Is it worth reading the whole thing in order, or is it episodic and you can just pick a novel in the middle at random, like the movie did?I've never read nautical literature.
>>25584259Some of the books are direct sequels to their predecessors, and there are plot threads that continue through several novels. Read them in order if you possibly can.The movie actually mixed several of the novels together. Its title is somewhat misleading.
>>25584259>I've never read nautical literatureYou're going to need a good dictionary. The nautical terms can get very confusing. And the language in general is very rooted in the period. O'Brian's knowledge of this stuff is masterly.
>>25584259You should read them in order. And very good pick: this is one of the few genre works that is also actual literature. The extended passage with the Waakzaamheid in Desolation Island is one of the best bits of action writing you'll find; so incredibly well done.>>25584308>You're going to need a good dictionary. The nautical terms can get very confusing.A dictionary can help, but some of the point of Stephen's character is to allow for layman explanations of terms, so a dictionary really isn't critical or necessary.
>>25584308just focus and the words will make sense
>>25584259Read them in order>>25584308You can tell he actually dialled back quite a bit on the period realistic English by 2nd book
>>25584259>Is it worth reading the whole thing in order, or is it episodic and you can just pick a novel in the middle at random, like the movie did?Books 1-3 are lame.It is worth reading in order for Stephen's heroin addiction and for when you realise Stephen is being *deliberately* incompetent and when you realise Jack *realises* Stephen is being deliberately incompetent.>>25585642>but some of the point of Stephen's characterIS MUSSY, SOFT ROMANTIC "MY PERSONAL FRIEND AND PHYSICIAN SURGEON" MUSSY
>>25587292>MUSSYI don't know what that word means.
>>25587297Check those references:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mussyhttps://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mussyhttps://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mussyhttps://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/mussy
>>25584259>read the first book>it's great >read the second book >Aubrey and Stephen are in England hunting foxes >oh, that's not what I was expecting >and now here's the widow Fezziwink and her three daughters: Hughnina, Lewnina, and Dewnina, who are all of marriageable age>ah... oh... ok...>and here are several dinner dates between them and Aubrey and Stephen >ok... I guess we'll get to the nautical stuff later... >and now Stephen is going to take romantic interest in one of the daughters >oh, good for him. Stephen deserves-->and he falls in love with the most callous, heartless daughter who doesnt care one iota for him>oh... cuckold stuff? I really wasn't ready for this...And I dropped the book before the second act. I don't even know if there's any boat stuff later in the story.
>>25587330You know, book 2 Stephen is probably the happiest he ever is in the series. You should see what they do to his daughter.
>>25587356Does book 2 get better? I was also put off how the style was different from the first book and it lacked clarity.
>>25587370Book one is stylistically off for the series. Book two also, but in a different way. Book 3 through 14-15 or so is the "core" archetype of aubrey/Maturin book. Maturin has a liberal political nationalist issue, which he is willing to compromise for British Tory Liberaldom. Aubrey is in bad financial straights and really needs prizes, but despite wanting to be in a ship of the line, is coerced into taking out a frigate with Stephen to FUCK SHIT UP and bring back prizes. Stephen's mission fails, horrifically, and he is forced to drink bird shit. Stephen falls off a boat (?deliberately?). Naval stuff happens. Aubrey gets LOTS OF PRIZES and respect. Maybe next time he will command a 2nd rate? NO! Because he is broke and coerced into taking out a frigate.
>>25587297Mermaid pussy
>>25587330Damn....cuckold shit? Are there blacks involved?
>>25587330This happened to me last week. I gave up a few pages after the guy fell off his horse, I read the writing on the wall. Fucksake gonna have to skip or book or two
>>25587330Second book O'Brian tries (and fails) to ape Jane Austen. It gets better after that one, and dramatically so.
>>25584259The Nutmeg of Consolation is what I call wanking
>>25584259They should be read in order. Barring arguably the first two books, the entire thing is one extremely long novel. Some of the individual books don't even have a beginning or ending in a conventional sense.
>>25589431So basically I got to suffer through 2 books of cuckoldry to get to the good stuff?
>>25591554No, the first book is fine, all the cucking in it is done by the protgonists to some loser you hate. Only book 2 is a bomb of sorts.
>>25589431>>25591606There's something interesting and worthwhile about his Austen inspired parts though, even if they aren't as good as she is or as fun as some of his pure nautical adventure books. The social jockeying, society struggles, matters of the heart etc being placed alongside people being bisected by canon balls adds perspective.>>25591606Stephen has a long and tumultously shifting relationship with an unconventional woman, but he is an ugly eccentric science weirdo with strange values, and half the fun of their relationship is watching their shenanigans in contrast to Jack and Sophie, who are ultra normies.
>>25592310>Stephen has a long and tumultously shifting relationship with an unconventional woman, but he is an ugly eccentric science weirdo with strange valuesI'm well aware. At least 90% of the problem for me is I love Stephen, he's like a personal friend and seeing him clamped to that awful hoe makes me rage like it was one of my IRL bros.(Maybe you replied to the wrong person here though, on second glance?)
>>25592766Oh yeah kinda, I guess I'm trying to say that if Stephen didn't admire Diana for the lunatic she is, he wouldn't be Stephen.
