airsilv 's review for:

Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian

2.5

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A solid half-way rating, because I cannot decide what to make of this book. It is not poorly written, though it is aged by its time of writing and setting both. However, it is something of a sitcom in nature (though not particularly comedic). What I mean by this is that there is no overarching plot beyond ‘these people are on a ship in the navy’. There is no particular goal to achieve, and many of the events of the book do not result from particular choices characters make—and fewer still from proactive choices, as opposed to reactive.
I’m not sure what I make of this intensely episodic nature in a book, and so the rating is as it is.