Why didn't anyone tell me…

Horatio Hornblower series. I’ve been through the Master and Commander series a number of times now, and some have said that H.H. series is supposed to be even better. I’m not done with the series yet, I’m in three books already, and what I find is that it’s similar in some ways, but mostly it’s only one-sided. It’s the hero stories, the action stories, the idealist stories without the realities of life. There are no months of blockade duty, no drastic mistakes, Horatio never loses entirely, etc. In the Master and Commander books, the characters are human. In Horatio Hornblower, they are ideals. So I can see it appealing more to some people, and I am certainly enjoying myself, but it will never quite compare to the masterpiece that is the Master and Commander series to me.