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A review by elentarien
Lieutenant Hornblower by C.S. Forester
3.0
Like the first book, I found this one another set of contradictions on paper. Yay.
Again, it was an easy read. The pacing was well done and at no point did I feel particularly bored or bogged down. The adventure was fun and the scenario these officers found thesmelves was interesting. However. . .it really could have been done better, too.
Taking into account that this was written in an old style. . .we can overlook that. The use of words that did not 'feel' like real words, the odd turns of phrase. . .we can overlook that. We know styles have changed over time and the way they spoke/wrote back when this was written is different from what is 'acceptable' now. So, Ok, fine.
This one was told from another perspective - instead of getting to know Hornblower (who is. . .you know, the TITLE CHARACTER!!) - we get into the head of "Lieutenant Bush" (was a first name ever given? I'm not even sure!). It's from his observations that we learn about Hornblower and his supposed brilliance. It's an interesting tactic to use to get to know a character. But it still doesn't let us get to know the title character except from a distant. . .disconnected way. So by the time I was done the book - I still don't know whether I like these characters or not.
The transitions in this book were a little better. The whole book being a continuous adventure, as opposed to a bunch of smaller ones over an indefinite amount of time. The action scenes still suffered from too much technical detail being thrown at the reader (and, in my case. . .a reader who couldn't care less about the stupid guns! Tell me more about the PEOPLE!) But don't get me started at the bit of 'romance' at the end of the book. (seriously? is that why you wrote this whole thing from a different character than your title character? So you could breeze past that? bah)
So, yeah. Interesting read. . .certainly not the best. Still prefer the movies!
Again, it was an easy read. The pacing was well done and at no point did I feel particularly bored or bogged down. The adventure was fun and the scenario these officers found thesmelves was interesting. However. . .it really could have been done better, too.
Taking into account that this was written in an old style. . .we can overlook that. The use of words that did not 'feel' like real words, the odd turns of phrase. . .we can overlook that. We know styles have changed over time and the way they spoke/wrote back when this was written is different from what is 'acceptable' now. So, Ok, fine.
This one was told from another perspective - instead of getting to know Hornblower (who is. . .you know, the TITLE CHARACTER!!) - we get into the head of "Lieutenant Bush" (was a first name ever given? I'm not even sure!). It's from his observations that we learn about Hornblower and his supposed brilliance. It's an interesting tactic to use to get to know a character. But it still doesn't let us get to know the title character except from a distant. . .disconnected way. So by the time I was done the book - I still don't know whether I like these characters or not.
The transitions in this book were a little better. The whole book being a continuous adventure, as opposed to a bunch of smaller ones over an indefinite amount of time. The action scenes still suffered from too much technical detail being thrown at the reader (and, in my case. . .a reader who couldn't care less about the stupid guns! Tell me more about the PEOPLE!) But don't get me started at the bit of 'romance' at the end of the book. (seriously? is that why you wrote this whole thing from a different character than your title character? So you could breeze past that? bah)
So, yeah. Interesting read. . .certainly not the best. Still prefer the movies!