Post by Tal on Aug 27, 2010 18:10:28 GMT -5
Young Hornblower / Captain Hornblower / Admiral Hornblower
I'm currently reading the third omnibus in the Hornblower series which follow the fictional adventures of an 18th century British naval officer called Horatio Hornblower (you get over the weird name pretty quickly). We get to see him begin his naval career on board the HMS Indefatigable under Captain Edward Pellew (a real historical character and ship) and then mature into a Lieutenant, a Commander and then a Post Captain commanding his own Frigate and eventually a Ship of the Line. The third omnibus sees him rise beyond the rank of Captain.
The beauty of the stories is in the detail. The author C S Forrester has an incredible understanding of how these great sailing ships worked, how the crews lived and how battles were fought out in the open sea. He packs so much of this knowledge into his stories and each book introduced you to new concepts and different scenarios allowing the reader to see how the crews would be organised in different situations, whether it be blockading French ports in the English Channel, boarding Spanish galleys in the Mediterranean, attacking land-based forts, mutinying against an insane captain or leading Nelson's own funeral procession down the Thames. Forrester open up the incredible and very harsh world of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic era in a series of exciting and increasingly gripping adventures, especially so once you get past the Midshipman stories which are by far the weakest of them all.
I'd possibly recommend watching the TV adaptations first. These portray a much friendlier, happier, warm captain whilst the books depict Hornblower as cold and irritable much of the time, albeit a humanist who cares for his crew. This cold character might put readers off, but having seen the TV shows previously I was able to look past this and imagine our hero as a much nicer character.
It should be noted that the television adaptations do change certain plot lines and add a few extra characters who didn't previously exist or had much lesser roles to play in the books. They also don't extend beyond the end of the Young Hornblower omnibus before he becomes a Post Captain, but they do substantially flesh out these earlier books which are not written half as well as the chronological later material. The TV adaptations make movies such as Master & Commander look a bit pants by comparison, so if you like that kind of film, watch them regardless!!
So overall I'd give the Young Hornblower omnibus a 7.5 out of 10 and the Captain Hornblower omnibus a 9 out of 10. I'm reading the Admiral Hornblower omnibus currently but so far its a 9 out of 10 as well.
I'm currently reading the third omnibus in the Hornblower series which follow the fictional adventures of an 18th century British naval officer called Horatio Hornblower (you get over the weird name pretty quickly). We get to see him begin his naval career on board the HMS Indefatigable under Captain Edward Pellew (a real historical character and ship) and then mature into a Lieutenant, a Commander and then a Post Captain commanding his own Frigate and eventually a Ship of the Line. The third omnibus sees him rise beyond the rank of Captain.
The beauty of the stories is in the detail. The author C S Forrester has an incredible understanding of how these great sailing ships worked, how the crews lived and how battles were fought out in the open sea. He packs so much of this knowledge into his stories and each book introduced you to new concepts and different scenarios allowing the reader to see how the crews would be organised in different situations, whether it be blockading French ports in the English Channel, boarding Spanish galleys in the Mediterranean, attacking land-based forts, mutinying against an insane captain or leading Nelson's own funeral procession down the Thames. Forrester open up the incredible and very harsh world of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic era in a series of exciting and increasingly gripping adventures, especially so once you get past the Midshipman stories which are by far the weakest of them all.
I'd possibly recommend watching the TV adaptations first. These portray a much friendlier, happier, warm captain whilst the books depict Hornblower as cold and irritable much of the time, albeit a humanist who cares for his crew. This cold character might put readers off, but having seen the TV shows previously I was able to look past this and imagine our hero as a much nicer character.
It should be noted that the television adaptations do change certain plot lines and add a few extra characters who didn't previously exist or had much lesser roles to play in the books. They also don't extend beyond the end of the Young Hornblower omnibus before he becomes a Post Captain, but they do substantially flesh out these earlier books which are not written half as well as the chronological later material. The TV adaptations make movies such as Master & Commander look a bit pants by comparison, so if you like that kind of film, watch them regardless!!
So overall I'd give the Young Hornblower omnibus a 7.5 out of 10 and the Captain Hornblower omnibus a 9 out of 10. I'm reading the Admiral Hornblower omnibus currently but so far its a 9 out of 10 as well.
