If there is a series of books out there that will make you feel like you are actually in it, then its the Flight of The Old Dog series. This debuet book for Dale Brown is by far the greatest story I've ever read. It will keep on the edge of your seat the whole time. not one slow section in the book. In the wake of the World Trade Center terrorist attack, it makes me wonder what the Old Dog crew would do. If the were real of course!

This is Brown's debut novel, and to truly "dig" his others, you should read this one first. It's got an action filled, ambitious plot, even if some of the technology seems a little far-fetched. But who knows? Maybe the USAF has something like the Old Dog EB-52 in Area 51. The story kind of lost a bit of the suspense when the endpaper map clearly shows the Old Dog landing in Alaska at the end of the mission, but still you can truly get into the story after maybe a dozen pages or so. Flight of the Old Dog definetly hooked me onto Dale Brown novels. Bravo to Brown

I have read this book a number of times, Dale Brown's technical know-how and imagination kept me on the edge. I was actually sorry that I had finished it. I recommend it to anyone. The characters, the scenarios, the timing, is all spot on. I will keep reading his books as long as he keeps writing them.

There is a reason 1984 and Animal Farm are the famous ones this book is dull. It is the story of a man who first recounts his life before the war and then decides to take some sick leave and visit his old home. Most of the book seems to be devoted to fishing. It is sufficiently cynical but sometimes a plot is nice. Orwell should never use the Hemingway's style. Its not him. I looked all through the book and couldn't find a plot.

"Coming Up For Air" was the first novel of Orwell's mature period. It came out after "Homage to Catalonia" (his memoir of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War and the disintegration of the Republican Left in Barcelona). In this novel, Orwell has finally abandoned the Joyce-inspired experimentation and overtly "literary" feel of his earlier fiction and has begun to find his voice. "Coming Up For Air" manages, in a way that I think only Orwell could do, to be simultaneously progressive and reactionary.

The protagonist, a petit-bourgeois salesman named George Bowling, haunted by visions of the coming war in Europe, laments the loss of the England he grew up in before the First World War. "Is it gone for ever? I'm not certain. But I tell you it was a good world to live in. I belong to it. So do you." Bowling belongs to the Left Book Club and seems to have a deeper awareness of the world than most of his peers, but he prides himself on being a simple sort of man and looks down on everyone, Left and Right, with a sort of genial disdain. Some of his observations are quite amusing, albeit quite cynical: "Nothing matters except slickness and shininess and streamlining. Everything's streamlined nowadays, even the bullet Hitler's keeping for you... I felt in a kind of prophetic mood, the mood in which you foresee the end of the world and get a certain kick out of it." George comes into an unexpected sum of money betting on the horses and decides to use it to revisit his childhood village. Needless to say, nothing of his boyhood remains, his fishing hole has been converted to a trash dump, his first love has become a fat, dumpy hausfrau, and he goes back home to his wife after an RAF bomber accidentally releases live ordnance over the town.

"The bad times are coming, and the stream-lined men are coming too," warns Bowling. "If there's anything you care a curse about, you better say good-bye to it now." Orwell would go on to describe the bad times in his major novels. This one's well worth a look, both for the way we see Orwell learning to deal with the materials that made up the bulk of his major work, and as a not-badly-written entertainment as well.

It's a shame that George Orwell's two best-known novels, "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty Four" are neither one his best novel. The peak of Orwell's fiction is this almost forgotten novel, "Coming Up for Air." Set in the last few years before a World War II that was obviously looming on the horizon, this elegant book memorably chronicles the life of George Bowling and his attempt to escape domesticity and the horrors to come for a few days by visiting his old home town. Every time I reread "Coming Up for Air," I wonder what Orwell might have achieved if he had lived longer and had not been as ill as he was in the ten years that remained to him. If all you've read of Orwell is his two "famous" novels, you owe it to yourself to read this.

