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The Complete Aubrey/Maturin Novels
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton, 2004
A handsomely bound omnibus edition of Patrick O'Brian's seafaring classics, including three chapters of the unfinished twenty-first novel. These five volumes, beautifully produced and boxed, contain over 7,000 pages of what has often been described as a single, continuous narrative. They are a perfect tribute to such a literary achievement, and a perfect gift for the serious O'Brian enthusiast.
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The Reverse of the Medal 23 reviews
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton & Company, 1992
Reverse of the Medal
Just one of an awesome series focusing on "Lucky" Jack Aubrey and his friend, Dr. Steven Maturin (sp?). Series is a robust and rich historical men-at-sea and -at-war yarn that covers many years in the late 1700 to early 1800s. Ah-HA! (inside joke). Simon Vance's voice is excellent and each character is distinct.
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Post Captain (Aubrey Maturin Series) 70 reviews
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton & Company, 1990
What every "historical novel" should be
Many complain that this volume lacks sufficient adventure, focusing too much on the manners of the time. I can understand that sentiment, although I don't sympathize with it. Patrick O'Brian was not merely trying to write rousing adventure novels - pot boilers, as they're commonly called. This he could have easily done, and saved much paper. However, I wouldn't have read them more than once, if ...
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The Letter of Marque19 reviews
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton & Company, 1992
Just a quick note
I don't have time for a long analysis, but these books are fantastic. I am on my second read-through of the series, and this time I am buying them as I read them. I have never been interested in the sea or ships or the military, (I used to wonder why anyone would have a painting of a ship in their house, waste of wall space), but now I have a whole new respect and admiration. Patrick O'Brien ...
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Blue at the Mizzen 59 reviews
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton & Company, 2000
A Great Addition to a Great Series
I went to see Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World mainly because I liked Russell Crowe in his Gladiator role and Napoleonic naval warfare is the subject I find interesting.
Be warned, these books are not simple reads or written in a way most would be familiar with. What makes them so great also makes them difficult and can turn a lot of people off of them. O'Brian uses language ...
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The Nutmeg of Consolation17 reviews
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton & Company, 1993
great series of books
If you are interested in sailing, British naval history, or the high seas... then this is a great historical fiction series. The single movie doesn't really do justice to this excellent series of novels.
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21: The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey (Aubrey/Maturin Series) 35 reviews
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton & Company, 2004
Unfinished business is a perfect ending
The perfect ending to the series, left unfinished when O'Brian died at age 85, shortly after the death of his wife. 21 is 21st in the series, and O'Brian never gave it a title. Now-Admiral Aubrey takes over his flag-ship and his small (but as Maturin learned, don't tell HIM that, unless he says it first) squadron, Surprise is sent home for repairs and refitting, and Mrs Aubrey and children, ...
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The Thirteen-Gun Salute16 reviews
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton & Company, 1992
Reading Patrick O'Brian makes you smarter.
I'm a true Patrick O'Brian fan. I buy his books three or four at a time. I have not been so captivated by a series of books ever since I read "Dune". Surly sadness will come to my day when there is no more for me to read. Patrick O'Brian can make two ships in a chase at no more than 11Mph at the most keep you on the edge of your seat, then in this book take you to the crater of an instinct ...
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The Fortune of War (Aubrey Maturin Series)24 reviews
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton & Company, 1991
Enter The War of 1812, and The United States
THE FORTUNE OF WAR is the sixth volume in Patrick O'Brian's masterful adventure series about Captain Jack Aubrey, R.N. and his dear friend, Dr. Stephen Maturin. Though the Aubrey-Maturin novels can stand more-or-less alone, the narratives are closely linked. THE FORTUNE OF WAR in this way finds Aubrey's ship, HMS Leopard, limping into the fictional bay of Pulo Batang in the Spice Islands, after ...
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The Hundred Days (Aubrey/Maturin Series)59 reviews
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton & Company, 1999
Masterfully Told Adventure
Patrick O'Brian's capacity to carry off nineteen installments in the Aubrey/Maturin series is nothing short of astonishing. There is no faulting O'Brian's ability to craft a richly detailed and captivating tale combined seamlessly with subtle plot twists and turns. The Napoleonic wars and the escape of Napoleon from Elba provide the backdrop to this incredible tale filled with action and ...
