A Sea of Series
It all began with Master and Commander. And that was so good that then there was Hornblower. And then, between audible and amazon there were recommendations of more and more similar series. The weirdly specific genre of dozen-book-series-about-a-protagonist-in-the-Royal-Navy-during-the-Napoleonic-Wars seems to have a surprising number of series in it. I made an excel document because I thought it would be fun to read those that I haven't read already in chronological order bouncing between them, though I had read most of most of the series already by the time I got this idea, and the Master & Commander series is the only one I think I would like to re-read.
But on any account the books are similar enough in scope that they actually make for easy analysis of what the various writers are doing well or badly.
Jack Aubrey - "Aubrey-Maturin Series" / "Master and Commander Series"
This is the gold standard of the genre. This series follows Captain Jack Aubrey, and his friend (and Naval doctor) Stephen Maturin who is so thoroughly fleshed out and a character of his own that it's often called the "Aubrey-Maturin Series." The characters are all unique and believable, the descriptions ranking with the highest of literature, the amount of nautical knowledge the author clearly possesses is unbelievably vast. A truly amazing series. Most of Aubrey's actions are actually based on the historical actions of Thomas Chochran, so it can't be said any of his victories are implausible, they basically happened as described. (And by an astounding coincidence I just realized I had last sung its praises in review _exactly_ a year ago!)
Horatio Hornblower
It's long enough since I read this series that I don't remember the details quite so well, except inasmuch as I didn't like it as much as Master & Commander. In many people's opinion though it seems to possibly rival M&C -- I think it less strives for the kind of high literary heights M&C does and tells simpler more straightforward stories. Whereas Master & Commander begins during a concert and proceeds immediately with a chapter on the outfitting of the ship, which I found to be a geniusly executed maneuver, Hornblower would probably tend to tell any story in a much more straightforward right-to-the-action manner. M&C is for if you want to be carried away by literary genius, however, if you're motto is more along the lines of "never mind tactics just lay her yardarm to yardarm" Hornbower is more straightforward swashbuckling sea adventures. Another contrast I think is that Horatio Hornblower doesn't really have a particularly memorable personality. Googling "Hornblower personality" in case I'd forgotten, it just says "courage and integrity." Those are admirable but not really the makings of a thoroughly rounded character. Jack Aubrey on the other hand is just bursting with personality, he has "courage and integrity" and so much more, including a raft of faults that come front and center almost immediately (a certain nativity towards non maritime matters, brushing people the wrong way with his exuberance, trouble caused by his romantic pursuits). I was rather wondering why Hornblower seemed to have more cultural hold until I compared the publication dates: 1937-1967 compared to Aubrey-Maturin's 1969-2004.
Ramage
The protagonist of this series is Lord Nicholas Ramage, whom we meet in the first book as a young lieutenant. He is an aristocrat from a seafaring family. His sidekick is an American seaman (his coxswain) on his crew. I read the first book of the series long enough ago that I don't really remember it, but, having caught up with it chronologically while recently reading the Bolitho series, I just read the second book in the series. The writing is clear and the adventures varied and continuous.. but every character has the personality of an exuberant 13 year old, the protagonist's creative solutions often depend on obvious counter-actions not occurring to the enemy or reader, and, for example, while spying in an enemy port random strangers he approaches on the street seem over-eager to just volunteer all kinds of useful information. He greets a fisherman and by almost the second sentence out of said fisherman's mouth he's mentioning where there are forts with guns (because they "scare the fish"), or, similarly, the enemy admiral's gardener can't wait to tell random passersby everything he knows about the admiral's schedule and habits. For these reasons I think it might be best enjoyed by a less discriminating audience, perhaps one that is itself 13.
John Pierce
The protagonist in this series actually has a background that breaks the mold (nearly) all the others are set in -- he was pressed (forcibly conscripted -- literally kidnapped at night from a pub, an actual practice) involuntarily into the royal navy. Through the course of the series he continues for one reason or another to be pressured into staying in the Royal Navy and even accepting commission as an officer. I had read the first fifteen books of the series earlier and just recently read the 16th. And upon commencing this reading of the 16th I don't know how I made it through the first 15; I'm finding the writing quite tedious: (1) The first two chapters and more are just thick thick exposition of everything that's happened in the prior 15 books, most of which turns out to be barely relevant to the current book, and involves various plots and connivances of lawyers in London, with numerous characters mentioned who don't feature in this book and having forgotten them all since I read the rest of the series it was just an overwhelming amount of thick incomprehensible blathering; (2) I don't know the literary analysis word for this but he keeps instead of saying "[dialogue]" he said the author writes "[dialogue]" was what he had said next or instead of he kicked the door in he writes kicking the door in is what he did next. This kind of thing certainly doesn't help not make it a tedious read. Also I think I can never forgive the protagonist and author for having the protagonist in one of the books enter an enemy camp under a flag of truce and then commence an attack from the inside -- having read a lot of books about the period I feel confident that everyone in the Royal Navy would thereafter consider him a despicable honorless poltroon to be never employed again in any capacity, but in the book his superiors are just like jolly ho good job. Also in for example the most recent book I read (spoiler alert) with a particularly bad crew (mentioned frequently) he captures a much bigger French frigate with no clever explanation other than they somehow just outfought them, somehow, with a smaller less trained crew just kinda won by fiat.
