[Mercat]

Which I've read all the books twice, ain't I?

[Alkhin]

PINGPING!

[tet68]

If you can find them....try James Fenimore Cooper's
Homeward Bound or The Crater, both cracking good sea yarns written at a time when sail was still known.
A good seamans glossary is necessary however.

Most everybody knows of the Last of the Mohicans and his Leather stocking tales,"Oak Openings" etc. but he wrote many stories dealing with the sea life, these are hard to read being couched in the rather different style of those days but after a few chapters, one finds it not difficult and in some ways oddly comfortable.

If anyone out there has a set of "Coopers Works" I might be interested, I only have four volumes of the I believe 9 volume set. These were printed in the later 1800s with very
nice engravings to illustrate, generally three or four stories per volume.

[Dog Gone]

It's probably going to be a fine movie and Crowe is an excellent actor. It would be nice, though, if Crowe hadn't gone out of his way to put himself squarely into the Barbra Streisand spectrum of politics.

I don't want to spend the first 15 minutes of a movie trying to forget that I hate the actor's guts.

[John H K]

I'm really looking forward to the movie; applied for an early screening (along with two new A & E "Horatio Hornblower" episodes) from Entertainment Weekly but I didn't get in. The trailer looks really cool.

Might be of interest to FReepers that they changed the ship that the British are chasing from American (in the book "Far Side of the World") to French; probably correctly divining that's far more marketable :-).

I've read all the books. They're well worth reading and Aubrey and Maturin are great characters, but they get a bit more worship than they actually deserve; they're actually riddled with historical innacuracies and O'Brian is far less of an expert on the period than he's made out to be. I have a close friend who has designed a naval miniatures game based on Napoleonic sailing ship combat, who probably knows more about the period than anyone else around today, who basically is indifferent to the Master and Commander series and actually likes the Horatio Hornblower books much more.

The quality of the books declines towards the end; and I was simply apalled at the "off-screen" death of a MAJOR character that is basically covered in a couple paragraphs (those who have read the books know who I mean; won't ruin it for those of you that haven't.)

I'm a bit sad they were not able to get Ralph Fiennes to play Maturin; he would have been absolutely perfect.

[Your Ilk]

I started reading this series back in the mid-ninties, and devoured the last four or five books as they came out over the last 7 years. Also available, (and very necessary for me anyway) is "A Sea of Words" which defines a lot of the common words, phrases, and terms used back in the early 1800s which are used throughout this series of books. Also published was a cook book which gave the recipies for all the food Jack and good Doctor ate. Each recipe was tested, including "millers" (rats),wevels, etc. with the exception of one recipe called "boiled shit" which the doctor was forced to consume while marooned on an atoll.

I am really looking forward to this movie. In my wildest dreams, all 20 in the series would be made into movies.

[Right Wing Professor]

I've read through the series 3 times. Great books; you can read them quickly, for the action, or slowly for the language, humor, and attention to detail. What amazes me is that he only started writing them after he was 65 years old.

By the way, his two books about the Anson voyages are worth reading, as is his biography. An interesting character.

[resistmuch]

I'm ready for this manly movie. My wife knows that shortly after November 14, I'll be insufferable. "England expects that every man will do his duty!"

[Molly Pitcher]

A great series of books! The question is - will the movie be faithful to them? The trailer I've seen looks promising, at least.

[SuziQ]

I read The Golden Ocean which started the series, but haven't had the chance to read any more. FR is a real timesink, you know!

I DO want to see the movie though. I'm wanting to see Billy Boyd as much as Russell Crowe!

[nutmeg]

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