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Sep 10, 2011zipread rated this title 0.5 out of 5 stars
I’m a great fan of things historical. Bernard Cornwell has hooked me on the Napoleonic Wars through his series of Sharoe novels. Some of the books I’ve come across about Nelson and Trafalgar, the "real history" have also been enlightening. But now I’ve come up against Patrick O’Brian. I attacked his book with anticipation: another series of books to feed my appetite for this period of history. Patrick O”Brian has a lot of books to his credit: Clearly he has attracted the attention of a lot of readers. So let me speak for the minority position. I have lteraly forced myself to read The Ionian Mission. So what’s the problem? O’Brian purports to use the language and the sentence structure prevalent in correspondence and other writing of his time. His sentences are long. Long enough to require re-reading. But then maybe my attention-span isn’t long enough to take me from beginning to the end of his sentences. And then there’s the plot. It moves along about as quickly as a sailing ship becalmed in the doldrums. You get more action watching paint dry. I’ve given it an honest effort: read almost half of it. I really would like to enjoy this book. But all I get for my troubles are heavy eye-lids before I start making more zzds. Back to the library for, O’Brian.