Blue at the Mizzen

Sigh. The final, complete O'Brian novel. It was published in 1999, and he died in 2000, at age 86. Can't really fault him for slacking. Still, it's depressing to get to the end. The only consolation is that now we own all the books and when I next feel like working my way through -- in five years, say? -- they're all there, waiting.

I wonder how many pages, more or less, there are in total? Say around 350 pages each, times 20 books. A 7,000-page novel, conveniently broken into commuter-portability-friendly chunks.

Even though O'Brian was supposed to be, in his personal life, perhaps less than admirable, I'll still say a little prayer of thanks for him, so grateful am I for the marvelous world he created.