Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: Sloppy writing and editing. Readable stories.

This guy is not even close to being in a league with O'Brian. His characters are inconsistent and obvious, thin cliches. He makes his hero smart about whatever he has to be smart about at the time, with no relation to his education or background. The writing is sloppy. Every time a leadsman calls the depth, he "mournfully intones." The sex is overdone and over written. The author's basic attitude is adolescent. The ship handling and battle scenes are good enough to make the books worth a casual read. I'd call him 3rd rate, but that would mean he had 50 guns.