Bolitho
The protagonist of this series is once again the scion of an aristocratic seafaring family. In general I find the stories well enough written to be worthwhile reading, without feeling like they're written for insultingly-less-discriminating audience as some of the others. Just a few quirks though: the author seems to lack imagination: the protagonist's clever solution to attacking an enemy strongpoint is always to come ashore and approach from behind, and/or the enemy does it to them; he has a fiercely loyal immensely strong crewman sidekick, who then dies and is replaced by a carbon copy character; every admiral he encounters is absolutely falling down incompetent, and the protagonist keeps falling in love with their wives and stealing them away (but then both the admiral and then the wife sadly dies). Another annoying thing is the protagonist's personality seems to be mostly inclined to be cold and snappish to everyone else, which is fine, characters don't have to be likeable, but when the author/narrator doesn't seem to realize they've written a not-super-likeable-personality character it's a bit of a disconnect -- almost every single time another character addresses the protagonist the protagonist responds with the kind of curt snappishness you'd think people would soon learn not to address him if avoidable, and yet the author has so many asides about how much other characters like Bolitho, it starts to feel like he's severely Marie-Sue-ing (that is, tying his own ego to the protagonist). There's a really gratuitous amount of references to nearby minor characters saying how damn impressed they are with Bolitho.
Thomas Kydd
It's a been a bit of time since I read most of this series, but the one thing that really stuck with me is that the protagonist's sidekick in this one is like a cheap knockoff of the famous Maturin of Master and Commander. That is to say, a philosophical naturalist. But while Maturin is a delightful character full of quirks and authentic philosophical musings which seem perfectly natural in context, "Renzi" of the Kydd series is always spouting disjointed snippits of philosophy that DON'T feel like they fit in context and just acting snooty. It was really offputting. The protagonist, Thomas Kydd in this one is originally pressed into service like Pierce was, and also has the immensely strong coxswain sidekick trope going on.
Alexander Clay
This one frustrated me from the start by being very unclear what size vessel they were on (there's a world of difference between a sloop and a 1st rate!), where they were and what the even approximate date was (I eventually figured out they appeared to be participating in the British expedition against Ostend, May 18th 1798 by googling Ostend, which had been mentioned). The ship turned out to be a 32 gun frigate but the fact the author didn't immediately mention this shows immediately a lack of understanding of what's important (read a Patrick O'Brien book, the size of every ship by guns is always the first thing mentioned). And yet, and yet, while being unclear about things like that the author uses character dialogue to explain painfully obvious things like what latitude is and that ships of the era can primarily only fire off to the side -- I mean that might not be obvious to everyone today but he actually has one sailor asking another, while at sea chasing an enemy, like how could they possibly not know that when they're actually on such a ship. What the author does well is that there's actually several point of view characters among the crew rather than the one protagonist ... but there's a lot of tedious dialogue between them -- tedious mainly because the author doesn't seem to realize that in real life nearly everyone talks with as few words as possible to express a thought unless they're particularly pompous. Every one of the sailors is stringing unnecessarily long sentences together that don't get to the point until a dozen syllables in, by which point his mates would probably have wandered off. Also, as in the Pierce book, in the one book of this series I read they also out fight and capture a bigger French frigate with again no explanation other than > ??? > win. OTHER than characters being frequently inexplicably idiots and everyone talking pompously, it's a decent book, but author should definitely devote some time to those things. I however don't think I'll continue reading the series as between the tedious dialogue and insults-your-intelligence explanations I found it a bit tedious.
