This book looks small but contains a lot. Whether you are a student or just an enthusiastic it is good idea to have a book that fits in to your pocket. Again do not underestimate that book just because of "pocket". It delightfully explains buildings and architecture from the ages point of view to the architectural styles, materials with a basic graphics and pictures. You don't have to spend any afford for technical terms since each of them point with the arrows at the pictures. You can often see famous buildings at the different countries. In short it's fun the browse yet it teaches either you are at the subway or in the class waiting for your teacher.

Dean King's "Patrick O'Brian: A Life Revealed" cannot wholly live up to its subtitle because its subject, the author of some of the best fiction of the 20th Century, withheld any cooperation and evidently instructed his friends to do likewise. King had to construct his biography using none-too-plentiful public sources and the views of estranged relatives, some quite embittered. Fortunately, King avoids becoming merely the advocate of those hostile to Patrick O'Brian, generally maintaining a conspicuous neutrality about the rights and wrongs of the author's personal life, and instead devotes much of the book to a survey of O'Brian's work, examining sources, the struggles to publish, critical reaction, and -- in some cases -- the relationship of particular incidents in the fiction to O'Brian's own life. O'Brian, it is now known, constructed a wholly fictional persona for himself (including his name and nationality) after breaking with his family over 50 years ago. Under those circumstances, and perhaps because of the pain of his own memories, it is not surprising that O'Brian made privacy a fetish. Still, Dean King has been able to assemble a reasonably detailed literary biography. I doubt that someone who is not familiar with O'Brian's marvelous novels would find a great deal of interest in this book, but for fans of his fiction, this biography provides hints and insights into the wellspring of his tales.

This book would stand as an outstanding biography even had its subject cooperated fully. It is well-written, exhaustively detailed, sensitive to the subject yet unsparingly honest in detailing his shortcomings -- in short, it is everything you could ask for in a biography. But the fact the subject, Patrick O'Brian, was not merely uncooperative, but lived a life veiled in layer after layer of secrecy, makes what Dean King has accomplished here nothing short of astonishing. Each detail, from O'Brian's momentous identity change to minor but telling glimpses of his childhood and domestic life, is the result of dogged, tireless legwork. Amassing enough details for a magazine profile would have been difficult enough. Yet here is a big, hefty book crammed with choice details, seamless and complete.

While one certainly expects that King will get his critical and popular due for producing the first serious biography of a cherished writer, it is O'Brian who emerges as the big winner here. For all his flinty evasions and prickly protestations, O'Brian, who died recently, could not have asked for a more fair or just portrait of his life, nor a more thoughtful analysis of his works. This book will only add to the enjoyment and understanding that O'Brian's millions of admirers get from the novels.

This would have been an outstanding biography even had its subject, Patrick O'Brian, cooperated completely, opened a cache of diaries and papers, and welcomed Dean King to have a go. "A Life Revealed" is well-written, detailed, fast-moving and as entertaining as it is informative, positive in portraying O'Brian's great talent yet honest in confronting his shortcomings; in short, it is everything you could want in a biography. The fact that O'Brian not only did not cooperate, but lived a life veiled in layer after layer of secrecy, makes what Dean King has achieved here nothing short of astonishing. Every detail in this book, from the momentous events surrounding Russ/O'Brian's identity change to minor but telling details about his childhood and domestic life, is the result of dogged, painstaking legwork.

One certainly expects that Dean King will get his critical and popular due for having produced the first serious biography of a cherished writer. But the biggest winner to emerge here is O'Brian himself. O'Brian, who died recently, could not have hoped for a more just treatment of his life, nor a more thoughtful consideration of his work. For all of O'Brian's prickly insistence on keeping his life a secret, this biography can only add to the depth of understanding and enjoyment that O'Brian's millions of fans get from his novels.

If you're the kind of person who finds joy in reading about language and colloquialisms of the past, this is a great book. It also contains a fair amount of background on many of the historical (real) characters from the Aubrey/Maturin books, as well as many geographic locations visited from the novels. A brief chronology of the wars during the age of sail (Napoleonic, War of 1812, etc) is quite useful. I'm also fairly impressed with its completeness with the obviously strange ones - "Drowned Baby", for instance. (It's a dessert.) You don't need it to understand the language of O'Brian's books, but you'll probably have more fun if you bring "A Sea of Words" along for the ride.

This book is a great reference for all interested in the age of fighting sail, or readers of nautical fiction. The heart of the book is an immense lexicon or dictionary of nautical terms and (British) naval history and leaders during the times of the French Revolution and Napoleonic world war about A.D 1800. Specifically geared to the Patrick O'Brian novels about Captain Aubrey and his surgeon-spy Maturin, this can be read with benefit also to understanding any other authors in the genre. The lexicon is prefaced with Hattendorf's chapter on the organization of the British Navy from top to bottom. It specifies the career ladder from landman to Admiral of the Red, basic British vs. French battle tactics, and overviews the War of the French Revolution (1793-1803) and the Napoleonic Wars (1805-1815). A time line of these wars is appended. Another chapter by Estes discusses the state of contemporary medicine. Perhaps most immediately useful is a brief section illustrating the standing and running rigging of square-rigged ships, and their sail plans, the most confusing part of all for a lubber. In light of Maturin's cover as a naturalist, a chapter on the state of naturalist studies before Darwin would be a useful addition to a future edition (as would a section about the competition to determine longitude accurately).

