Aha - I think it's kind of awesome that I've managed to talk about Hornblower all day when I wasn't writing term papers.

I really like Hornblower as a character - I'm consistently impressed by Forrester's writing and the humanity that he gives to Hornblower despite Hornblower being, on the face of it, your typical good-at-everything action hero. I just also want to shake Hornblower until he stops being a dick. (But this is an urge that I get toward a lot of real human beings, so this is just another testament to Forrester's writing ability.)