Maybe he did, but I seem to remember him also saying, “a bird in the hand is worth any amount of beating around the bush.”
I’ll echo the recommendation of Desolation Island. I found it the most intense out of the Aubrey & Maturin novels that I read.
Do you know what book this is from? I vaguely recognize the quote but I don’t think Stephen would say this to an Admiral (he rarely shares his mind with Admirals (the vast majority of whom he distrusts)). To Sir Joseph Blaine on the other hand…
On the flip side I remember an early observation of Jack’s about Stephen.
“Sometimes I think he should never be let ashore without direct supervision [or words to that effect] and sometimes I think him fit to command a fleet.”
I’ve read about a dozen of them. I would have stopped after the first couple, but so many people said they were so good, that I kept at it. They just don’t grab me.
I like the genre fine. I love the Bolitho books, and the Alan Lewrie books, and the Hornblower books. I even like Honor Harrington better than Aubrey.
I couldn’t get into them either. I tried the first of the series and it seemed to me that O’Brian was far too interested in showing off his knowledge.
I do not recall the title, but it is when Stephen is being sent on one of his spoiler things and is able to select the Captain to take him. It may be Blaine.
I tried to listen to some of the books on CD during some road trips, and gave up because the guy who read for Capt. Aubrey sounded like a reject from Monty Python’s Upper Class Twit of the Year sketch. Yes, an 18th century British sea captain likely sounded like that (maybe), but for modern audiences it just came across as jarring and even a smidgen unintentionally humorous. If, conversely, Russell Crowe had read for the part instead I would have been as happy as a clam.
Who was the reader? I prefer Patrick Tull (and supposedly he was O’Brian’s favorite), but his recordings are hard to find. Simon Vance is popular and his recordings are available at my library, but I don’t like his voices for Jack and Stephen as well. I really dislike his voices for most of the women, particularly Diana. I got used to it after a while, though, and other than the voices his narration is great.
Well, yes, of course; POB explicitly says that Jack’s action with the Sophie against the Cacafuego is modelled on Cochrane and the Speedy. As were Aubrey’s later legal troubles - the Dundonald family (Cochrane’s descendents) still insists he was framed for rigging the stock market.
OK, guys, I put a hold on O’Brian’s “Desolation Island” at our library. Giving him one more chance!
However, to cover all bases, I also ordered two books by Alexander Kent, in the Bolitho series, from the library. If this leads me into a new series of naval books, this whole thread will have been definitely worth it.
There are quite a few recurring characters in Bolitho, as well as old comrades or enemies who turn up several books later, so I suggest reading them in chronological order (which you can get from the wiki article), starting with the Midshipman books.
That said, “Band of Brothers” is an anomaly that you might want to skip. It’s a very late addition that takes place very early in the Bolitho chronology, and when I read it, I immediately looked for Kent’s obituary, because it seemed obvious to me that his very untalented heirs had cobbled it together from fragmentary notes they found in his desk.
Dewey Lambdin wrote a RN series beginning with The King’s Coat.
I had high hopes of a Naval Flashman, but in two or three novels Alan Lewrie changed from a womanizing, drunken sneak into a Bolitho/Hornblower like Royal Naval officer.
I was sorely disappointed.
Holy cow, look at allthese guys!
My favorite Aubrey scene is the escape from Boston, in, I believe, The Fortune of War.
I’ve flown over Boston Harbour, where an English frigate finally beat the shit out of one of the oversized “Big Americans”.
I’m with the OP. I’ve tried several times to get into the series; but I’ve never made it more than about a third of the way. I tried Master and Commander more than once. Nutmeg of Consolation a couple of times. One or two others, the titles I don’t remember.
Boring. That was my repeated reaction. Too boring to bother turning a page.
This really surprised me, because they have such a good reputation and so many people whose judgment I respect (including people on this board) spoke so highly of them.
Plus, I like the period. I’ve read most of Austen, more than once. I’ve re-read Hornblower from start to finish so many times that I’ve lost track. I’ve read all of the Ramage novels, and occasionally dip into Bolitho. I read Dickens and Thackeray.
Bu Aubrey and Maturin? A bore.
I find it very odd that such a well-respected series should trigger such different reactions, from people like the OP and me on one hand, to others at the opposite extreme.
It is a puzzler, NP. I find them so gripping they are like crack. I am only about halfway through the series because I hesitate to let myself lay hands on the next instalment. When I do I become so utterly engrossed it hurts my working and family life.
Princhester and Northern Piper are right - it is mystery why some folks love an author and some don’t. There’s no right or wrong when it comes to taste, obviously.
I suspect it has to do with your expectations: if you simply happen upon a book, you read it a bit differently than if it is praised to the skies to you. Friends of mine, with similar tastes in literature, have recommended Watchmen to me, called it a fantastic deconstruction of comic book hero tales. I’ve tried to read it twice, and simply could not get through it. De gustibus non …
I like the “old fashioned” way he writes. Mrs. Plant v.3.0 hates that sort of thing.
As one of our late posters wrote some time ago, “That’s why they make so many flavors of ice cream”. 
I don’t think this necessarily has much to do with it. I can love or be totally indifferent to things that are recommended to me.
I wonder if it is because O’Brien spends such a lot of energy noodling about getting the historical setting just right, adding various curlicues and idiosyncracies to his characters, and generally building the world?
Some people love that sort of thing, others just want to get on with the story.
No doubt. But you’re still approaching them in a slightly different way than if you just happened to pick them up in a bookstore, are you not? There’s a difference in your expectations between “Oh, So-and-so told me this is really good!” and “Hmm. Looks interesting. Lemme give it a try.”
Isaac Asimov wrote an essay on writing fiction entitled “The Mosaic and the Plate Glass.” He says essentially the same thing: you can put together a detailed mosaic of the setting, or you can go straight through to the story. I love both Hornblower and Aubrey/Maturin, but the approaches are different.