This was most certainly better than Forrester’s Mr. Midshipman Hornblower. The character development was more complete and the writing drew me further into the series.

I’m still somewhat disappointed that Styles hasn’t been in the series, as he was my favourite in the movies, but I’m not really surprised. Speaking of the movies, I usually find that once I’ve read the book that a movie has been based on, I don’t like the movies at all, but it’s completely different in this case. The book hasn’t changed my love for the movies at all, and I’m not disappointed in how the stories were changed for the movies. They can both survive completely seperately.

I enjoyed how the story was told from someone else’s point of view too. I had expected the story to be about Horatio Hornblower, and it is, but the main character is someone completely different. It was interesting to see the way another character views Hornblower.

While I am looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the series, I think that I’m going to put them aside for the time being. From what I’ve seen so far, they’d be great for me to read during the school year, on the bus to and from school – so far each chapter could stand seperately as it’s own story. But yes, definitly coming back to this series and continuing with it later.