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Master and Commander264 reviews
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton & Company, 1990
Addicted to Aubrey - Maturin
I have lost count of the number of times I have read and re-read all 20 books in the Aubrey/Maturin canon (about 7000 pages) in recent years. O'Brian is a master storyteller with an unbounded imagination and razor wit. The action is fast paced, and his characters are richly drawn, compelling, amusing, heroic and flawed. O'Brian is 20th century Charles Dickens.
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The Yellow Admiral (Aubrey-Maturin)25 reviews
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton & Company, 1997
Anoter 5-Star Effort
The most important aspects of this story takes place on dry land in England. Patrick O'Brien paints the tapestry of 19th century rural life in terms that makes it relevant to the story and breathes life into it that it becomes personalized and completely relevant. It also is this time ashore that makes the adventures at sea so much more interesting for Jack and Stephen. It is the complexity of ...
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The Far Side of the World (Aubrey Maturin Series)47 reviews
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton & Company, 1992
Great Novel!
This was perhaps one of the best novels in the series. For those that enjoyed the film, loosely based on this book and others from the Aubrey-Maturin set, the book is far greater than the movie. I greatly enjoyed this volume in the series.
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The Wine-Dark Sea18 reviews
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton & Company, 1994
Amazing, As Usual
Wine-Dark Sea is the sixteenth in Patrick O'Brian's wonderful 20-part nautical series. It is also the final in a four-part mini-series, as volumes thirteen through sixteen are an ongoing circumnavigation of the world. In this installment, Aubrey and Maturin and the HMS Surprise finish their adventures in the Pacific, land in Peru and then round the Cape into the Atlantic on their way home to ...
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H.M.S. Surprise (Aubrey Maturin Series)50 reviews
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton & Company, 1991
One of the best of the series
This book, third in the wonderful series, is the first that makes one think that perhaps some of the usual descriptions are missing something.
If you read the story and reflect upon it, do you possibly come to think that perhaps, in reality, the story of Jack Aubrey's career is mostly a peg on which to hang the complex life-story of Stephen Maturin?
So instead of the sea-captain being ...
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Desolation Island (Aubrey Maturin Series)50 reviews
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton & Company, 1991
the slow boil
I admit that this fifth book in the Aubrey-Maturin series starts a little slow and remains seemingly mundane until several chapters into it. Then the tension builds up until you can hardly bear it. Of all the POB books I've read so far, this one gave me a breathless, tight feeling in my chest as the characters got deeper and deeper in peril. While the naval action is sparse, it is tremendous when ...
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The Commodore (Aubrey-Maturin Series)19 reviews
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton & Company, 1996
The Aubrey-Maturin series is simply the best fiction ever written
Patrick O'Brian's "The Commodore" is the seventeenth book in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series. The Aubrey-Maturin books are quite simply the best fiction I've ever read. I enjoy them so much that I find it difficult to read any other fiction now.
Although there are twenty (completed) Aubrey-Maturin novels, in a sense they are one long, unending story. O'Brian tells the story of an ...
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The Mauritius Command32 reviews
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton & Company, 1991
More of the best naval writing ever put to paper
The Patrick O'Brian naval series of books are an acquired taste. If you love the first book, chances are that over the next few years you will find a way to work through the entire series. I do not recommend reading the book on its own. The true joy is seeing the transformation and progression of the two main characters.
The books are not for everyone, the writing style differs from what ...
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Treason's Harbour (Aubrey Maturin Series)18 reviews
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton & Company, 1992
Naval Warfare in the Mediterranean and Espionage on Malta
In "Treason's Harbour" Lucky Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin continue their adventures in the Mediterranean; only this time Jack's well-known luck fails him. The story picks up where "The Ionian Mission" left off, and CPT Jack Aubrey is dealing with the refit of both the Worcester and the Surprise. In the shipyards of the 1800's - Malta in particular - corruption is rife and while Aubrey deals ...
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The Truelove18 reviews
Patrick O'Brian
W. W. Norton & Company, 1993
I laughed, I cried; it moved me
It was with some trepidation that I started this book because of what other reviewers said but I found it thoroughly enjoyable and moving as events subtly and inexorably moved to the blow up where officers are reprimanded and Surprises are flogged; where the innocent and the guilty worked till they near died under a right Tartar of a Captain who cowed even Killick until we reach this sentence: ...
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