read just one of these books, because you really want to absorb the whole series. They are a fascinating look at the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, accurate and detailed, using actual accounts and records as source material. Post Captain Jack Aubrey and his surgeon Stephen Maturin are realistic men, not Rambo-type heroes who can keep slugging and hanging from cliffs while suffering dire injuries. They have their human faults, but are wonderful companions in a wide variety of (mostly nautical) adventures. Okay, sometimes there's more talking and introspection than action. A lot more. Did you ever read "Moby Dick"? If you need to have the protagonist's life threatened every 10 pages, read some predictable male escapist fiction--there's plenty of that around. I don't have much patience with writers who keep cranking out the same book over and over, making money from the millions of readers who are slaves to an author's name on the cover. Like Harlequin romances and that ilk, the stuff you see in airport bookstores. O'Brian is different--his books are always new and interesting, and one story leads to the next in a very natural manner. The series is a protracted adventure on the high seas, with a couple of likable companions and the rest of their crew. The books are quick reads, easy to hold. Or you can do as I do and get the audio version, narrated by Patrick Tull, who interprets his characters wonderfully.
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