Day of the Jackal is not just Frederick Forsyth's best book; it's the best book in it's genre. A political killer code-named "The Jackal" is hired to assassinate Charles De Gaulle, president of France. He is the best, not appearing on any police file. But through one small twist of fate, the French authorities learn of this plot, and set Claude Lebel, their best detective to find The Jackal. From there, the race is on, and Forsyth gives the reader front-row seats. He has created a sizzling rivalry between the cold-blooded assassin and the one policeman talented enough to stop him, and the suspense never lets up. Through deception, betrayal, and luck, Lebel tracks the killer throughout Europe, ending in the climactic assassination attempt itself. Based on true events, the obvious outcome doesn't take away from the thrill of the chase. This is the book that set the standard for others to try and follow

This book is brilliant. I chose to read it after we got it for homework in school. I read a few thrillers and mystery. But this book is on my list of top five books.

It's about an assassin whose codename is the Jackal. He is hired to kill the French president de Gaulle. You follow him when he brilliantly plans the murder. You see how he thinks, how he choose the perfect weapon, gets false passports etc. You end up liking him and whish him good luck, while you sometimes might want him to fail. How does Forsyth do that?

We meet many other characters through the reading, about fifty. Even if they are too many in a book of over 300 pages, it is not quite hard to follow the plot. Who are then the main characters? Well, the Jackal is one of course. The villain is the Jackal, but who is the hero? Is it Lebel, Rolland or Thomas? In a strange way, you find that the plot is the real main character. All things that happen in the book is just analyze of the attempt of murder on de Gaulle. Everything that happens is important and manipulates the ending of the story. This makes the story very complex and brilliant. You won't waste your time reading 150 pages with nothing happening. Every page is important.

Read it, or you'll regret it.

I will very soon see the both versions of the movie.

What can I add to 69 other reviewers? Simply this; I first read the book 25 years ago, and I still regularly take it back down off the shelves and dip into some part that jogs my memory, and enjoy savouring the detail afresh, as with a great piece of classical music or a Jane Austen novel. I am not normally a reader of thrillers; but this is equally much a great detective story and a mind game, and the writing style and the language are also superb, as is the evocation of the French setting. It starts quite slowly but accelerates all the way to the end. It is fascinating to compare it with the great 1973 film (NOT the Bruce Willis version). Scenes from the film like the final assassination attempt create an even more vivid picture in the mind as you read the book again. On the other hand, the detail of the planning, or the moment of Lebel's realisation of how the Jackal has got a gun through the apparently impregnable police screen, or seeing how all the different threads of the storyline fit together, can only be captured in the book. Every word and every nuance count at the climactic moments. Read the book, then see the film, then read the book again. It may not be as pacy as some modern all-action thrillers, but it is never contrived and virtually every bit rings true.

I am not questioning the amount of effort that has gone into the book, but some foundations upon which the book makes many of its claims are fundamentally flawed. For example, it is widely accepted (and has been conclusively proven) within the Oracle community that worrying about cache hit ratios, multiple extents, etc is a flawed methodology for tuning an Oracle database which will serves simply to misguide the novice.

Leave this book on the shelf...

In his book, Rich has merged his many years of Oracle performance tuning expertise with advanced insider techniques in an easy-to-understand way. Hundreds practical topics, undocumented references, experts tips and real life examples have made this book a must have for DBA's and any Oracle performance tuning personnel.

This book covers the tuning tips and techniques in using newest features in Oracle 8i as well as the original features in Oracle 7 or 8. As Rich's first sentence indicates, "Oracle is a symphony and you are the conductor, with an opportunity to create a world class performance", his book will help you to achieve this opportunity and to become a great tuning conductor of Oracle performance.

The first chapter of the book serves as highlight notes, which sets up five quick goals to instantly improve performance. Through the rest chapters of his entire book, readers will gain detail tuning knowledge about disk I/O, init.ora parameters, OEM, Explain Plan, table joins, hints, PL/SQL, parallel query, using V$ views, accessing x$ tables, new features and many more tips and techniques for reaching the best performance. After reading this book, be sure to share your thoughts with others in your review.

I was happy with this book and it can help u find orcale tuning problems and find results fast.

This is the second book by Graham Greene that I have read, and found it to be a wonderful book. The symbolism, while at times a bit too obvious, aids Greene in communicating his message - that being, as other's have said, the struggle between "good and evil". While the character's of Pinky, the 17 year old gangster, and Rose, the 16 year old girl who becomes embroiled in Pinky's life, are used to contrast good and evil, Rose and Ida Arnold are utilised by Greene to juxtapose innocence and experience, another of the novel's central themes. I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates the talent's of Greene, and for those who search for more than just a "story" when they read.