If you are new to nautical matters, and begin the Forester, Kent or Woodman series of novels with the start of the hero's career, I suggest you not consult this work until later so that you taste the same initial confusion as any raw young midshipman. This is a useful rite of passage for anyone falling in love with nautical fiction: if you care enough to learn the challengingly obscure terms you will be hooked. You will also learn the origins of many slang expressions, like scuttlebutt, three sheets to the wind, bye and large, bitter end, squared away, cut and run, scuttled, doldrums, son of a gun, at liberty, etc. The geographical companion book, Harbors and High Seas, could be acquired anytime, but I don't consider it as useful as this book. (Note: my review is based on a 2nd edition [green cover], which did not contain the error Desiree mentions in her review.)

Dean King has done all lovers of naval history novels a great service with this book. Aimed specifically at the Aubrey/Maturin series, it nevertheless provides an invaluable wealth of detailed information about the whole of the period around the turn of the 19th Century.

Not only does it translate obscure Naval terms, it also explains obsolete Georgian phraseology; describes major naval battles; eminent naval personalities & statesmen; Latin & French phrases common during the period; explanations of classical references; medical & natural history terminology - in short, all that you need as a companion to naval literature.

I got this book after reading all the Aubrey/Maturin series - if only I'd had this at the time, I could have saved myself hours of searching through multiple reference books.

A MUST for all naval history buffs.

I am very disappointed with Dean King's efforts here. Where is this great prodigy of maps that the book seems to promise? Much of the book is taken up with summaries of PO'B's novels. If I want to know what happened in the books I will read them, I don't need to pay 21 American dollars for that. And most of the content that is not summary is written descriptions entitled 'Here and There'. Can Mr. King possibly think his accounts will succeed in enabling we hopeless lubbers to comprehend intricate harbors and locations where the great O'Brian's have not? In the Post Captain chapter, do we find a map of Chaulieu where Aubrey fights the Polychrest until she sinks under him? No we do not. This book should be filled cover to cover with detailed charts and maps. It falls far and sadly short of expectations. I urge anyone not having been duped into purchasing it already to refrain from doing so.

Harbors and High Seas gets more use from me than the lexicon reference to the Aubrey Maturin series, A Sea of Words. I skimmed through Harbors and High Seas after each O'Brian book the last time through; leaving alone the clearer geographical detail, this really adds depth to O'Brian's already convincing world.

I would recommend this highly to fans of the series who feel bereft at its close and long to return, to poke around a little themselves. Harbors and High Seas is full of taking off points, tangents to the stories that the curious reader can follow up on. A print of the decrepit Temple, reproduced here, might spark you to pursue some detail or other about Napoleon's Paris. The discussion of the many Desolation Islands has lots of little sides to it that could reward some curiosity. Like the stories, this is a sort of open-ended invitation into the historical setting, you might say.

Harbors and High Seas is a "companion" to the series, a complement to it, not just a reference to be consulted when you're muddled. Don't just refer to it -- read it for fun.

I'm now on book 7 of the Aubrey-Maturin series, and have only had my Companion for the last 2...how much it adds to the joy and the education. The best part of the companion is the maps, with clearly marked routes taken by Lucky Jack's vessels. O'Brian's description of Aubrey passing by Elsinore while Jack describes his role in Hamlet as a young midshipman comes alive with both the map and the picture of Elsinore. As well, eliminating the frustration of trying to determine what is fiction (Grimsholm) from what is not (Admiral Suamarez) greatly adds to the historical learnings.

The only downside to having this companion is the irresistable temptation to read ahead...the plot lines of the first 17 books are all given in general outline. As O'Brian readers know, however, much of the joy is as much in the characterization and writing as in the plot line. So, even if you do look ahead, it in all likelihood only will increase your desire to move on to the next book....I personally can hardly wait to get to Treason's Harbour and the mood that O'Brian will create around historic Malta.

If you love maps, though, and have always used them to add a visual learning dimension and reference to the words, you can't possibly read the books without it.

In closing, I guess I should add the warning that as addictive as these books are, they become even more addictive with the companion.

Beware!

It was pretty good, but it was kind of showing out of the knight period. They wrote a lot about castles and it was titled knights. This bothered me. I really liked how it showed what a knight has as his duty.

My 10 year old son is fascinated with all things midevil. This book shows the armor, weopons, and lifestyle of knights. The photos are excellent and the copy is interesting. Your child may need a little help with some of the vocabulary.

DK eyewitness books are some of the greatest non-fiction books around. The distinctive white background and high-quality photography gives this book an edge over any other nonfiction picture book. And -- these pictures are real! They're beautiful museum-quality photos of all things related to knights, accompanied by informative captions and text.

Learn about medieval life, knights, armor, etc. If you know someone (young or old) who is fascinated by medieval times and knights, then you must introduce them to this book!

The best part of this book are the two lists of Chivalrous and Romantic duties, taken from real medival litterature.
There are some nice adventures, too - the monster in one of them will be amusing for those who have played a certain horror game, and the murder mystery is a nice change of pace (though the main villain would not use those kind of methods, i think). The marrige adventure seed looks like its worth developing, too.
Still and all, this is just not a classic. It lacks the finishing touches and, worse, feeling of being part of a greater secret whole that makes a proper Pendragon game.
It is NOT the first book you should buy after the rulebook. However, if your Pendragon libary is otherwise complete, its worth a look.