Customer Reviews

Does justice to the book - By: TONY, 14 Jan 2004
Firstly, for those new to O'Brian's oeuvre, regardless of the title this is not the audio book of the film. 'Master & Commander' is the firstin the series of Aubrey/Maturin novels, charting the first meeting between the two men & their adventuresin the Mediterranean aboard the brig 'Sophie'.

After reading the entire Aubrey/Maturin series, I came to this, my first encounter with an audio version, with trepidation. Would it spoil my 'inner vision' of the remarkable naval world created by O'Brian?

However my fears were unfounded. Robert Hardy conveys the multi-faceted pleasures of O'Brian's writing with real enthusiasm, & his excellent vocal characterisations endow the Sophie's Captain & crew with an extra dimension (his Maturin is much better than my imagined one). I found myself enjoying the story almost as though I were experiencing it for the first time.

At 4.5 hours this is a long audio book, good value even if you have already read the book & a superb introduction to the series for anyone venturing aboard for the first time.