Hi! ff.net hiccupped and sent this story, The Better Part of Valour, towards the top of the HH fanfiction queue.
This was one of my favorites, so I (naturally!) had to read this again, for the fifth or sixth time. Then I checked out the reviews and came to the awkward realization I hadn't ever sent in a response. Mea maxima culpa! Anyways...
I can't believe I hadn't responded to this already. I don't know what to say, but that I absolutely adored this! This was so analytically, *precisely* written (in a way reminescent of HH's way of thinking), that I couldn't help but be drawn in. It...*hurt* to see young Horatio's mis-steps (and how he flays himself alive w/ them).
That you could evoke such emotions is imho just one sign of the top-notch writing you employ this piece.
2001? Wip? Please, oh please, say that something-anything! the merest of fragments-else was completed. Please? I mean, your beginning so impressively wrought that anyone would experience difficulty at maintaining the same high calibre of writing. But sometimes (sometimes!) good enough *is* good enough.
Oh well. If you ever decide to complete this, there'll be at the very, very least one person who'd enthusiastically embrace it. And if you don't finish...well, what you've completed already is remarkable indeed and will stand as one of the world's great unfinished masterpieces, like Musil's "Mann ohne Eigenschaften," or Schubert's Unfinished Symphon
Thank you again, farewell, and take care. :-)

dear Derry: I found your story quite good. The characterization seems accurate and you have a good handle on the use of description. I'd love to see some more dialogue work in your story. Are you planning on ever finishing this? I think you would find it quite a bit of fun explaining that little scene where Pellew stops Hornblower's notes from blowing overboard, as well as the the end of the episode when Pellew is congratulating him about the fireboat. I really have found your work to be among some of the best on the net concerning Hornblower. Any chance of more stories - particularly about Pellew/Hornblower relationship that's further developed in the 2 latest movies - Loyalty and Duty? Please drop me a note if you plan on doing any scribbling...! :}

is this fic still going to be continued - it's really very very good. the characterisation of Pellew and Hornblower is superb.Will we find out why Pellew and Foster hate each other so much (or is it just a personality clash?). Will Horatio make up with Pellew?

Please write more

desevera

i loved this story it was good none of my stories could ever be this good i try and make them good but they turn out not to be my stories are always rubbish.

Alyssa Jasmine

Very good and true to character. I like the diplomacy line in part one. Also liked the use of Bracegirdle. And the fact that it was Styles who met Horatio on deck as opposed to Matthews. Styles made the scene mean more.