Oh, I didn't say I didn't like CHH or Forester's books. :D It's just the contrast between CHH and M&C is startling - but Gregory Peck did a pretty good job of portraying Captain Hornblower.

I think you are right not to compare the two; they are very different, but equally wonderful in their own way (though I prefer the TV adaptations of Hornblower to the novels, partly because the novels are not so cheery, overall, as the Aubreyad). One of the things I love about the AoS is that each of the fandoms and canons that make up the greater AoS has its own following - my one and only meta so far was on this very subject, here.