Patrick O'Brian

[Clansman]

Horatio Hornblower was actually Gene Roddenberry's nspiration for the Captain Kirk character. I agree with some of the above posts, that Hornblower is more action-packed than O'Brian. However, O'Brian is the better read. More meat on the bones, so to speak.

Of the two (I haven't read Kent), I would have to choose O'Brian, without a doubt. He is definitely more historically accurate, in both description and dialogue. The novels also cover a rather underwritten topic, namely espionage in the Napoleonic period. Jack Aubrey is often the cover for Stephen Maturin's exploits as a spy. Also, our heroes are not perfect. Aubrey is "that Lion at sea and Ass ashore", and Maturin, though brilliant, is a laudenum addict.

Other historical topics are worked in to the narrative in brilliantly inventive ways that only add to the depth of the reading experience. For instance, in The Yellow Admiral there is a really excellent description, spread out over most of the book, of the Enclosure movement that took place in England in the first half of the nineteenth century. This is where the local landowners fenced, or enclosed, the Commons, where previously anyone was free to pasture their animals. This had a major impact on the lower classes, and O'Brian works it seemlessly into the story. This is precisely the way historical fiction should be written.

If the history ain't right, then it ain't historical fiction.

[paranoid marvin]

Well , I would choose Hornblower - such an interesting character and the way that he develops throughout the series , from a sea-sick junior to the higher echelons of the English Navy is highly enjoyable.

The Hornblower of the novels is nothing like that of the tv series though

[ushumgal]

I absolutely adore O'Brian - he's probably my favorite author (though Lois McMaster Bujold gives him a run for his money). I don't mind the proliferation of technical terms and explanations - one does not need to understand them completely, just their gist, and I find they do add much to the atmosphere.

I could never get into Kent's books; they just never grabbed me. I do quite like both C.S. Forrester and Dewey Lambdin. Lambdin isn't nearly so good a writer as O'Brian, and pays much less attention to historical detail, but his lead character *is* quite a nice bit of relief, if you've just finished reading a bit of self-indulgent Hornblower gloominess, I find.

But for humor, grace of prose, realism and simple humanity, O'Brian beats them all hands down.