GIANTS OF LAND, SEA & AIR: PAST & PRESENT by David Peters

Giants of Land, Sea & Air: Past & Present (1986) is a children’s book from the Sierra Club by artist David Peters. It is currently out of print, although copies are not difficult to find. Each page features, as the title suggests, some of earth’s largest land, sea and air creatures, extinct and living, with humans shown for scale. Each creature gets a few paragraphs of description plus its Latin name and taxonomic information.

Peters’ art is spectacular. His creatures look extremely real, and his paintings often feel almost like photographs. The art for this book could not be better or more fitting. Peters’ humans are always the same size, and it’s nothing short of magnificent when the brachiosaurus or the blue whale crowds the pages and dwarfs them (the blue whale is stretched over seven pages!).

Giants of Land, Sea & Air: Past & Present is a large book. It’s only 73 pages long, but it’s over 13 inches tall and almost ten inches across. This is all to the good, as all the page space is helpful in highlighting just how big some of these creatures were (or are).

When I was a child, I thought Giants of Land, Sea & Air: Past & Present was just about the neatest book ever. I still feel that way. It’s a brilliant idea and an amazing book.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

HORNBLOWER DURING THE CRISIS by C. S. Forester

Hornblower During the Crisis (1967), also known as Hornblower and the Crisis, is the last Hornblower novel C. S. Forester worked on – he died before he finished it. It fits fourth in the chronology. The book also includes two short stories, “Hornblower’s Temptation” (also known as “Hornblower and the Widow McCool,” and “The Last Encounter.”

In Hornblower During the Crisis, Horatio Hornblower, promoted to captain before the age of thirty, is relieved of command of Hotspur and sent back to England. But almost immediately, Hotspur’s new captain sinks the ship. Hornblower is called upon to testify at his court martial, after which all the officers travel back to England on a water ship. They encounter a French brigantine, and Hornblower recovers important French documents. He works with the Secretary of the Navy to craft a plan to deliver forged orders to Villeneuve, the French admiral.

In “Hornblower’s Temptation,” Lieutenant Hornblower, serving on the Renown under Captain Sawyer, is responsible for arranging the execution of a deserter, an Irish revolutionary. In “The Last Encounter,” Hornblower, now 72, wealthy, retired and still as self-loathing as ever, is visited by a man claiming to be Napoleon Bonaparte, who insists he needs Hornblower’s help to get to Paris immediately. Both stories are entertaining enough, although the chest gimmickry in “Hornblower’s Temptation” is a bit much. “The Last Encounter” is noteworthy because it is Forester’s final Hornblower chapter.

There are 130-150 pages of Hornblower During the Crisis, depending on how the publisher formats it, which comprises half the novel or less. Where there narrative concludes, there is a one-page summary compiled from Forester’s notes. Nothing unexpected happens – Hornblower has a crisis of conscience, his sense of duty prevails, as always, and his mission is a wonderful success, culminating in the Battle of Trafalgar.

There is certainly a lot of potential in Forester’s storyline, but all the reader gets is setup. Hornblower in the shady business of espionage is the perfect opportunity for him to wallow in a moral crisis, and Forester was clearly building toward the drama of the constant threat of hideous death for spies, but unfortunately, we never get that far.

Forester once again dangles Hornblower’s promotion in front of him, threatening to take it away before it’s been confirmed. But Forester has gone to that well already. It doesn’t generate any suspense, and it just feels tawdry on Forester’s part.

Hornblower During the Crisis is for Hornblower completists – it adds nothing significant to Hornblower’s overall story arc. It has its moments, but it can easily be skipped.

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

Hornblower Timeline

According to Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, Horatio Hornblower was born in 1776.

Period Covered - Book - Date of Publication

1793-1798 - Mr. Midshipman Hornblower - 1950

1799 - “Hornblower’s Temptation”*

1800-1803 - Lieutenant Hornblower - 1952

1803-1805 - Hornblower and the Hotspur - 1962

1805 - Hornblower During the Crisis - 1967

1805-1808 - Hornblower and the Atropos - 1953

1808 - Beat to Quarters (The Happy Return) - 1937

1810 - Ship of the Line - 1938

1810-1811 - Flying Colours - 1938

1812 - Commodore Hornblower - 1945

1813-1814 - Lord Hornblower - 1946

1821-1823 - Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies - 1958

1848 - “The Last Encounter”*

*“Hornblower's Temptation” and “The Last Encounter” are included in Hornblower During the Crisis.

C. S. Forester published three other Hornblower stories:

-“Hornblower and His Majesty” – set in 1812, published in 1940

-“The Hand of Destiny” – set in 1796, published in 1940

-“Hornblower’s Charitable Offering” – set in 1810, published in 1941

HORNBLOWER AND THE HOTSPUR by C. S. Forester

Hornblower and the Hotspur (1962) is C. S. Forester’s third Hornblower novel chronologically, tenth by publication. Horatio Hornblower has, more out of pity than anything else, gone ahead and married the rather pathetically devoted Maria, his landlady’s daughter. But England is mobilizing again for war with France, and Hornblower is immediately put in command of the sloop Hotspur and sent out in advance of an English blockade of Brest, whereupon Hornblower leads various raids against the French.

The running subplot here involves Hornblower’s feelings toward his wife and their coming child. When he marries her, he does not love her. While he is at sea, he begins to develop affectionate feelings toward her and the child, although he believes these to be insincere. Amusingly, given Hornblower’s inwardly-professed feelings toward Maria coupled with the months on end he spends at sea, they make a remarkably fecund couple.

This is Hornblower’s first command, and it is interesting to see him bring his highly self-critical nature to this position. He captains with his usual great diligence and initiative, but he is rarely satisfied with his performance, regardless of the results, and he berates himself over the smallest failings. At times, he takes this frustration out on his men; in all he makes a somewhat mercurial captain. But all this is part of what makes Hornblower such an interesting character – this is a man who, despite numerous successes and fairly rapid promotion, thinks very poorly of himself, and is self-deprecating almost to a career-damaging degree.

As usual, Forester does a solid job of mixing action and drama. Other than a few sections where Hornblower and his crew get bogged down in the minutiae of eighteenth century navigation (which is a challenge and a triumph for Hornblower but isn’t very interesting for modern land-based audiences), the pace is quite good.

Aside from Hornblower, the only other character to receive any significant amount of Forester’s attention is Lieutenant Bush, but Bush does little other than faithfully follow his orders and do his duty, and he comes off as disappointingly flat here, particularly compared to his treatment in the previous Lieutenant Hornblower. Hornblower’s wife, Maria, is a doting caricature in her infrequent appearances.

In all, Hornblower and the Hotspur is a very solid, very entertaining entry in the Hornblower saga, and one that advances his story nicely.

RECOMMENDED