Hornblower and the Crisis

I am about to begin the 4th of C. S. Forester's 11 Horatio Hornblower novels! :D

I just finished Hornblower and the Crisis, a novel left unfinished due to Mr. Forester's 1966 passing.

Though I'm all about reading novel series in chronological order, this really serves as a proper close for the series as the unfinished novel is accompanied by 2 short stories, the last -- "The Last Encounter" -- providing a wonderfully charming close to Hornblower's long and eventful career!

Still, even knowing how it all "ends", I'm excited to get back to Captain Hornblower's adventures!

As I left, he was still Commander Hornblower, waiting for retiring Admiral Cornwallis's promotion to be posted, finally making Hornblower a proper captain. Now, I know he's going to be posted captain because (as I understand it) most of his adventures are as a captain. I also know he goes on to become a commodore and retires as an admiral (living at least to the age of 72)!

Still...

It's like watching the Harry Potter flicks... I've read all the books. (More than once, lol.) I know what's going to happen. But in the "parallel reality" of the movies, Voldemort isn't defeated (in the movies) until he is, lol.

Yes, I'm well aware how big a nerd I am, thank you very much. ;P

HEY! YOU WANNA READ THE RAVINGS OF A CRAZY PERSON?!

This comic strip rules the world! Scroll down to the Voldemort strips! You'll laugh your ass off!

I also recommend his ravings about how to create a comic strip! You don't have to have any intention of writing/drawing a comic strip to enjoy the madness of his genius! (Or is it the genius of his madness? So hard to tell, lol.)

Okay, back to work for me.

OOH! I begin this weekend with no responsibilities to look forward to!!! :D It appears (as of this writing at 2:28am on Monday, July 20, 2009 and subject to change in a moment's notice, lol) that I don't have ANYTHING that I have to do!!! I have a few DVDs from Netflix that need watching, I've got the entire Plante of the Apes series that also requires watching, and then, like, 7 more Hornblower novels to be read, as well as Tiffany Johnson's latest book.

So I have plenty to do... I just don't have anything I have to do! :D

YAY!

Okay, stop reading and go do something fun. Now.

;P

UPDATE: Just getting into Chapter 4 of Hornblower and the Atrapos to discover 2 astonishing things:

(1) Horatio Hornblower outlived Admiral Horatio Nelson, namesake and (I'm pretty sure) inspiration for the character! AND...

(2) Hornblower's "mission" is to organize Admiral Nelson's funeral!!!

This is astonishing, lol! What a surprise! I swear, C. S. Forester RULES!!! What a clever, clever author!!! I mean, the mind that wrote African Queen -- both the novel and the screenplay -- is obviously a keen one, but OMG! What an amazing "adventure" for our hero to undertake, lol!

I mean, just from a Character standpoint alone, to this point Hornblower is a man of action, not a gentleman from affluence, and he seems to always be perplexed by the affectations of gentility. He would rather face a mortar shell shell at his feet with an eighth of an inch of burning fuse about to blow him, his crew and his ship into molecules than attempt to hold conversation with some high-born snob.

So to place this budding young captain -- his entire career in front of him... if he doesn't botch this assignment -- in charge of what must have been one of the largest ceremonies in history (I may be exaggerating a bit due to my very limited knowledge of Admiral Nelson) is sheer insanity! It's like having the Hulk perform neuro-surgery! :P

Plus, what a clever bit of fictitious history... Hornblower was born on the day that the United States adopted our constitution, and now his first act as a post captain is to organize and stage the monumental funeral of one of Britain's legendary heroes! (So legendary, in fact, that he inspired the character, lol.)

THIS is what I call A PARTY! :D

...you know...

...literarily speaking, lol. ;)