Rating: 
Summary: Best of a great series
Review: This is my favorite of the Hornblower series. Fast paced and full of action. If you liked the first two, definately continue on with this one.
Rating:
Summary: One of the very best Hornblower novels. Outstanding!
Review: This is the third Hornblower novel by way of continuity, following "Mr. Midshipman Hornblower" and "Lieutenent Hornblower" and it is one of the very best Hornblower novels. Horatio Hornblower has been promoted to Commander, and is now captain (not a Post-Captain) of HMS Sloop Hotspur, which is given the important duty of monitoring the French port of Brest. Captain Hornblower and First Lieutenant Bush are now fully developed as characters, and their long association together takes form in this novel. Here, Hornblower is now gaining a reputation as an unusually competent and resourceful officer, as the storied Admiral Cornwallis takes Hornblower under his wing as mentor. Nonetheless, this is a time of great stress and danger for Hornblower. The British Navy is exerting every ounce of Britain's strength against Napoleon, and the British fleet is all that stands between the Corsican tyrant and world domination. Hotspur, commanded by Hornblower, is responsible for monitoring Brest, which is where Napoleon's next move against Britain is expected to first come from. Hornblower is truly "the tip of the spear." This is a great story."Hotspur" is one of the key Hornblower novels and I highly recommend it to Hornblower afficianados and anyone who just likes a good novel of the days of "wooden ships and iron men." By the way, it makes for a nice sequence of reading if you follow "Hotspur" with "Hornblower During the Crisis." You'll see why when you read the latter. The Hornblower novels are in my opinion the best naval adventure series in all of literature and "Hotspur" is one of the very best of the series. What more can one say?
Rating:
Summary: One of the very best Hornblower novels. Outstanding!
Review: This is the third Hornblower novel by way of continuity, following "Mr. Midshipman Hornblower" and "Lieutenent Hornblower" and it is one of the very best Hornblower novels. Horatio Hornblower has been promoted to Commander, and is now captain (not a Post-Captain) of HMS Sloop Hotspur, which is given the important duty of monitoring the French port of Brest. Captain Hornblower and First Lieutenant Bush are now fully developed as characters, and their long association together takes form in this novel. Here, Hornblower is now gaining a reputation as an unusually competent and resourceful officer, as the storied Admiral Cornwallis takes Hornblower under his wing as mentor. Nonetheless, this is a time of great stress and danger for Hornblower. The British Navy is exerting every ounce of Britain's strength against Napoleon, and the British fleet is all that stands between the Corsican tyrant and world domination. Hotspur, commanded by Hornblower, is responsible for monitoring Brest, which is where Napoleon's next move against Britain is expected to first come from. Hornblower is truly "the tip of the spear." This is a great story. "Hotspur" is one of the key Hornblower novels and I highly recommend it to Hornblower afficianados and anyone who just likes a good novel of the days of "wooden ships and iron men." By the way, it makes for a nice sequence of reading if you follow "Hotspur" with "Hornblower During the Crisis." You'll see why when you read the latter. The Hornblower novels are in my opinion the best naval adventure series in all of literature and "Hotspur" is one of the very best of the series. What more can one say?
Rating:
Summary: The best of the Hornblower Saga
Review: Though written very late, Hotspur demonstrates Forrester's mastery of the genre, and his astute observations on the drugery of the blockade, and the horrors of storm in wooden sailing ships. But the wooden Hornblower is still his own worst enemy. Incapable of even enjoying his own wedding. Ranks with "A King's Cutter" in the Drinkwater series.
Rating:
Summary: Little Known Hornblower Literary Interpretation
Review: What does Hornblower symbolize? I analyzed a number of the novels and have found the answer: America! No, you say, can't be. Well, I will support my claim. In one of the books, I believe it was Lieutenant Hornblower but I am not sure, his birthdate is given as July 4, 1776. I am pretty sure of this, and in Hotspur the year is 1803, and Horatio is 27. Not only that, but Horatio is a more a symbol of American ideals than British. Just a common man becoming one of the most powerful men in the British Navy? But in America, this is not quite so farfetched. He also often thinks about inequality in the Navy and other 'subversive' things that seem perfectly natual in America, such as the abolition of prize money. In any case...
The first two novels, Mr. Midshipman and Lieutenant Hornblower, were good books, but I thought the excellent films based off them pretty much encompassed everything (except Hornblower's down and out days at the end of Lt.). I hear that Hotspur will soon be made into movies in the series, and it will probably be the best yet. Horatio has been given command of a small ship, H.M.S. Hotspur, and has to deal with a cowardly steward, a French frigate twice his size, and the intracacies of espionage even before the fleet arrives. The departure of his friend Adm. Pellew and having no friends in the service, the taking of a Spanish telegraph station, a nighttime raid on French shipping all add to the mounting action. The crowning moment is when Horatio sacrifices great riches to protect the fleet. Horatio is the perfect role model, dashing, gallant, courageous. But he is also perpetually worrying, feeling inferior, and with doubts of his abilities. This is an excellent, action-packed book that also has many moral messages. I can't wait to move on to the Captain books, and I am also going to try Patrick O'Brian's books, as the films have made me slightly obsessed with this period and subject.
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