{"id":279,"date":"2006-07-03T17:52:50","date_gmt":"2006-07-03T21:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=279"},"modified":"2021-06-04T12:45:12","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T16:45:12","slug":"master-and-commander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/279","title":{"rendered":"Master and Commander"},"content":{"rendered":"

Master and Commander<\/em> (1970) Patrick O’Brian<\/p>\n

\"Master<\/a><\/p>\n

This book ended up taking me several months to read. I started it sometime during the winter, would read a couple of pages or chapters, then I’d pick up another book and forget about this one for awhile.<\/p>\n

That doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. I did. <\/p>\n

However, it’s not an easy book to read. The writing and language are dense–lots of technical details about sailing and ships, all of which I am unfamiliar with. Additionally, the writing is British, with British spellings and punctuation, which also threw me off a bit. So I’d pick it up and put it back down and pick it back up again. Which probably didn’t help my comprehension of the story any either.<\/p>\n

For those who never saw the movie<\/a> for the general idea, Master and Commander<\/em> tells of Jack Aubrey, captain of the Sophie<\/em>, and Stephen Maturin, his friend and the doctor of the Sophie. (The movie, however, is based on a later book, although at least one incident in the movie was from this book.)<\/p>\n

What I’d really like to know, is how accurate these books are. Could ships like the Sophie<\/em> really capture so many other ships? Other parts seemed reasonable, but I really have no idea about how many enemy ships a British ship of the line could capture on a tour of duty. Was Naval medicine really that bad, that a competent doctor was so unusual? That idea more than anything else both surprises and frightens me.<\/p>\n

Of course the best part of the book is the developing relationship between Jack and Stephen–though I have to admit that I like Stephen better. Stephen worries more, while Jack seems far too wrapped up in himself to notice what else is happening around him–although this isn’t the case entirely. <\/p>\n

I was confused about what–exactly–happened between Jack and James Dillon. Perhaps it’s the history of the Irish rebellion. Perhaps it was a personality conflict. Perhaps it was some man thing that I missed completely. But I found the situation frustrating.<\/p>\n

I’ve started the second book. I figure some time around Christmas–if I’m lucky–I’ll finish it.
\nRating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Master and Commander (1970) Patrick O’Brian This book ended up taking me several months to read. I started it sometime during the winter, would read a couple of pages or chapters, then I’d pick up another book and forget about this one for awhile. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. I did. However, it’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30,14,33,291],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-british","category-fiction","category-historical","category-paper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-4v","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":73,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/73","url_meta":{"origin":279,"position":0},"title":"Moon Tide and Magic Rise","author":"Michelle","date":"May 14, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Moontide and Magic Rise: World Without End (1994) and Sea Without a Shore (1996) Sean Russell Every time I read Sean Russell, I am always surprised at how good his books are. 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I'm not quite sure what I was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23002,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/23002","url_meta":{"origin":279,"position":4},"title":"Amongst Our Weapons, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"January 27, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Amongst Our Weapons, Audio Book (2020) Ben Aaronovitch narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Rivers of London) before the PC on the passenger side got a chance to ask Guleed why she was loitering while wearing a hijab in a built-up area, the driver leaned forward to get a look at us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Amongst Our Weapons","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Amongst-Our-Weapons.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9546,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9546","url_meta":{"origin":279,"position":5},"title":"A Pressing Engagement","author":"Michelle","date":"January 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A Pressing Engagement (2016) Anna Lee Huber Set in Scotland in 1831 This is a short story, but you should think of it as an outtake from the novels, rather than a stand-alone story you could pick up to read if you are unfamiliar with the characters or want to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/a_pressing_engagement-e1511012727623.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}