Merriman Chronicles
After the above, I was starting to think I might have to draw a line and just steer clear of the lesser-known series, assuming they're lesser known for a reason. Nonetheless when audible recommended yet another to me I couldn't resist. The Merriman Chronicles thus far focuses on Commander James Merriman (but the introduction seems to indicate the whole series will feature multiple generations) in 1792, returning home after the loss of a ship (it seems like perhaps it's meant to come after an earlier book the author never got around to writing?). Numerous of these series have a book in which the protagonist finds himself assigned to a revenue cutter off England's shores combatting smugglers (it always predictably turns out to be the wealthy and well respected local landowner who is behind the smuggling ring). When Bolitho has these adventures I seriously questioned whether I was accidentally re-reading the same book twice but no I was remembering the Kydd version. I'm currently paused in the Ramage series on a book that seems to be that again (Ramage and the Freebooters) because I'm kind of unenthusaistic to go through it all again, it's not my favorite plotline. He does of course have the obligatory common-sailor-sidekick accompanying him, who like in the other books, infiltrates the smuggler's ring. And like the other books as a test has to kill someone. I haven't gotten to the resolution yet but dollars to doughnuts says it's a wealthy respected local figure. So here I am starting a yet even more unknown series that's embarking immediately down a plotline I'm already tired of ... and actually I really like it! It's well written, without the stilted dialogue or overwrought philophizing of some of the others. And, being as I'm listening to it on audible one can never rule out the effect the voice acting has on the work, whether it be to the benefit or detriment. In this case, the voice actor (Nigel Peever) is excellent. And not only that, but the narration is backed by appropriate background noises throughout, which I have never heard done well before but here it is! I looked up the publisher wondering which major publisher was doing such a good job and the publisher is listed as "The Merriman Chronicles." It IS its own publisher?? Like is it self published and the author just somehow arranged such good audio production?? Anyway I recommend this series, I'll definitely be continuing to read it.
Edit to add, after finishing I do like it, the audible production is great. To a certain degree the plot was as expected kind of predictable to this trope plot but it was better written than some of the others. One little detail that I liked is that they had a midshipmen, always noted for being young and squeaky (they're typically aged 12-16), but while they're usually barely competent (expected for the age), this nervous and squeaky midshipmen exhibits impressive flashes of initiative on several occasions.
William Bewer Series
What, is this genre truly endless?? This one I haven't even started yet, but audible recommended to me and I note it has the same voice actor as the Merriman Chronicles which bodes well for quality. I don't see a year listed for the first book of this series but according to the blurb it begins with Lt Brewer as an aide to Admiral Governor Lord Horatio Hornblower, whose fictional biography on wikipedia informs me was made an admiral in 1823 and governor 1829-1831 so it presumably takes place then, which is a fair bit later than all the other abovementioned series.
Edit to add: in the 24 hours since I originally posted this I've discovered two MORE similar series! "Adventures of Charles Hayden," and Bliven Putnam (who at least changes it up by being in the American navy, and an "Isaac Biddlecomb" series! Even as a fan of this genre I'm amazed there's so many long series in it!
Edit edit to add: Isaac Biddlecomb
I've now started the Isaac Biddlecomb series and I'm actually pleasantly impressed with this one. So far the protagonist began as an American merchant/smuggler captain, was reluctant to support the budding American revolution, has had a series of misadventures ultimately ending up at this point pressed into a British warship, which is to say so far it hasn't fallen into any of the familiar trope plots. The writing is good, the characters well rounded, I especially like how the author doesn't make everyone's loyalties hard and fast things but really explores the contending arguments splitting people's loyalties at the time. One thing that's distractingly weird about the audiobook though is the narrator reads every line with that weird distinctive cadence that Captain Kirk is famously parodied for.
Honorable Mention: The Honorverse
The "Honorverse" series takes place 2000 years or so in the future from present, and is overtly a sci fi space homage to Horatio Hornblower -- it makes literal references to Hornblower and to the fact that the protagonist has the same initials. The protagonist, Honor Harrington,'s career doesn't follow Hornblower's exactly though so much as is as much as possible parallel to Admiral Nelson. That and she has a cat modeled off my own former cat friend Cato. Though the author isn't terribly great at writing unique characters, they all are either resourceful, friendly, plucky protagonists or dastardly, cowardly, scheming bad guys, but other than that I really like the universe (figuratively and literally) the author has created. I do recommend to anyone who has both enjoyed books of the above maritime genre and also enjoys science fiction.
And now, the spreadsheet! As you can see the dates are the Y axis going downward. In bold are the books I've already read. I'm essentially in 1797 with my most recent attempt to read chronologically across series, and Spain has just entered the war on Frances side.
I made this spreadsheet because I both had this idea to read the books in chronological order even if it meant flipping between series, and also I was very curious to try to figure out if any of the characters crossed paths. Apparently Aubrey and Hornblower were both in eachother's vicinity during the capture of the Spanish treasure fleet on Oct 5th 1804; and a bunch of the protagonists seemed to be around the 1793 Siege of Toulon (probably because it was the first time General Napoleon would have come to particulr notice of anyone, and one of his few campaigns that directly abutted naval action).
I'm really surprised given the popularity of this genre and the popularity of pirates, there's not a similar series written 80-100 years earlier during the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean. (Obviously there ARE pirate books but they're not as nautical focused as this genre and usually essentially hokey, IMO. Like Michael Crichton's Pirate Latitudes (barf) (though in his defense it was published posthumously and maybe he'd have improved it but it was never gonna be Master & Commandeer))
I think tomorrow I'll polish this up and post to Medium in search of a larger audience, so if you have any perspectives on any of these series please share them!