Any Aubrey/Maturin series fans in here?
I'm so addicted, it's embarrassing...just finished #6 The Fortune of War and I'm just sorry he's gone and only wrote 21 of them...100 wouldn't be enough.
Love those books! There's a great companion book that explains all the period nautical jargon. And of course, there's the movie, 'Master and Commander' which I have to watch every few months. I think I'll go watch it now :D !
oded kishony
I've read the entire series at least five times. I have the DVD, too. :)
Marvelous books. I found it difficult to get into them initially, though. O'Brian has an interesting writing style which is not always easy to follow.
I remember getting ready to watch the movie for the first time with a mixture of dread and anticipation. I really wanted to like the movie; but I really wasn't expecting it to give justice to the books. In the end I was very pleased. It captured the characters rather well (although Russell Crowe was taller and fitter than O'Brian usually described Aubrey) and didn't really try to tell the Far Side of the World story; but instead grabbed a whole bunch of pieces from a number of books and told its' own story. I think it kept the books pure with this approach. I approve and look forward to the next movie whenever they get around to it (Crowe has promised that there WILL be another movie).
I also greatly enjoyed the A&E Hornblower series. Again, I recognized much of the book in the series; but the story was different enough that I could keep the movie and book separate in my mind and not judge one against the other.
One thing I love about these books, aside from the interesting characters and saiilng/battle descriptions, is the historical accuracy. Though fiction, they often account real battles.
Of course, Aubrey is based on Lord Cochran, and much of what happens to Aubrey (including the stock market thing) really happened to Cochran. Cochran was known to be very daring in his tactics at sea, and the legendary battle between Sophie and Cacafeugo in Master and Commander really happened much as O'Brian described. Cochran's vessel was the Speedy and the Spanish frigate was El Gamo.
If you are an O'Brian fan, you should check out this site (http://www.io.com/gibbonsb/pob/) if you haven't see it already. Unfortunately, a lot of the links no longer work (or at least don't work reliably), but there is still a lot of useful and fun info.
Have seen the movie several times. The dvd has great behind the scenes footage of how the whole thing came together. The only book I've read thus far is 'The Letter of Marque', which I did enjoy.
-Kevin