Those being my first experience reading naval fiction and was hooked.I’m sure if I hadn’t of read those first I would have loved this. I had just finished all 21 Aubrey/Maturin books. Unlike the well-known collection by another author, the Hornblower books never drag into chattiness and detail for detail’s sake.They “woosh” you along like a brisk sea-breeze of entertainment.Īudiobook The Hidden Shore by C. The reader is therefore charmed into almost thinking that he or she can do what Hornblower does. I say this as a naval scholar of 18th century warfare myself (PhD, Military and Naval History, Duke U: My dissertation is on “The Suffren Expedition: French Operations in India during the War of American Independence, 1781-83.”) Forester’s hero, Horatio Hornblower, is an engaging character with foibles and weaknesses that make his courage and brilliance seem believable. Not only is he a yarn-spinner without peer, his knowledge of 18th century naval warfare and seamanship is unsurpassed. Forester’s Hornblower series is by far the finest collection of sea-stories of the age of sail in the English language. The Hidden Shore audiobook in series Horatio Hornblower (chronological order)Ĭ.S. Midshipman” is the only one displaying this kind of slipshod mishandling. As of this writing, I have read the first four in the series on Kindle, and “Mr. It was transcribed from a scanned copy of the book and translated by software, instead of being typed out and proofread by someone intent on giving the story and its readers their due. I own many books on Kindle, and prefer Kindle to printed books, despite being on the cusp of elderly. That said, I cannot recommend this Kindle version. It is almost certainly the very best one that begins with its hero throwing up.

This is among the very best adventure series ever written. Remember that person as someone who thinks very well of you. I am reading the Hornblower series for perhaps the sixth time in the past twenty years, but it is my first reading of it in the Kindle version.Ĭonsidering the age of the series, I should think new readers will most likely have been referred to C.S.

Mr midshipman hornblower audiobook