Reviews

Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian

kdahlo's review against another edition

4.0

Joshua read this to me and it was pretty fun. I don't think I'll be getting into the series but I did enjoy it, and spent some time reading and watching videos about naval strategy and sails as a result of getting into it. For me, it was strange thinking that this series was published mostly in the 1970s - it's very stylized and written to use a lot of phrases and idioms from 1800, when the story is set. Lots of archaic word use and weird phrasing. I always think it's interesting to consider when you are reading historical fiction (or nonfiction, frankly) that you have 3 time periods interacting, the time you live in as a reader, the time period of the writer, and finally the time period of the subject. When reading really recent fiction you tend to get all the little jokes and references to your own time, but as you go further back you have to interpret through both lenses. Like Middlemarch is set in 1830 but written in 1870, so really to understand all the references you have to understand features of both eras - like that the author sometimes has characters rightly or wrongly predict events that from the authors perspective really have, or haven't come to pass. Anyways, I wasn't really able to apply this lense very well to Master and Commander because I'm really not sure if there are any sneaky 1970s perspectives hiding in there or not. It did make me wonder about how the author might be signalling about things like gender in the era of the subject, and made me more critical of the historical basis of those storylines. Anyways, a cool book for someone very detail-oriented and willing to teach themselves some history and nautical information on the side.

rileydemaree's review against another edition

adventurous informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

lfsalden's review against another edition

2.0

Well researched. Good soporific. No need to read further in the series.

markopdx's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

plankpot's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

4.0

mrliterate's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

msjenne's review against another edition

adventurous funny informative fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

hughl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

thomasbmatthews's review against another edition

I'm afraid that right now I have to DNF this book. I wanted to read more about the age of sail after finishing "The Wager" at the end of last year, but this book was tough. For me, right now, the book was rather dense and demanded quite a bit from the reader, including a well known knowledge of ships. To give the book credit, the edition I have contains a diagram of a ship in the front, but I still often found myself confused by what was exactly happening.

I do want to complete this book at some time, but I think it's going to be after reading another age of sail series to which I hope to gain a better understanding of ships. Once I have that, I do believe that I would enjoy this book.

I will not give the book a star rating because I don't think that's fair to the author. I just wanted to state my reasons for not finishing at this time.

allie_shu's review against another edition

adventurous funny slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75