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Hornblower: Beat to Quarters
Paperback
Published September 30, 1985
5 people want to read
About the author
C.S. Forester
236 books981 followersCecil Scott Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith, an English novelist who rose to fame with tales of adventure and military crusades. His most notable works were the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series, about naval warfare during the Napoleonic era, and The African Queen (1935; filmed in 1951 by John Huston). His novels A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours were jointly awarded the 1938 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 11, 2025
Three stars.
The tale was fine, and a rollicking one. It's just that . . .
The book read somewhat like a comic, in that in one chapter a problem was introduced, and in the next chapter it was resolved. Sometimes both the conflict and the resolution occurred in the same chapter!
Chapter 1 -- Running out of food and water. Make perfect landfall on a 5000-mile journey!
Chapter 2 -- Worry about meeting the onshore contact, then meet him -- he's a tyrant!
Chapter 3 -- Charged with finding the Spanish two-decker, make a plan for when you fight him.
Chapter 4 -- Carry out the plan! We take the Spanish two-decker!
It's all just so linear and abrupt, it leaves the reader a little unsatisfied.
The tale's point-of-view is third person, as experienced/narrated by Captain Hornblower (the protagonist). This requires him to be everywhere at all times, experiencing whatever the plot requires. Meeting tyrants, meeting her ladyship, dealing with henchmen, dealing with bureaucracies, fighting all the battles, dealing with every aspect of the aftermath . . . After a while it just gets somewhat tiresome, to the point where you wish a cannonball would knock Hornblower out for a chapter or two (or three) and let someone ELSE narrate the story.
Finally, there's what I refer to as the "popcorn-effect." Everyone around Hornblower is an NPC, so the story treats them like they're popcorn! When the battle against the Spanish two-decker occurs and is resolved, 38 are dead, 4 are missing, and 75 are wounded (one third of the ship's entire company!). Many of the wounded will die of their wounds, their surgeries, and their infections. Pop! Pop! Pop! The fact that so many mostly nameless entities are now dead really emphasizes how ironclad Hornblower's plot-armor is. Impressive!
I think Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series is a superior read.
This one was just . . . fine.
Three stars.
The tale was fine, and a rollicking one. It's just that . . .
The book read somewhat like a comic, in that in one chapter a problem was introduced, and in the next chapter it was resolved. Sometimes both the conflict and the resolution occurred in the same chapter!
Chapter 1 -- Running out of food and water. Make perfect landfall on a 5000-mile journey!
Chapter 2 -- Worry about meeting the onshore contact, then meet him -- he's a tyrant!
Chapter 3 -- Charged with finding the Spanish two-decker, make a plan for when you fight him.
Chapter 4 -- Carry out the plan! We take the Spanish two-decker!
It's all just so linear and abrupt, it leaves the reader a little unsatisfied.
The tale's point-of-view is third person, as experienced/narrated by Captain Hornblower (the protagonist). This requires him to be everywhere at all times, experiencing whatever the plot requires. Meeting tyrants, meeting her ladyship, dealing with henchmen, dealing with bureaucracies, fighting all the battles, dealing with every aspect of the aftermath . . . After a while it just gets somewhat tiresome, to the point where you wish a cannonball would knock Hornblower out for a chapter or two (or three) and let someone ELSE narrate the story.
Finally, there's what I refer to as the "popcorn-effect." Everyone around Hornblower is an NPC, so the story treats them like they're popcorn! When the battle against the Spanish two-decker occurs and is resolved, 38 are dead, 4 are missing, and 75 are wounded (one third of the ship's entire company!). Many of the wounded will die of their wounds, their surgeries, and their infections. Pop! Pop! Pop! The fact that so many mostly nameless entities are now dead really emphasizes how ironclad Hornblower's plot-armor is. Impressive!
I think Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series is a superior read.
This one was just . . . fine.
Three stars.
Displaying 1 of 1 review