Quote:
Originally Posted by Little.Egret
This is one of the cases where a start reading the first published is not recommended.
Different tone and less well done.
(Same for Patrick O'Brian - don't start with Master and Commander).
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It will not do.
Master and Commander is delightful and it would be a shame not to start at the start. Much groundwork is laid. That the books get better is a bonus.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
That was one of the major issues with picking up older series back before ebooks. There are a lot of series that I've read out of order because of that. I think that I picked up the Sharpe series in book 3. The Hornblower series was similar.
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Another issue with both Sharpe and Hornblower is that they were written out of chronological order. It's a problem without a perfect solution in both cases, especially Sharpe, IMO. Read them in chronological order and the back story changes and the action is constrained by what will already have happened in the future, but read them in published order and you miss the grand sweep of the Peninsular war. The books get better, also, in the flip side of the issue as above. It's rather a let-down in the middle of the series chronologically when you get to the dud early books.
The O'Brian books eventually get worse, also, but it's worse in a different sense. They're as well-written, but the whole story arc was getting tired as is inevitable in any very long series (which doesn't mean they're not well worth reading).