Hornblower and the "Atropos"

By: C. S. Forester

Narrated by: Nicolas Coster

Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

"I find Hornblower admirable, vastly entertaining" - Winston Churchill

In the wake of a humbling incident aboard a canal boat in the Cotswolds, young Captain Horatio Hornblower arrives in London to take command of the Atropos, a 22-gun sloop barely large enough to require a captain. Her first assignment under Hornblower's command is as flagship for the funeral procession of Lord Nelson.

Soon Atropos is part of the Mediterranean Fleet's harassment of Napoleon, recovering treasure that lies deep in Turkish waters and boldly challenging a Spanish frigate several times her size. At the center of each adventure is Hornblower, Forester's most inspired creation, whose blend of cautious preparation and spirited execution dazzles friend and foe alike.

Public Domain (P)2009 Phoenix Audio

Critic reviews

"A rousing tale of history, character, and adventure...For once Hornblower is the mouse Instead of the cat, but he makes that role fully as dramatic as the other." ( Chicago Tribune)

Great but Slow

The story is excellent, like most Hornblower books, but the speaker is so slow. Listening to it is like watching someone trying to pour molasses in January.

Must increase the speed!

Setting the replay speed to 1.2x makes this narration INFINITELY better. I almost wonder if there was an error in the original recording!

Another great book!

Forester has so many adventures awaiting the clever Captain. Don't miss the excitement and daring.
It says I can't post this until I'm finished writing my review. So there it's done.

The canal, the funeral and the treasure~

Would you listen to Hornblower and the "Atropos" again? Why?

Yes...because it's part of the series. This is a rather disjointed effort; three short stories rolled into a novel. Each part is quite interesting, but the transitions are lacking.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

While the canal in the Cotswolds is an interesting part, I think the book would be stronger without it. If the story had started with Hornblower organising the funeral the story line would have been stronger. He could have then gone to sea to salvage the shipwreck in Turkey. The story line and development of that segment was well done.

Which character – as performed by Nicolas Coster – was your favorite?

None of them stands out. Nicolas Coster has a metre that hardly changes and it's not speedy by any stretch. If you want to relax your way through a rolling broadside, this is your narrator.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The same as my headline I suppose..."The canal, the funeral and the treasure~"

Any additional comments?

It is so difficult when a series makes a change in narrators. Patrick O'Brien's Master and Commander series is awesome. That series changes narrators and survives my scrutiny, as does the Amelia Peobody Series by Elizabeth Peters. Susan O'Mally and Barbara Rosenblat are both excellent narrators.

Don't let this be your only Hornblower

This is the only recording that does not have Christian Rodska narrating. Mr Coster is so completely different in narration that I would almost suggest skipping it and just borrowing the book from the library. I choose to weather his reading but be warned it is lethargic.

I liked the narrator

It just goes to show ya. There's no accounting for taste.

Many reviewers here have criticized the narrator for this book in the series, but I very much enjoyed his reading.

I thought the story itself was a bit disjointed, with no real plot running from beginning to end. This may be a realistic representation of wartime events for this single ship, but usually ships are assigned to a fleet and its actions support a planned campaign against the enemy.

Hornblower’s ship in this story is separated from a fleet and assigned various other tasks. This book is the story of those tasks and reads a bit like a series of short stories or novellas. I didn’t care for the lack of continuity in the story line.

In spite of that, I am enjoying this series and will continue with the next one.

Derring-do,

Would you listen to Hornblower and the "Atropos" again? Why?

No, I won't listen again. Not for a long time. And why not, because there are more where that came from.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Hornblower and the "Atropos"?

Hornblower threatening the life of the annoying doctor if he doesn't save the annoying salvage guy.

If you could take any character from Hornblower and the "Atropos" out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Probably the annoying salvage guy. I have a weak spot for experts with stories to tell, annoying or not.

Still Amazingly Good

There have been a lot of worthy followers to C S Forester in telling the story of the British Navy at the time or Trafalgar and the Napoleonic wars but he is still wonderful

In particular the detailed understanding of how new technologies (like canal barges) and complex naval maneuvers (like Nelson's funeral barge procession) actually worked s still as good as Captain and Commander's look at finding strange animals in the South Seas. In this case writing and performance are well matched.

Loved it.

Fine story and the slow narration is easily remedied!

This story is just as good as the rest of the Hornblower novels to this stage! I too think Christian Rodska’s narrations are fantastic but was not at all unhappy with Nicolas Coster. Admittedly the original narration speed is too slow but this is easily fixable be moving up the speed . I moved it to 1.1 and it was fine with no discernible distortion!

Connecting the dots

Fine if you like C. S. Forester, but in some respects filling in a “space” in his biography as much as telling a unified story.

The narrator is not quite on a par with others who have read these yarns.