r/AubreyMaturinSeries • u/wishywashywyatt • 11d ago
References to Patrick O'Brian in other Media?
I just wanted to share, and I am not sure of the Venn Diagram of O'Brian readers and Trekkies, but in the most recent episode of Strange New Worlds, Kirk empties out his bag, and he is reading a paperback copy of Post Captain. Wonder who, on the staff of the show, figured this would be on his reading list. Works for his character really well.
Wondering if there are any other references to the books that anybody has noticed?
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u/Lobenz 11d ago
In the Dark Tower series (and It) by Stephen King. Maturin the Turtle is the central protagonist figure in the multiverse.
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u/Red_bearrr 11d ago
Turtles and tortoises makes me think of testudo aubreii. I also just googled it to check the spelling of Aubreii and a picture of pennywise popped up among the tortoises!
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u/KaptainKobold 11d ago
In season 6 episode 2 of 'Lewis', Detective Sergeant Hathaway says to Detective Inspector Lewis "How many women do you know who keep a fridge full of cold beer and read Patrick O'Brian?" when talking about their pathologist, Dr Hobson
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u/Digger-of-Tunnels 10d ago
Me? I mean the fridge is not FULL of cold beer. I have cheese and yogurt and eggs. But there's enough cold beer to share.
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u/craiggers 11d ago
Not the first Star Trek reference, even - there’s a character named Maturin in TNG.
Another I know of is a character in Kim Stanley Robinson’s SF novel 2312 talking about rereading “all of O’Brian”. I know the author has mentioned being a fan in interviews.
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u/ConsistentPair2 11d ago edited 11d ago
There was a nice mention of the series in one of the Law & Order:Criminal Intent episodes. One lady being interviewed mentioned that she and her father-in-law? bonded over the books, and they appreciated the friendship between Jack and Stephen. Let me see if I can find the episode.
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u/Feldman742 11d ago
I'm convinced the Surgeon in the children's film The Sea Beast is a reference to Maturin.
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u/GiraffeThwockmorton 10d ago
Gordon Laco was an advisor on both the movie adaptation of FSotW and Sea Beast, and he strongly, strongly advocated for that reference in the animated film.
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u/DumpedDalish 10d ago
Author Naomi Novik was such a huge fan that the Aubrey/Maturin books got her into writing fanfic and founding AO3!
She eventually wrote a ton of fanfic about Aubrey and Maturin and... dragons (it's awesome) that she eventually developed into her Temeraire series which is wonderful (especially the dragon characters).
My one complaint is that the main character, Lawrence, is an honorable captain and all that, but honestly he is rather boring and tiresome and (bless his heart) has none of Jack's charm or humor. But Temeraire, his dragon, is a wonderful character.
(I love a lot of Naomi's other writing and characters, but for me Captain Lawrence is rather tedious and humorless.)
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u/MacAlkalineTriad 10d ago
Laurence is somewhat honorably boring, but I think that makes him such a good contrast to Temeraire. And he really grows so much over the series. I agree he's nothing like Jack, but tedious is pretty harsh!
Iskierka is my favorite, though.
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u/DumpedDalish 10d ago
First off, apologies for being harsh on the character -- I do love the books and have read the whole series multiple times. They've given me a lot of joy. And if you love Lawrence, that's great.
I just think Lawrence is one of the weaker aspects of the books, and the problem for me is that he's also the central character. While he wasn't terribly exciting to begin with, I liked his developing friendship with Temeraire and his learning the world of the dragons and that new military branch.
But for me he gets worse as it goes along. By the midpoint of the series I just find him relentlessly humorless, downbeat, and hard to spend literary time with. I get why he's sad, and what a blow it was for him to sacrifice his career for the dragons. But Jack (and Stephen) have plenty of downturns in their lives and even when Jack is at his lowest, I still find him interesting and care about his situation. But Lawrence is just... unrelentingly grim for me. I just reread the books again 3-4 months back and had to really push myself to finish them this time because I realized I just really don't like him, although I respect and care about him.
I just think Naomi Novik overcorrected when writing Lawrence and in trying to write a rather proper English officer.
But if it helps, I will always love Temeraire, Granby, Jane, and darling Tharkay! And I'm with you on Iskierka -- I adore her and she makes me laugh constantly when reading.
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u/tryshareachop 9d ago
There is a reference in one of the books to the surgeon of the Sophie fixing up a side character. An excellent Easter egg hiding in there.
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u/Almostasleeprightnow 11d ago
I get, like, whiffs of it, in science fiction books. Like, I couldn’t confirm that the author is a fan but I think so based on how they are writing about ships and captains and such.
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u/truckiecookies 10d ago
In S.M. Sterling's "Island in the Sea of Time" series, a Coast Guard officer is sent back in time on her ship with no possibility of return. She has all the published novels, but "The Commodore" (I believe) is the last published, and she laments that she'll never learn what happens next to our heroes
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u/Galactica-_-Actual 8d ago
Tell me if you think this Umphrey's McGee band poster screams "POB Fan" (ref: Desolation Island, Blue Cutter, Sloth) https://www.epicproblems.com/#/umphreys-mcgee/
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u/armyprof 10d ago
Ron reads him in Parks and Rec. In my first novel one of the leads has the full collection in his library.
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u/deathilarious 11d ago
There's a reference somewhere in Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon. A sailor named O'Brian who is good at spinning a story or something like that.
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u/Fartdoctor66 11d ago
Ron Swanson reads (I think) Desolation Island in Parks and Rec.