Rating: 
Summary: Just good friends
Review: It has been awhile since I've read a book in this series, but returning to it I felt like I had never taken a break. Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin have become my good friends, and O'Brian swept me away with their exploits instantly. Even thought the style is decidedly un-modern, O'Brian's narrative thrust is irresistible. In this, the third volume of the series, Jack is still in debt due to the Admiralty refusing to honor a war prize based on a technicality, thus putting his engagement to Sophie in danger. Maturin is in real danger as the new Lord governing the navy broadcasts his name in a public meeting, thus raising possible questions about his role as a spy. Stephen's heart is troubled as well; he still moons over Diana Villiers, from the events of the second book. How can you possibly dislike a book that contains a line such as this: "Jack, you have debauched my sloth." Yes, O'Brian has a certain amount of levity, although it is often hidden underneath the layers of the manners of the time. His style is somewhat like that of Jane Austen, where the most cutting of phrases are being said in the nicest of ways. You either like this sort of thing or don't. I like it, when I catch it, but I yearn for annotations, just knowing that there are some subtleties that are escaping me.
Rating: 
Summary: Another jem in the string.
Review: Like the preceding Aubrey and Maturin books by O'Brian, this is a beautifully written, meticulously realistic tale. In this, the third book of O'Brian's seafaring saga, things take a painfully tragic twist. In the setting of the sea voyages, the dual romantic dramas of Captain Aubrey and Doctor Maturin continue to unfold. What reader can truly care that the bold and dashing Diana Villiers has been subjected to all sorts of low, nasty gossip, when Maturin has realised that his love for her has survived it? And will Aubrey's fiance, Sophie, break their engagement in the face of his long and silent absence at sea? Especially with a charming new minister in the neighborhood... Always before, in spite of rivalries and breaks, the good captain and doctor's fortunes have risen and fallen pretty much together. But in this book, only one will win through to joy. Aside from the poignant human drama, this book holds the most dramatic description of a storm at sea that I have ever read. O'Brian's prose drove my heart rate to amazing heights for the usually non-athletic pursuit of reading! His gift for succinct description is purely wonderful. Another wonderful book in a series of wonderful books.
Rating:
Summary: Joint Review of All Aubrey-Maturin Books
Review: Some critics have referred to the Aubrey/Maturin books as one long novel united not only by their historical setting but also by the central plot element of the Aubrey/Maturin friendship. Having read these fine books over a period of several years, I decided to evaluate their cumulative integrity by reading them consecutively in order of publication over a period of a few weeks. This turned out to be a rewarding enterprise. For readers unfamiliar with these books, they describe the experiences of a Royal Navy officer and his close friend and traveling companion, a naval surgeon. The experiences cover a broad swath of the Napoleonic Wars and virtually the whole globe.
Rereading all the books confirmed that O'Brian is a superb writer and that his ability to evoke the past is outstanding. O'Brian has numerous gifts as a writer. He is the master of the long, careful description, and the short, telling episode. His ability to construct ingenious but creditable plots is first-rate, probably because he based much of the action of his books on actual events. For example, some of the episodes of Jack Aubrey's career are based on the life of the famous frigate captain, Lord Cochrane. O'Brian excels also in his depiction of characters. His ability to develop psychologically creditable characters through a combination of dialogue, comments by other characters, and description is tremendous. O'Brien's interest in psychology went well beyond normal character development, some books contain excellent case studies of anxiety, depression, and mania.
Reading O'Brien gives vivid view of the early 19th century. The historian Bernard Bailyn, writing of colonial America, stated once that the 18th century world was not only pre-industrial but also pre-humanitarian (paraphrase). This is true as well for the early 19th century depicted by O'Brien. The casual and invariable presence of violence, brutality, and death is a theme running through all the books. The constant threats to life are the product not only of natural forces beyond human control, particularly the weather and disease, but also of relative human indifference to suffering. There is nothing particularly romantic about the world O'Brien describes but it also a certain grim grandeur. O'Brien also shows the somewhat transitional nature of the early 19th century. The British Navy and its vessals were the apogee of what could be achieved by pre-industrial technology. This is true both of the technology itself and the social organization needed to produce and use the massive sailing vessals. Aubrey's navy is an organization reflecting its society; an order based on deference, rigid hierarchy, primitive notions of honor, favoritism, and very, very corrupt. At the same time, it was one of the largest and most effective bureaucracies in human history to that time. The nature of service exacted great penalities for failure in a particularly environment, and great success was rewarded greatly. In some ways, it was a ruthless meritocracy whose structure and success anticipates the great expansion of government power and capacity seen in the rest of the 19th century.
O'Brian is also the great writer about male friendship. There are important female characters in these books but since most of the action takes place at sea, male characters predominate. The friendship between Aubrey and Maturin is the central armature of the books and is a brilliant creation. The position of women in these books is ambiguous. There are sympathetic characters, notably Aubrey's long suffering wife. Other women figures, notably Maturin's wife, leave a less positive impression. On board ship, women tend to have a disruptive, even malign influence.