I enjoyed BRIGHTON ROCK. I had never read anything that Graham Greene wrote before picking up this volume, and I was very impressed by so many aspects of it. On the surface, it's simply a gangster story set around the racetrack of a bustling English vacation town in the 1930s. But there are so many little touches and details that Greene adds that all raise this story up and make it more than just another exciting and gory tale of mob violence.

The plot is perhaps the weakest element of the book, but this is not a story that revolves around its plot. The plot points are merely the catalysts that propel these wonderful characters forward. We meet Pinkie, a mere seventeen-year-old, who has found himself in the unenviable task of becoming the head of a criminal organization that is embroiled in a power-struggle with an even larger, better-funded gang. In his world, Pinkie is fighting not only for dominance in his gang, but also battling for territory and control in the town of Brighton. However, he also encounters a strange conflict from an unlikely source: a fun-loving, cheerful, iron-willed woman by the name of Ida.

Ida comes into the story by the most unlikely of coincidences, and is determined to investigate what she feels is a grave injustice. She plays a great foil to Pinkie's character, even though the two of them rarely meet. The only downside that I saw to this fascinating person was the fact that after her fantastic introduction she seems to be coasting through the rest of the novel on autopilot. For a normal book, this would be perfectly expected, but Greene set the bar very high for himself here, especially with this character's motivation, and it just seems a bit jarring when not everything maintains an equal level of excellence.

Greene brings in quite a lot of thought to this novel. Religion, love, spirituality, and death are not things that one expects to undergo detailed analysis on the pages of a crime thriller, yet Greene approaches all of these with maturity and understanding. Each character (bar a handful) is given believable motivations. There are some plot pieces that are predictable, but that only means that I was daring the characters not to go the way that they did, and genuinely upset when they did unfortunate things, even though I had anticipated them. Greene draws on so many ideas to breath life into his novel. He places familiar concepts into irregular characters, and unfamiliar concepts into regular characters; the results are often wonderful and thought provoking.

As I mentioned, I'd not read a Graham Greene novel prior to this, but I certainly plan on doing so in the future. Greene packed quite a bit of careful thought into this intelligent thriller, and the outcome is as exciting as it is reflective. Gripping and spellbinding, this is definitely worth reading.

I have said it before, and shall say it again - Graham Greene was incapable of writing a bad novel! "Brighton Rock" is yet another miraculous triumph of setting, plot, characterization, thematic unity and everything that makes novels worth reading. In addition, Greene's use of Catholicism and common-sense ethics as coexistent ideologies behind the story, guiding the main characters, gives the novel considerable philosophical weight. One great thing about "Brighton Rock" is that the characters' internal struggles are not simply reducible to good v. evil or right v. wrong, but are asked to distinguish between these two systems.

"Brighton Rock" has two protagonists - Pinkie Brown is a teenage gangster, trying to prove his manhood and establish himself as a serious force in the Brighton underworld. Ida Arnold is a healthy, flirtatious, and determined woman who cannot be dissuaded from any purpose. When corrupt newspaperman Charles Hale is killed by Pinkie's gang, Ida's momentary acquaintance with Hale on a Bank Holiday leads her to pursue the truth surrounding his death. The conflict between Pinkie, who falls into a Calvinist-Catholic defeatism, and Ida, who believes in right and Hammurabian justice(an eye for an eye) shapes the rest of the novel.

Human sexuality and relationships are important facets of "Brighton Rock." Pinkie and Rose, two young Catholics raised in a run-down, predominantly 'Roman' housing project - constantly struggle with maturity, responsibility, and human physicality. While they view sex as 'mortal sin,' Ida, their pursuer, sees it as 'natural,' and celebratory of life. The complex relationship between Pinkie and the equally young and innocent Rose adds further purpose to Ida's mission.