>>25587292>Post Captain is lameLiterally the best book in the series.>Stephen's heroin addictionOK, so you haven't read the books.
>>25588830>Damn....cuckold shit? Are there blacks involved?Stephen's son is black.>>25589431>Second book O'Brian tries (and fails) to ape Jane Austen.Historically Aubrey's model was more of a Brontë man. Also he rapes his inspiration, Austen.>>25591606>all the cucking in it is done by the protgonists to some loser you hate.Everyone hates Stephen for being Irish or being Catalan or being a non-revolutionary Liberal.>>25592310>but he is an ugly eccentric science weirdo with strange valuesHe is heterosexual William S Burroughs and expects the Demiurge to enter social reality through his heroin addiction while being a spy for Navy Intelligence (pro-Liberal, anti-Napoleon) hiding beneath his Loyalist Irish Revolutionary position. My suggestion for Stephen is to read *how* he falls off of ships closely, and work out when he starts *deliberately* falling off ships for cover.
>>25592991>OK, so you haven't read the books.Stephen is habitually addicted to Laudinum / Opium and cleans up a number of times, usually cold-turkey. Part of his charm is that he is horribly self-destructive, which turns him into Napoleonic naval frigate David Bowie. You do realise how problematic David Bowie was.>Post Captain isn't lamePost Captain was lame as fuck. Every book after this has an excuse for why Aubrey is messing around in low rated ships. Aubrey is only challenged when he isn't in a Frigate or Super-Frigate raiding in rich waters: Post Captain is Aubrey Easy Modo. The Best Book is [Clean]Stephen in India going back to opiates after You know what happens.
>>25584259I read them all in one summer and it was too much fun.
>>25594043>and it was too much fun.Did your penis fall off?
>>25584259You could theoretically read them out of order but you would probably miss out on a lot of the through lines of the overarching story. I would highly recommend that you read them in order. The books tell one long, sprawling story that has a clear beginning, middle, and end. Characters are developed when they are introduced and then described less and less thoroughly as they will have become more familiar to the reader. Meaning you will miss out on much of the humor by reading the books out of order as much of the humor is profoundly character-driven. Events that take place throughout the story have a profound effect on the characters afterwards and references to past events are rife with only the most terse explanation given.>I've never read nautical literature.The most important advice I can give is to not be put-off by the rampant use of nautical jargon, especially in the early books. You probably don't need to know the difference between a foresail and a forestay as long as you understand that all the sailors know what the words mean and a landlubber doesn't have a clue about any of it. This will become a source of great humor as the story progresses, so don't feel the need to crack open a nautical dictionary every time you see an unknown word, it's really okay to just plow through. If you DO need to know what a term means, it will be explained to you. If a term isn't explained, then you can be quite safe in your ignorance.Eventually you'll pick up a great deal of the language but you'll never learn it all and again, much of it is simply used to emphasize how foreign and alien and thoroughly mystifying the nautical world can be to someone who has no training or background in it from early childhood. The gulf of understanding is so vast that someone who has lived at sea for most of their life can be at great pains to account for everything that a landlubber is ignorant of. A seemingly simple question sometimes requires a long series of intensely detailed lectures to really answer and any explanation at all is sure to leave the listener with far more questions than answers. Also, the audiobook versions read by Patrick Tull, Ric Jerrom, and Simon Vance are all extremely excellent and really add a dimension to the story and characters that can be sorely lacking otherwise. You should not think of these books as "nautical literature." They are literature full-stop, and it just so happens that they mostly reside in nautical settings.
>>25595823>They are genre full-slopFixed your typos
>>25595825I've never read anything else, including Hornblower, that could be said to reside in the same genre as the Aubrey Maturin novels, so if you know of any other books like them, please list them so I can add them to my collection.
>>25595833Flashman is wittier genreslop than Aubrey/Maturin, and straighter. Flashman is also directly Pomo, rather than requiring you investigate Napoleonic naval to discover that you've been lied to by an Englishman who has never sat in a boat.Sharpe is more social-realist than Aubrey/Maturin, and I say that knowing that ranks being turned into Napoleonic space SAS is silly.Gulag Archipelago is a better fantasy with better sex scenes, even if less historically accurate.
>>25595840I've read Sharpe and I love them dearly, but THEY are slop. Putting them in the same category as Aubrey/Maturin is asinine. They're Goosebumps books for grown-ups. I thought I'd read Gulag Archipelago too, but I don't recall any fantasy and I recall even less of "sex scenes."Are you by any chance a fucking idiot? The same one that's been shitting up this whole thread?
>>25595847So you can see that Sharpe's slop, but you can't see Aubrey/Maturin is slop even though you've read Austen.If Archipelago isn't fantasy, then it would have to be history, and it sure as shit ain't history. I think you've just activated by tu quoque card mate.
>>25595850>Austen>not slopPride and Prejudice is the ur-Harlequin Romance, nothing could be sloppier.
>>25596376Pride and Prejudice literally tears the main character and the reader apart for being vacuous cunts and thrusts an enormous phallus of women's inferiority and the need to adjust to the absence of the phallus.Harlequin mirrors this but with mere cocks.
>>25593563he should have just pick Oakes over She-Bitch
>>25595850yeap, he is a fucking idiot
