The Mauritius Command: Library Edition (Aubrey-Maturin (Audio))

Rating:
Summary: Why Jack, I find you are promoted!
Review: At the end of the previous novel in the series, Jack Aubrey is returning home to England and marriage to his beloved Sophie, dreaming of the rosy future.

Here in the opening chapters of The Mauritius Command is that future, and they are some of the most sustained humorous scenes of the entire Canon. Poor Jack - marriage isn't quite what he imagined it to be!

But all too soon we are away on another cruise with Stephen Maturin, this time with a temporary promotion to Commodore, and the flying of a broad pendant to mark the fact. There's glory for you!

The bulk of the novel concerns the more or less historical campaign to win back Mauritus from the French, and it is here that I venture a word of criticism, for Patrick O'Brian bound himself a little too tightly with the actual history and has to resort to some literary strategems to keep up with the sometimes confusing action.

But that's by the by and along the way we meet some fascinating new characters, revisit some happy old ones, and spend a reasonable amount of time doing the things that make a Patrick O'Brian novel so well worth reading.

I enjoyed this book very much, hence the five star rating, for even a Patrick O'Brian book a trifle off his usual pace is a very good book indeed.

It is a good self-contained adventure, very rare in this series where a journey quite often takes four books or so to come to a conclusion, and it comes with the necessary maps at the beginning and an excellent essay on Jack Aubrey's ships at the end, including extracts from the plans of the dear old Surprise.

An excellent read and the pleasure is enhanced by the marvellous Geoff Hunt painting on the cover.

Rating:
Summary: Good but not the Best in this Series
Review: I have read the prior three novels in O'Brian's masterful Aubrey/Maturin series, and thought the first three were uniformly excellent. After a layoff, I returned to the series and while I enjoyed The Mauritius Command, I thought there was somewhat of a slip from the first few books of this 20 novel series.

The novel opens promisingly, with Aubrey suffering in a less-than-ideal domestic situation. His mother-in-law lives with Jack, his wife Sophie and their cranky daughters, and his efforts to manage a farm are comical in his ineptitude. When Maturin visits, and Aubrey tries to show him around and put a brave face on his domestic struggles, the comedy inherent in O'Brian's writing comes shining through. While Jack (and the reader) itch to get to sea, it is there that O'Brian seems to lose control of the story.

Aubrey gets an order to go to the Cape of Good Hope, where he is sent on a mission to dislodge the French from the Mauritius Islands and help set up a British Colonial Governor by the name of Farquar. As is usually the case, despite great achievements in the past, Jack is shackled and insufficiently rewarded by his superiors in the admiralty, and his supposed connections, through his father in the Parliament, are of little help.

O'Brian seems to assume a good bit of nautical knowledge by the reader, and this landlubber sometimes got a little lost in the naval warfare scenes. The most engaging aspects of the novel seemed to me the differences in character, and the seething one-upsmanship among the various ship captains under Jack's overall command including Captains Pym, Clonfert and Corbett. The problem was, just when the author whets your appetite for some great internal conflict or drama between the brutal Corbett and the popular Clonfert, Corbett is sent from the area.

Moreover, the final battle scenes are almost thrown together in summary form, as if the culmination of the mission did not really concern O'Brian as much as the hassles of getting there, and so there was a bit of a letdown at the end. I look forward to the next novel (Desolation Island I think), but have to be luke-warm in my praise of this one. I give it a fairly generous 4 stars, 3 and 1/2 if I could.

Rating:
Summary: Superb nautical tale.
Review: The Mauritius Command is a first rate piece of historical fiction. Patrick O'Brian deftly weaves this swashbuckling nautical tale into the historical account of the British retaking the Mauritius Islands. Lucky Jack Aubrey, with a little help from Stephen Maturin, becomes a Commodore and leads his squadron of ships into battle with the French.

A new father, Jack Aubrey leaves behind his wife to venture out to the Indian Ocean. His wife, Sophie, lost her dowry and story begins with Jack hurting for money. So the opportunity to have command and be back on full pay is most welcome. Commodore Aubrey's command is complicated by the personalities of his subordinate commanders. Maturin comes out of the closet and works his espionage in the open.

With victory just within his grasp, Admiral Bertie arrives to take command and the credit away from Jack. Despite that setback, Lucky Jack stills finishes on top.

I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating addition to a fabulous series
Review: The opening of THE MAURITIUS COMMAND finds "Lucky" Jack Aubrey married, poor, and bored. He is without a command, on half pay, and doing no more than tinkering with his telescopes. Happily, his particular friend Stephen Maturin comes bearing glad tidings: an assignment leading an expedition to capture the French-held islands of Mauritius and La Reunion just east of Madagascar.

Unlike the previous novels, where Jack commands a vessel usually unattached from joint maneuvers, he here commands several ships. Unfortunately, the Commodore (as Jack is temporarily called) has a problem: the captains of the three primary ships are troublesome. Lord Clonfert nurses a long held jealously of Jack's fame and success, and has a tendency for self-promotion and showmanship. Pym is solid, but in the end lacks judgment in battle. Corbett is the polar opposite of Jack in regard to discipline. While Jack believes in discipline, he staunchly believes that brutality and frequent punishment is both cruel and counterproductive, leading to an unhappy ship. Corbett, on the other hand, is a savage disciplinarian, and keeps his crew on the edge of mutiny.

All of the novels in the series have their unique appeal, and this one delights in its chronicling the course of a single campaign, a campaign that O'Brian notes is based quite closely on real events. The novel is also superb in its setting in a locale of which most readers will be utterly unfamiliar. It is also fun because more than in the previous novels, Stephen Maturin plays a more prominent role as an intelligence officer, and his work on the islands in fermenting rebellion against the French is as crucial as Jack's role in leading the military expedition.

I would caution anyone tempted to read O'Brian to start with the very first novel and work from the first to the last. I deeply love these books, but they do not stand alone.

Rating:
Summary: First-rate REAL historical fiction!
Review: This fourth novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series shows more narrative unity than the first three, which is partly a function of Jack Aubrey's now-exalted rank. As a newly promoted commander in a small sloop, and even as a post captain, he was at the beck of more senior officers. Now, as commodore in command of a squadron of several ships-of-the-line and lesser warships, plus a small herd of transports and Indiamen crowded with troops, he has reached a position of high command, with orders to capture the French outpost islands of Mauritius and La Reunion in the Indian Ocean. As Dr. Maturin privately notes in his diary, Jack was probably happier as a junior officer, with only his own ship and men in his direct responsibility; now he must manage other ships's captains at one remove, deal diplomatically with the Army, and oversee the installation of a new British governor. O'Brian hews closely to historical fact in narrating this little-known but complex campaign, and he also delves more deeply into the psychology of the supporting characters -- especially Lord Clonfort, a not unintelligent but very unhappy young commander apparently afflicted with bipolar disorder, who constantly seeks the approval of his own subordinates as well as his seniors. As true historical fiction, this volume is, for me, the most enjoyable in the series yet.