Minor characters like the anemic Spicer, the loyal Dallow, the brusque Cubitt, and the literary lawyer Prewitt, along with Rose's 'moody' parents and his own eternally copulating parents, all complicate Pinkie's inner turmoil - and reveal that Pinkie's supposed manhood is a veil for his inherent weakness and inexperience.

Greene's wealth of literary knowledge also adds texture to the novel as a whole. References to Shakespeare, the 18th century actor and Poet Laureate Colley Cibber, Romantic-era poets like Keats and Wordsworth, Victorian literature (Dickens' "David Copperfield"), and modern magazines and motion pictures casts the novel against a history of British literature. Overall, "Brighton Rock" is typical Greene - expertly written and philosophically provocative.

In a capitalist society, there is no way to escape the rampant worship of money. Or is there? This is the central dilemma of Geore Orwell's Keep The Aspidistra Flying.

Keep The Aspidistra Flying is the story of Gordon Comstock ("common stock"?), an idealistic young man who leaves a respectable middle-class job in an effort to free himself from what he sees as the stultifying greed of bourgeois exsistence. Like that other great English novelist, Charles Dickens, Orwell trots out a varied cast of eccentric characters to keep us entertained as he makes his points. While lacking the history-stopping power of later works such as Animal Farm and 1984, Keep The Aspidistra Flying posseses a dry wit and a heartfelt charm that is all its own. Recommended to idealistic young men (and women) everywhere.

The aspidistra plant is symbolic of the statis quo to our belligerent anti-hero Gordon Comstock; of common British middle-middle class stock; a family that "nothing ever happened to." His battle against the aspidistra and money and making good is existential but he doesn't know this having never read THE STRANGER because it hasn't been written yet. This narrative of all the things wrong with a consumer/free market/capitalist society between world wars could easily be written now by some starving young writer in any large city here in the United States of America. Here is a man who realizes early on that "Faith, hope, money --only a saint could have the first two without having the third." Yet I found myself rooting him on, wanting him to win his battle which is really impossible to do because even if you are on the fringes of a society you are still inescapably part of it. In this way THE STRANGER is the book with the happy ending despite the declarations on the jacket of KEEP THE ASPIDISTRA FLYING of an "upbeat ending".

Of all his novels, this was Orwell's least favorite. It tells the story of one man's war against money and the middle-class values and ideals of 1930s London. The "money=bad" message is about as subtle as a brick over the head, and you probably will get tired of the somewhat preachy rantings of the book's anti-hero, Gordon Comstock. Yet the deptiction of post-WWI London is quite good and can provide some important insight into Orwell's better novels. As for the "upbeat" ending, it is nothing of the sort. Orwell does not sell out Gordon by leaving him set up in a "good" job, living happily in wedded bliss with his beloved Rosemary. Rather, he turns a conventional denouement (marriage and birth) on its ear. The irony that runs throughout the novel (and which is particularly acute in its ending) makes "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" worth a read, even for those who are not Orwell fans.

I thourghly enjoyed this book. I felt it gave a wide eyed view to the Soviet prison camp system. In fact before reading this book I had no idea that the Soviets would keep prisoners in forced labor camps and almost work them to death. While reading this book I found many things that I wouldn't have believed if I knew that the author hadn't endured these hard ships. I also found it disturbing that if you take everything away from someone they will be reduced to animals, doing anything to please their owners, living each day meal to meal, and also coming to the point of betraying their fellow man for a little extra food. I guess you could say that this book shows what really happened in Russia. I think it show's true events even if the events described are not true in themselves. I believe that everyone should read this book so they can see that the world isn't a perfect place, that injustices happen in places that aren't supposed to have them, and even if something seems real it may not be.

This book is an excellent example of the horrors of the Stalinist work camps (Gulag) that were in existence for most of Russia's modern history. Alexander Solzhenitsyn masterfully weaves descriptions of minute details, which, surprisingly, do not become tedious, but provide a better understanding of the task or action that the main character performs, with a universal theme that all people can relate to - survival. The title accurately describes the setting of the book; its entirety occurs in one day of the life of Ivan Denisovich, a prisoner. This may confuse some in that everyday tasks and unique events around this main character provoke flashbacks more often than not, and provide a complete picture of this man's life before he was imprisoned and since he has been serving his ten-year sentence. All in all, this book has a superior edge to most other books on this same subject in that its author, ALexander Solzhenitsyn, went through the same struggles as the main character of the novel, providing valuable insights, thoughts, and emotions that tie the novel together. An excellent read - one that I would recommend to anyone.

