Quantcast
Channel: MobileRead Forums
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 46773

Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin Book Club

$
0
0
After a discussion that primarily took place in the What are we listening to? thread, there appears to be enough interest to start a book club to jointly read and discuss the Aubrey / Maturin novels of Patrick O'Brian.

To start that process, we can use this thread to discuss the details of how we want to proceed. My first thoughts are to read and discuss one book every other month, starting at the beginning with Master & Commander, and taking on the next in the series every other month.

There would be no membership requirements, and MobileRead members can participate on any book they wish, or if circumstance require, skip a discussion and come back later to join in. You can even skip reading a book entirely, if you think you can do that. :)

So, what are the Aubrey/Maturin books, and why should you want to read them? Well, since I already answered this over on the Listening thread, let me simply quote myself:
Spoiler:
Quote:

The Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin novels are set at the time of the Napoleonic Wars between England and France (with, of course, other participants.) The time of the great English square-rigged sailing ships and the very height of the Royal Navy. But they are FAR more than just naval books! Jack Aubrey is not only a great instinctive sailor, but also an accomplished mathematician in his own right, and Stephen Maturin, his surgeon and friend, is a great naturalist and scientist (as well as a very successful spy for the English and yet an Irish partisan.) Also, both are accomplished amateur musicians

The books are well written, the characters well developed, and while the focus is around the naval events in most cases, it's the whole fabric of the rest of the books that makes them so successful and interesting. I've read and enjoyed C.S. Forester's Hornblower books, and most of Alexander Kent's Bolitho series, and both are good. But O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series is really at a different level, IMHO. We not only get a look at the history and geography of the era, but also the natural science and political landscape of not just England and Europe, but Australia and the Far East. There is even a fascinating look at the causes and consequences of the draining of the fens in rural England.

We have available two superb narrated audio versions, one by Simon Vance (issybird's favourite) and one by Patrick Tull (my favourite.) There are ebook versions of all the books as well, and both audio (the Simon Vance version) and ebook versions are available on Overdrive, so your library might well have them.

As a final bit of convincing, my DW who doesn't read this sort of thing as she would say it, was convinced to try them and was instantly hooked. We read them together as fast as Patrick O'Brian could write them. Both as DT books and as audio books, the old Books on Tape versions by Patrick Tull.

Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 46773

Trending Articles