Customer Reviews

Captain Hornblower R. N.

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a great book. As a new kindle owner and a long time Hornblower fan, I thought this would make an excellent test for my first book on the kindle. However, I have been very disappointed with the number of errors present in the text. Since I am new to the kindle, I don't know if this is a common problem. But, almost every page (which is less than a regular print page) has one or more spelling or punctuation errors, not present in the original text. In the one short chapter that I systematically tracked errors, I found 17 problems. When I compare to my print copy I can see that some of these are the result of printing press glitches. But, most appear to be failures of the text-capturing process (e.g., ship->snip, clear->dear, cleared->deared, this->diis, that->mat, been->bee, men->mea, with->witii, think->dunk, missing punctuation, etc). An occasional error is understandable. But, the number I have seen in this text are approaching the point where enjoyment and understanding of the reading are impeded. I expected better after paying $12CAD. It is already ridiculous to pay as much or more for an electronic copy as a print copy. But, then, to receive a blatantly inferior product really adds insult to injury. I love my new Kindle as great piece of technology. But, if Amazon is going to charge as much for electronic versions of books they should guarantee the same level of quality as the print edition. I can not recommend this fantastic book until amazon either repeats or corrects their conversion process.

Also, it is annoying that Captain Hornblower and Admiral Hornblower are available but not 'Young Hornblower' (the first book, in this 3-part omnibus series).

i'm in the process of reading this book now and am enjoying it completly. it was well worth the purchase.

I notice that one of the reviews for this book was for a kindle version but that the digitising process was poor. I presume Amazon withdrew that version until a good digitising process could be put in place. It is now over 9 months since that review and still no sign of a Kindle Captain Hornblower. Any news?

The other two "omnibus" Hornblower editions (Admiral Hornblower and Young Hornblower) are available in Kindle format. I have bought them and they don't appear to have the digitising errors that this reviewer talked about.

Although 'used' the book was in very good condition and was shipped promptly after I placed my order.