I’m actually starting at H.M.S Surprise; I’ve been told the first two are kind of slower, so to start at number 3, get into it, then treat the first two as “prequels.”
Or would you consider them required reading?
While the sentiment does track with my heads-up above, I definitely don’t recommend skipping the first two. For one, skipping any of O’Brian’s writing is a disservice to yourself lol; for another Master and Commander isn’t slow by any means – if anything Post Captain lumbers only in comparison to M&C.
Lastly the series is so rich with callbacks to earlier events, and Post Captain covers so much developmental ground for the characters, that it’s almost required reading for the following books to have all of their soul. Part of why Jack and Stephen are so thoroughly drawn is that their decisions at sea are fully informed by their lived experiences everywhere, no less on land than on board a ship. PC gets (fairly) compared to Jane Austen, which is stratospherically high praise in my book, but the fact that so much of it takes place among human actions rather than naval ones doesn’t diminish its punch to its subjects. Jack is truly dogged by politics and financial naivete throughout the series, and we’re primed for all that in Post Captain.
It’s one of my favorites of the series; it’s just that the mismatched pace of the first two books makes it noticeable that HMS Suprise starts at a canter that doesn’t ever stop again.
I’m actually starting at H.M.S Surprise; I’ve been told the first two are kind of slower, so to start at number 3, get into it, then treat the first two as “prequels.” Or would you consider them required reading?
While the sentiment does track with my heads-up above, I definitely don’t recommend skipping the first two. For one, skipping any of O’Brian’s writing is a disservice to yourself lol; for another Master and Commander isn’t slow by any means – if anything Post Captain lumbers only in comparison to M&C.
Lastly the series is so rich with callbacks to earlier events, and Post Captain covers so much developmental ground for the characters, that it’s almost required reading for the following books to have all of their soul. Part of why Jack and Stephen are so thoroughly drawn is that their decisions at sea are fully informed by their lived experiences everywhere, no less on land than on board a ship. PC gets (fairly) compared to Jane Austen, which is stratospherically high praise in my book, but the fact that so much of it takes place among human actions rather than naval ones doesn’t diminish its punch to its subjects. Jack is truly dogged by politics and financial naivete throughout the series, and we’re primed for all that in Post Captain.
It’s one of my favorites of the series; it’s just that the mismatched pace of the first two books makes it noticeable that HMS Suprise starts at a canter that doesn’t ever stop again.
I agree. All the key elements of the series can be found in the first two books. Definitely don’t skip them.