On 1:58 PM Casey Rousseau wrote: > I was, perhaps, a bit sloppy in my comparisons. I thoroughly enjoyed > the entire Hornblower saga, but they are light, romantic, and have a > tendency toward the episodic. > > In contrast, my recollection of O'Brian is of a much richer and > detailed world populated by real human beings with real joys, sorrows, > victories and failings. > > I admit, I was also leaning fairly heavily on the knowledge that Steve > has several times listed O'Brian as one of his favorite authors Steve seems to have a lot of favorites. He seems to like a good story - but moreso, he also appears to have an ear for language. In the SF arena, an author whose work I don't much care for has a series that seems O'Brian-like that I love. David Drake's RCN series of books is quite enjoyable: WITH THE LIGHTNINGS /RCN Series/ (Baen/1998) LT LEARY, COMMANDING /RCN Series/ (Baen/2000) THE FAR SIDE OF THE STARS /RCN Series/ (Baen/2003) THE WAY TO GLORY /RCN Series /(Baen/2005) & not yet available: SOME GOLDEN HARBOR /RCN Series /(Baen/2006) He doesn't go into the same detail for his spaceships that we enjoy with sailing ships that we expect to be accurate.