Patrick O'Brian's books are hugely popular with a wide audience. We were fortunate enough to read his novels in the order in which they were written and so followed the adventures of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin in chronological order.
If you have never read any of these excellent stories, you may like to take a look at the review in Issue 1 of MarineZine (in a separate window) or plunge right in and acquire a copy of Master and Commander, the first book in the series and the basis for the excellent film by the same name. | 