My grandmother, an avid reader and former English teacher, recommended this book to me with the words, "You'll feel guilty eating anything while you read this." Having read a multitude of books centered around various concentration camps, including Elie Wiesel's Night among others, I thought that there was little that could shock me or even make an impact on me in this book. I was wrong.

The novel is centered around one day in the life of a man named Ivan Denisovich who has been living in Soviet camps for years. It tells how his prized possession is a spoon he carries in his boot, and a good day includes an extra bowl of gruel with fish bones for lunch. It is winter in the heart of Russia, and the only thing that pushes him to work is the fact that his increasing circulation warms his hypothermic body.

This book opened my eyes to a world that I have never heard of, that of the Russian camps, where the objective was not to exterminate the prisoners. Instead, the prisoners were worked like animals until they dropped dead in the fields of hunger, exhaustion, sun stroke or hypothermia. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an easy read with a difficult reality.

George Orwell's Animal Farm is a superb animation of the Russian Revolutioon. The book is amusing and interesting; it includes a comic element as it synonymously demonstrates the evolution from the proletariat revolution to a totalitarian government led by the swine of the society. Orwell successfully simplified the not-so-simple theory of class stratification and Karl Marx's proposed solution of communism. Orwell's method of conveyance is incredibly inventive. He uses satire in the form of a fairy tale to share his indignation for ideological doctrines that would, if allowed, lead to the eventual destruction of a society. Each character in the story is representative of someone who was involved in the Russian Revolution. Old Major is Marx, and inspires the proletariat revolution by motivating the over-worked animals and educating them on the ways of the human beings, who represent the bourgeoisie. Orwell's creativity convinces the reader that the animals on the farm are intellectual beings, revolting against the tyranny of the humans. Animal Farm offers itself as an example of a responsible criticism of Marxism. The story gives us a peek at the Utopian vision, and then offers a long look at what results from using a Marxist approach at achieving it. I strongly reccomend this book, as it is entertaining and educational. Orwell succeeded in creating a fairy tale that evokes both sadness and laughter, while causing us to feel sympathy and even empathy for the working class animals. The book escapes complexity, but its message does not.

George Orwell writes about a society that parallels the Soviet Union in his satirical novel, Animal Farm, where the animals revolt against their cruel master and form a new society based on the same principles as communism.
After the animals' revolt and the formation of Animal Farm, the animals' name for their society, things start to look up. But as with the real Soviet Union, the leadership begins to become corrupt, conditions deteriorate, and freedoms slowly slip away. By the time anyone outside the leadership realizes what is happening, it may be too late.
This interesting and easy to read book provides fascinating political commentary on Orwell's time-period and the failures of communism (specifically the USSR). The reader's ability to see where things are going and the ability to spot the parallels of the characters from the novel in history only enhances the book and George Orwell gets his point across without mentioning the Soviet Union, its leaders, or communism even once. His warnings on the dangers of any form of totalitarianism show through in his writing, and this book almost reads like 1984 (another Orwell classic) in parts.
Those who read this looking for a happy fairy tale where a bunch of talking animals live in an utopia of their making will probably not be satisfied, nor will the story be rewarding if the reader ignores the historical context of the novel. But if you're looking for an interesting novel and don't mind the constant reminder that this was meant as a political commentary, you will probably enjoy this book.

Taking a Russian history class and learning in detail about Joseph Stalin's rule would help one understand Animal Farm much better, as well as the characters. George Orwell's hatred of totalitarianism, especially that of the Stalinist USSR, formed the basis for this short satirical fiction.

A band of oppressed farm animals oust Jones, their cruel human owner and take over the farm. Led by two pigs, Napoleon and Snowball, the animals proceed to run the farm by themselves so they are no longer exploited.

