{"id":798,"date":"2007-07-31T05:59:40","date_gmt":"2007-07-31T12:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/?p=798"},"modified":"2016-10-06T16:57:47","modified_gmt":"2016-10-06T23:57:47","slug":"master-and-commander-audio-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/master-and-commander-audio-book-review","title":{"rendered":"Master and Commander Audio Book Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3446\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Master-and-Commander.jpg\" alt=\"Master and Commander read by Simon Vance\" width=\"400\" height=\"345\" srcset=\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Master-and-Commander.jpg 400w, http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Master-and-Commander-300x259.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/>Simon Vance does a superb job reading every character in Patrick O&#8217;Brian&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/0786186291?tag=nickslists-20&amp;link_code=as2&amp;creativeASIN=0786186291&amp;creative=374929&amp;camp=211189\"><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Master and Commander<\/span><\/a> except one: the central character Jack Aubrey.<\/p>\n<p>I just finished listening to Blackstone Audio&#8217;s unabridged version of <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Master and Commander<\/span>, and the book keeps getting better each time I experience it. I first read it about ten years ago, then a few years after that I listened to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1402526083\/nickslists-20\">Patrick Tull&#8217;s unabridged audio recording from RecordedBooks.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This time around I didn&#8217;t get so bogged down trying to understand the naval jargon, so I was able to concentrate more on the characters. If you&#8217;ve never read any of O&#8217;Brian&#8217;s books, you&#8217;re missing out on some fantastic characters and compelling stories.<\/p>\n<p>But Simon Vance just didn&#8217;t read Jack Aubrey correctly, in my opinion. Vance read him with a deep voice that sounded overweight and pompous, rather than forceful and commanding. I realize that Aubrey is a big man, and Maturin is constantly harping on him to lose weight, but Vance&#8217;s reading went a bit beyond what was necessary. I much prefer Patrick Tull&#8217;s gravelly, rough voice.<\/p>\n<p>However, Vance&#8217;s overall narration was excellent, and I would still recommend this recording to those who can&#8217;t get a hold of Patrick Tull&#8217;s superior reading. And speaking of the late Patrick Tull, I&#8217;ll end with a video of Tull reading from <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">The Reverse of the Medal<\/span>, and one of the most powerful scenes in the whole series. Warning: the video contains a strong vulgarity and gives away some of the plot, so take that into account before watching.<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Patrick Tull Reads from &quot;The Reverse of the Medal&quot; by Patric\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CFi6fhcMnYQ?feature=oembed&#038;wmode=opaque\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Simon Vance does a superb job reading every character in Patrick O&#8217;Brian&#8217;s Master and Commander except one: the central character Jack Aubrey. I just finished listening to Blackstone Audio&#8217;s unabridged version of Master and Commander, and the book keeps getting better each time I experience it. I first read it about ten years ago, then a few years after that I listened to Patrick Tull&#8217;s unabridged audio recording from RecordedBooks.com. This time around I didn&#8217;t get so bogged down trying to understand the naval jargon, so I was&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[124,165,36,123,78,166,55],"class_list":["post-798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-aubreymaturin-series","tag-audio-books","tag-book-recommendations","tag-patrick-obrian","tag-reviews","tag-simon-vance","tag-video","post_format-post-format-video"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Master-and-Commander.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pOucj-cS","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3447,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798\/revisions\/3447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}