Books like “Master and Commander”

What to read after “Master and Commander” by Patrick O'Brian: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The Long Ships
Frans G. Bengtsson · 1941
Same genre: “Historical fiction” and “Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
The Viking Red Orm sails from his Scandinavian home in the late tenth century and is carried through raids, courts and distant seas, from Andalusia to the Byzantine guard. A picaresque saga of raids, treasure and shifting faith, told with dry humour and a wide view of the Viking world.
2
The Last Kingdom
Bernard Cornwell · 2004
Same genre: “Historical fiction” and “Adventure”
- War Fiction
- Found Family
Raised by Vikings after they kill his father, the Saxon boy Uhtred must choose between the people who love him and the kingdom of his birth. As Alfred of Wessex battles the Danes, Uhtred becomes a warrior torn between two worlds.
3
Salt to the Sea
Ruta Sepetys · 2016
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
Four young refugees cross a frozen East Prussia in the winter of 1945, each hiding a secret and hoping to reach a ship that will carry them west. Their paths merge among the crowds fleeing the advancing Soviet army, bound for a vessel whose fate none of them suspect.
4
The Terror
Dan Simmons · 2007
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
In 1845 two Royal Navy ships sail to find the Northwest Passage and vanish into the Arctic ice. As the crews endure cold, scurvy and starvation, they are stalked across the frozen waste by a creature that should not exist.
5
The Wager
David Grann · 2023
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
In 1740 a British warship hunting a Spanish treasure galleon is wrecked off Patagonia. Months later two groups of survivors reach South America with opposing stories, and a court martial must decide which men were heroes and which were mutineers.
6
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Alfred Lansing · 1959
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Found Family
In 1914 Ernest Shackleton sets out to cross Antarctica; in 1915 his ship is crushed by the ice and the crew is left stranded. This account follows their months on drifting floes and the desperate open-boat journey he makes to seek rescue.
7
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway · 1940
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Found Family
Robert Jordan, an American volunteer, joins a band of Republican guerrillas in the Spanish mountains to blow up a bridge. Over a few days he falls for Maria, a young woman scarred by war, and weighs duty, love and the near certainty that the mission will cost him his life.
8
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas
Jules Verne · 1870
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
Three men are taken aboard the Nautilus, a submarine commanded by the brilliant Captain Nemo, after it attacks their ship. As they travel the ocean depths they witness wonders and terrors of the undersea world while their host's motives stay hidden.
9
The Alice Network
Kate Quinn · 2017
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Found Family
In 1947, pregnant and unmarried Charlie follows a lead about her missing cousin to a ruined woman in London. Their search draws on the story of Eve, a spy who ran a network in occupied France during the First World War, and the betrayals that broke it.
10
All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr · 2014
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
During the German occupation of France, a blind girl and her father flee Paris for the walled city of Saint-Malo, carrying a valuable jewel. In Germany, an orphan with a gift for radio repairs is drawn into the war machine. Their separate paths move slowly toward the same besieged town in August 1944.
11
The Mysterious Island
Jules Verne · 1875
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Found Family
Five Union prisoners escape a siege in a hot-air balloon and are blown onto an uncharted island. There they rebuild a small civilization from its resources, aided by an unseen hand and threatened by a hidden danger.
12
Treasure Island
Robert Louis Stevenson · 1883
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
Young Jim Hawkins finds a treasure map in a dead sailor's chest and sails for a distant island where a pirate's gold is buried. Among the crew is the one-legged cook Long John Silver, whose charm hides a plan to seize the hoard.