Napoleon is clearly Stalin, while Snowball is based on Leon Trotsky, and the Old Major is Lenin. Squealer may be Molotov or Kaganovich, but I'm not sure. The first attack on the Farm by Jones and his men is based on the Russian Civil War (1918-1921), where disorganized factions of anti-communists attacked the Soviet Union from all sides, and lost. However, things don't always go in parallel, as the Old Major dies before the Revolution. Lenin of course precipitated the Revolution in 1917. And note the date of the liberation of Manor Farm: 12 October. That is close to 24 October, the date of the Bolshevik Revolution.

Other items: Boxer the horse is the epitome of the hard worker whose two sayings are "Napoleon is always right" and "I will work harder." In fact he may be Stakhanov, the worker whose team so efficiently met their quota in one of Stalin's 5-Year Plans, that the word Stakhanovite became synonymous with an A-One Soviet worker. And the inability of most animals to read only the first two letters of the alphabet hint at their being lowly, illiterate subjects blindly obedient to the State.

The Seven Commandments--ironic for a Biblical reference in an atheist system-- plays an important key to the book, as they keep changing during Napoleon's reign. They are: "Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy, 2) Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend, 3) No animal shall wear clothes, 4) No animal shall sleep in a bed, 5) No animal shall drink alcohol, 6) No animal shall kill any other animal, and 7) All animals are equal." However, as Napoleon consolidates his rule, the Commandments become slightly altered. For example, after the animal executions, analogous to Stalin's purges, the sixth Commandment has the words "without cause" appended. And talk about irony in using the name of Napoleon for the Stalin character when in fact Napoleon invaded Russia, the result of which increased distrust of the West by Russians.

Orwell's portrait of the totalitarian state would be finalized in his masterpiece 1984. Animal Farm was a preview for that grand work, but the final thing that comes through in this book is that the Stalinist regime was just as oppressive as the czarist regime, with the ordinary animals on the receiving end-i.e. "but some animals are more equal than others."

This is one of the funniest books I've ever read. So why only 4 stars? Because it's not consistantly funny. The problem seems to be that Jerome started to write a travel story, with some serious thought on history and life, and added a few humorous bits as he went along. His editor got him to tone down the history and emphasize the humor, but we, the readers, are still stuck with some dreary Victorian romantic musings.
But then there are the funny bits. And there are a lot of them. I'd say 80% of this book is funny, and a good 10% is hysterically funny. Well worth the dull patches.
WARNING: Do not read this in a public place. You WILL embarrass yourself by laughing out loud. The pages on cheese are especially deadly. I still giggle uncontrolably each time I re-read them.

This has to be one of the funniest books ever written beginning with the opening chapter where the narrator reads a medical book and decides he has every disease in the book. From there, he and his two best friends decide to get away from it all with a boat trip up the Thames River -- and that's the book. It's full of one hilarious episode after another with little side tidbits on the historical places they pass on the Thames. Those few who have found the book dull need to understand that the story is written at the pace of a boat trip and not a television sitcom. It's any vacation where everything goes hilariously wrong and if for once the tent doesn't fall down in a pouring rain or the boat manages to not run into another boat, the narrator remembers another trip and tells the story of carrying an incredibly smelly cheese home--Warning don't read that chapter in public. People will wonder why you're rolling on the ground laughing hysterically. There's also a dog who's idea of being helpful is bringing a dead rat to add to the stew. The only weakness of the book is that I'd like to have seen much more of the dog. On the serious side, Three Men in a Boat proves that humor based on human nature is timeless. Also on the serious side, if you want a good look at how people lived in 1890, this book actually gives a vivid picture, including the nostalgia that the narrator feels for "the good old days". He finds life in 1890 too fast paced and with too many inventions coming on too fast. It makes you wonder at what point people will look back to 2001 as "the good old days".

I was given a copy of this book about 12 years ago. It has turned out to be one the best gifts I've ever received. Jerome's witty ramblings are the funniest I've ever read. Mark Twain, who I also love to read, comes close to Jerome's style but, in my opinion, is a poor second. Jerome finds humor in the commonplace and the every day occurrences which all of us, even a good 100 years later, can identify with. Starting with his self-diagnosis of every ailment, excepting house-maid's knee, to his singular insights into his friends, self, and surroundings; I never tire of rereading this book. It becomes clear quickly that the dog, Montmorency, is the only one with any sense. Three Men and a Boat always cheers me after a cold, bleak winter. It's the best Spring tonic--I highly recommend an annual dose. I shop now for gifts to give to friends so they can share my enjoyment in this wonderfully humorous and offbeat book. Read, enjoy, and laugh often.

