The Patrick O'Brian novels on which the new Russell Crowe movie is based were rollicking, lively tales of British naval officer Jack Aubrey and his friend, surgeon Stephen Maturin. Filled with the violence of the Napoleonic era, well-written and captivating, this series of novels was one of my favorite reads in my late teens and early twenties. Master and Commander was the first of them, introducing the characters that would dominate the series.

In the same vein as C.S. Forester's Hornblower stories, Alexander Kent's (a nom de plume of Douglas Reeman) tales of Richard Bolitho, and Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe, if this is done as well as the commercials indicate it should be a rip-roaring good time, with room for infinite sequels.

I loved the A&E Hornblower series and PBS' Sharpe's, and have always wished someone would make a series of Bolitho films (they were my favorite series of the four.) I'll happily live with Master and Commander for the time being, however. This is one of the few movies I've eagerly anticipated in a long, long time.

The first book (chronologically in the life of the character, not necessarily the first written) in each of the four series mentioned is linked below.