{"id":683,"date":"2009-09-12T21:34:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-12T21:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog-test\/?p=683"},"modified":"2024-01-21T18:54:46","modified_gmt":"2024-01-21T23:54:46","slug":"obrian_20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/2009\/09\/obrian_20\/","title":{"rendered":"O’Brian, Patrick: (20) Blue at the Mizzen<\/cite> (audio)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have now read all of the novels in Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series with the twentieth, Blue at the Mizzen<\/cite><\/strong>. It’s better than the previous book, and doesn’t suck as either a book or an ending, but I’m not particularly crazy about it.<\/p>\n

It’s hard not to see this book as the series in minature: there’s an odd reprise of the rushed ending of the last book, a long journey by sea, some politicking and battling, and some personal relationship stuff. But it feels a bit subdued to me: the political stuff is less vivid and clear than usual, and despite the importance of events to Jack’s life the book is very heavily focused on Stephen. Which includes consequences of the thing that happened in the last book that I hated, la la la I can’t hear you. (But if I could, I’d say that I also dislike them on their own merits.)<\/p>\n

Finally, though I like the ending, it is extremely abrupt and convenient.<\/p>\n

I’ll read or listen to the unfinished book at some point, but I’m not in any hurry.<\/p>\n

A spoiler post follows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have now read all of the novels in Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series with the twentieth, Blue at the Mizzen. It’s better than the previous book, and doesn’t suck as either a book or an ending, but I’m not particularly crazy about it. It’s hard not to see this book as the series in minature: … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “O’Brian, Patrick: (20) Blue at the Mizzen<\/cite> (audio)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,4,118],"tags":[336],"class_list":["post-683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aubrey-maturin","category-historical","category-single-narrator-audio","tag-obrian-patrick"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2539,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683\/revisions\/2539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}