'Snopes' in California (comment - 30 Nov '98) puts it well: revel in 'Master and Commander' such that you get well and truly hooked; don't draw comparisons with Austen (it's not fair to Mr O'Brian); definitely read the 2nd in the series, 'Post Captain' but do not take it as setting the tone for the rest of the series. Far from it. It was my best friend who suggested I read a book from the series and I was luke warm about it at the time. Nosing around a shop in ST. Katherine's Dock (of all places) in London on a boring Sunday afternoon, I spotted an abridged version of 'Master and Commander' on audio tape. Taking this as an omen I thought it wouldn't hurt, especially as I used to spend so much time in my car driving to and from work. After playing one tape, I almost came to grief whilst frantically searching for the next in the passenger footwell. In terms of pace, mood and immediate subject matter, the difference between the first and second books in this series is something akin to Chalk and Cheese. After finishing Master and Commander, you're left outside the nearest bookshop fairly willing the clock to strike opening time for the second helping; you won't be prepared for Post Captain. You will read through diligently in the vain hope that some 'orders' will arrive for the intrepid duo, but alas... The truth is that readers are not prepared for the change in pace, but my personal feeling is that 'Post Captain' is probably the most accomplished book in the series and the best example of just how much Patrick O'Brian is a master of his chosen subject and period. True evidence, I feel, of a wonderful, three-dimensional author (billyjnyc, please take note - try Post Captain if you want more depth and roundness to the characters - trust me). Post Captain is oftened maligned because of the structured expectations we form before delving into it after Master and Commander, but it is a beautiful piece of work, a fascinating window on the localised society of the time and a solid and important foundation for the rest of the series. As for the rest of the series? Giving up smoking could never have been as traumatic as closing the cover on the last book: hands together, praying for another.

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The first in Patrick O'Brian's twenty-volume "Aubrey-Maturin" series, "Master and Commander" is both a compelling narrative and a fine foundation for the books to follow. In the first decade of the nineteenth century, British naval officer Jack Aubrey is promoted to his first command of a warship, the sloop "Sophie". He befriends an eccentric physician, Stephen Maturin, and convinces him to sail as ship's surgeon. What follows is a sort of odyssey, a linear narrative as the Sophie cruises the Mediterranean, capturing cargo ships and fighting French and Spanish warships. O'Brian has a wonderful, mature prose, a spare style that omits repetitious detail while allowing characters and events to describe themselves and leaving the minutiae to the reader's imagination. His complete ease with nineteenth century maritime affairs, from the idiom to the equipment is wholly convincing, yet never patronizing. Readers familiar with neither the sea nor the era will be swept along for the ride. Aubrey is heroic, but three-dimensional. He is flawed and sometimes unlikable, courageous yet occasionally frustratingly inept. Other characters are drawn with equal attention to detail and humanity. This is a fine book, a wonderful sea story. Norton's newly-released edition of the entire series is attractive, and the books continue to please.

A friend recommended that I pick this up book, and also the next few volumes. She said I'd get hooked on it and I was. I bought 5 of the 17 volumes (now up to 19) and then went out a week later and bought the rest. I spent the next few months fighting with my sister for each copy as we each raced through the whole series.

Lucky Jack Aubrey is a bold naval officer who befriends Steven Maturin, a physician and multilingual spy, in their efforts to thwart Napoleon's ambitions for the British Empire. The two oddball friends provide an interesting contrast as Patrick O'Brien takes us back 200 years and give us British Naval History more or less intact with the exception that he places these two hero's on the scene. Some explanation is given at the start of each story as to what is real and what is fiction.

O'Brien's writing style uses turn of the century terminology and language--which can be confusing at times, especially some of the nautical maneuvers, but lends more authenticity to each volume.

My only regret is that I purchased the paperbound version. These books are worth keeping and re-reading. I recommend you purchase them in the hard bound edition which will hold up as you re-read them in the future.