Join young Horatio Hornblower in the thrilling naval adventure from the author of The Good Shepherd, now a major-motion picture starring Tom Hanks ''A joyous creation, a perfection in words. Young Hornblower is, simply, one of the most complete creations of character in fiction'' Conn Iggulden, The Independent_______1793, the eve of the Napoleonic Wars, and Midshipman Horatio Hornblower receives his first command . . . As a seventeen-year-old with a touch of sea sickness, young Horatio Hornblower hardly cuts a dash in His Majesty''s navy.Yet from the moment he is ordered to board a French merchant ship in the Bay of Biscay and take command of crew and cargo, he proves his seafaring mettle on the waves.After a character-forming duel, several deadly chases and some dramatic captures and escapes, the young Hornblower is soon forged into a formidable man of the sea. This is the first of eleven books chronicling the nautical adventures of C. S. Forester''s inimitable hero, Horatio Hornblower._______ ''Absolutely compelling. One of the great masters of narrative'' San Francisco Chronicle