Booklog 56/2023: C.S. Forester: Lieutenant Hornblower - Hornblower #2

[jacey]

I read a lot of Hornblower books as a teen, but that's a long time ago and the details have blurred. This is the second Hornblower book, chronologically, following on from Midshipman Hornblower which I recently revisited via the TV series. Forester starts off with a bang, right into the high-tension meat of the story with a paranoid Captain Sawyer rapidly sliding into madness and all the officers - including a very junior Lieutenant Hornblower - trying to follow naval regulations on a ship where the captain's word is, quite literally, law.  To remove the captain from his post would be mutiny and a hanging offence, but eventually the lieutenants meet in secret to discuss the matter, only to be discovered and in the confusion as they scatter, the captain falls down a hatch on to his head and is disabled, but not dead. Did he fall or was he pushed? The rest of the story is sailing, sea battles, pirates, hand-to-hand fighting and Hornblower's first independent command, plus his most difficult dilemma, his landlady's daughter Maria. It's all written from the viewpoint of Mr Bush, the Lieutenant immediately senior to Hornblower, which works well in this case because of the did he fall or was he pushed question. This is #2 chronologically, but is #7 to be written out of an 11 book series. It's read by Christian Rodska, who does an excellent job with both the voices and the action sequences.

 

 

 

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Comments

[cmcmck]

Forester is always fun!

[jacey]

He keeps everything rolling along. Timing is everything.