Ships or companies with the greatest cast of characters in its crew. At sea or in space or elsewhere. The ideal is the Pequod’s crew from **MOBY DICK**, in which Melville chose different voices of his character, variously representatives of the United States at the time. McCarthy’s **BLOOD MERIDIAN** scalping party. Rohan’s THE ROVING PARTY. Of course, **STAR TREK** with its different cast. Huffaker’s **THE COWBOY AND THE COSSACK** begins with an excellent cast, types and tropes allowed.
The television series, **FIREFLY**, had an excellent representative crew for a time. There must be other such crews that I’m missing, hence my question here.
by JohnMarshallTanner
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Patrick O’brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series.
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I have yet to read them, so I can’t vouch for the books, but i imagine the series of books that inspired the film “Master and Commander” might be what you’re looking for. (Also, even if you never read the books, do watch the film. It’s brilliant.)
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell has a good crew, for a while.
Thanks for those recs. I’ve read the first couple of Hornblower books, and I’ve enjoyed them. Likewise, I’ve read **THE SPARROW** and its sequel. I loved the early part with the Jesuit crew and the first voyage. I thought the rest was uneven, though I reviewed the book positively somewhere, perhaps at Amazon. So very good in places.
Several military companies now spring to mind, bad wars fought by good men with genuinely admirable espirit d’corps. Glen Cook’s **BLACK COMPANY**, say.
Americans today seldom realize that the View Nam War was served mostly by draftees, many of whom did not believe in the war. I was one of them. Even among conscripts there often arose an espirit d’corps. Which is why I can see most of the men in **BLOOD MERIDIAN** as conscripts, not believing in the war but fighting for each other, if not just fighting to survive it themselves.
The flyers in **CATCH-22**, for example. Yossarian stands up during a pre-flight meeting to complain to the commander, “They’re trying to kill me.” Who’s trying to kill you? he is asked. You are, he says, and this whole situation. You’re all to kill me. “Everyone thought that Yossarian’s argument was crazy, but Yossarian had proof. Because strangers he did not know shot at him when he flew over to drop bombs on them.”