How did O'Brian manage to sustain his achievement over 20 books? Beyond his technical abilities as a writer and the instrinsic interest of the subject, O'Brien made a series of very intelligent choices. He has not one but two major protagonists. The contrasting but equally interesting figures of Aubrey and Maturin allowed O'Brien to a particularly rich opportunity to expose different facets of character development and to vary plots carefully. This is quite difficult and I'm not aware of any other writer who has been able to accomplish such sustained development of two major protagonists for such a prolonged period. O'Brian's use of his historical setting is very creative. The scenes and events in the books literally span the whole globe as Aubrey and Maturin encounter numerous cultures and societies. The naval setting allowed him also to introduce numerous new and interesting characters. O'Brian was able to make his stories attractive to many audiences. Several of these stories can be enjoyed as psychological novels, as adventure stories, as suspense novels, and even one as a legal thriller. O'Brian was also a very funny writer, successful at both broad, low humor, and sophisticated wit. Finally, O'Brian made efforts to link some of the books together. While a number are complete in themselves, others form components of extended, multi-book narratives. Desolation Island, Fortune of War, and The Surgeon's Mate are one such grouping. Treason's Harbor, The Far Side of the World, and The Reverse of the Medal are another. The Letter of Marque and the ensuing 4 books, centered around a circumnavigation, are another.
Though the average quality of the books is remarkably high, some are better than others. I suspect that different readers will have different favorites. I personally prefer some of the books with greater psychological elements. The first book, Master and Commander, is one of my favorites. The last 2 or 3, while good, are not as strong as earlier books. I suspect O'Brian's stream of invention was beginning to diminish. All can be read profitably as stand alone works though there is definitely something to be gained by reading in consecutive order.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely satisfying installment of the Aubrey-Maturin saga
Review: The third of the Aubrey-Maturin books primarily focuses on a long voyage Aubrey and Maturin undertake to deliver a British envoy to India, but along the way they undergo trials and tribulations far darker than anything that happened in the first two books. Maturin alone undergoes extensive physical torture, has his heart broken yet again, fights a duel that he wins but in which he is seriously wounded, and meets a young girl in India who he wants to help but discovers her murdered by those who want to steal the bracelets he bought for her. Jack, on the other hand, is merely imprisoned for debt and then has his engagement with Sophie tested. Comparatively speaking, he gets off rather lightly. There is not a great deal of plot in the book, very much like the first two books. O'Brian isn't so much not very good with plot as unconcerned. In this regard his books are far more true-to-life that tell a well-contained story. O'Brian is more concerned with successive events that may have some connection with one another, though if one pushed hard enough one might contend the novel is concerned with the question of whether Jack and Stephen will get married. But if that were the "story" the novel was trying to tell, too many extraneous are involved. But for O'Brian the main point of the books are those extraneous details. He is far more interested in the texture and the historical veracity of the period than he is in "plot." What I really enjoy about these books is the way he is constantly making Jack and Stephen more interesting characters. They are far from perfect. By contemporary standards, Jack is a throwback, having a host of biases and opinions about human beings that we would consider most unenlightened. Stephen, on the other hand, is a product of the 18th century Enlightenment, not merely interested in the scientific issues of the day, but clearly holding many of the leftist political positions of the time. Yet, Stephen is a mass of beautiful contradictions, being liberal and enlightened in most ways, yet working for the British government as a spy. It is this complexity in Stephen's character that makes him by far the more interesting character of the two. Jack, on the other hand, only really comes to life when there is a battle. As far as battles go, O'Brian clearly has embraced the theory that less is more. There is a rousing rescue near the beginning of the novel, but apart from that the only battle scene in the novel comes near the end, where Jack is challenged to product a merchant fleet from a packet of powerful French ships that vastly overpower them. It is probably my favorite battle scene of any of the books so far. Like the first two books, I heartily recommend this novel to anyone who wants to enjoy some terrific historical novels. O'Brian tries hard to be an objective observer, trying hard not to impose 20th century values on all the attitudes, though Maturin has many of the same sympathies and attitudes that we do (though not adverse to a duel). One will learn a great deal of history, be highly entertained, and come to know a couple of flawed but enormously interesting characters.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrific writing, terrific characters, terrific seamanship!
Review: This is the third novel in the Jack Aubrey-Stephen Maturin series, and the story just keeps rolling right along. It's difficult to maintain the pace and the reader's interest for more than the first couple of volumes in any sort of fiction series, but O'brian certainly has the knack. This time, the newly-posted but still heavily indebted Captain Aubrey is detailed to ferry a diplomat to the court of an Indian prince . . . having been the unknowing beneficary of Maturin's leverage at the Admiralty. He's impatient at being out of the principal theater of the war with France, but happy to have any ship at all -- especially the frigate SURPRISE, in which he had served as a midshipman. Besides helping his friend, Dr. Maturin has his own reasons for visiting India -- Diana Villiers has gone there in the company of a wealthy merchant from the City and the East India Company. For O'Brian spends as much time on the details and development of his characters' personal interrelationships as he does on naval maneuvering and battles. And the descriptions of rounding the Cape of Good Hope are mesmerizing!
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