The Nature of Things

Blue at the Mizzen by Patrick O'Brian My rating: 4 of 5 stars This was my final voyage with Captain (now Admiral) "Lucky Jack" Aubrey and Dr. (naturalist/spy) Stephen Maturin. Patrick O'Brian was working on a 21st entry to the series at the time of his death and it was, in fact, later published, incomplete, with an afterword by someone else. But I don't think I will be reading it. It just seems wrong somehow. I am content to leave Aubrey and Maturin, savoring their latest "famous victory" and Jack's imminent promotion to admiral, with Stephen happy in the knowledge that his daughter and his new lady love (a fellow naturalist) have become friends and are looking forward to his return. This last complete volume in the series is different from those that came before in some ways. There isn't as much naval action as many of O'Brian's fans have come to anticipate, although its absence is no cause for regret for me since I never read the books...

The Hundred Days by Patrick O'Brian My rating: 3 of 5 stars Boney has escaped his captivity on Elba and is threatening Europe once again. And once again, the British Navy and one of its most illustrious captains, now Commodore Jack Aubrey, are called upon to meet the challenge. Aubrey and his squadron of ships head to Gibraltar to begin their new campaign. As they are approaching the Rock, two old salts watch and discuss Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin and their exploits. It is from their discussion that we learn of a tragedy that has befallen the pair. A coach carrying Stephen's wife, Diana, and Aubrey's mother-in-law as well as various household members and servants has gone off the road and into a creek. Everyone except the groom was drowned. Fortunately, the faithful Padeen and Mrs. Oakes were not aboard the coach and they now remain at home caring for Stephen's young daughter, Brigid. Stephen is deep in mourning and yet Patrick O'Brian doesn't really make m...

The Yellow Admiral by Patrick O'Brian My rating: 4 of 5 stars Patrick O'Brian's long-running naval history series takes place mostly, and naturally, on board ships at sea, but ships must occasionally touch shore and their captains and crew must live, at least for a time, on land. Readers who have followed this series throughout its development know that time ashore invariably means disaster for Jack Aubrey. The sea is his natural habitat and when he steps ashore he becomes, almost literally, like a fish out of water. The action of The Yellow Admiral takes place mostly on land and Aubrey is gasping for air and a way to survive professionally and in his personal life throughout. This book follows The Commodore which saw the successful conclusion to the long, long voyage of Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin in the Pacific. We find Aubrey with substantial land holdings but hardly a penny to his name.  Impoverishment is not a new and unknown country for him; he's been there ...

The Commodore by Patrick O'Brian My rating: 5 of 5 stars Patrick O'Brian seemed to get better as a writer as this series wound down toward its end. This entry, number seventeen in the series, has actually been my favorite so far. Possibly that is because much of the action takes place on land and I didn't have to worry about keeping track of naval battles. Also, even more than is usually the case, it concentrated on exploring relationships and human interactions. Moreover, the author kept things moving and kept my complete interest throughout. Yes, I would definitely say that, for me, this is the high mark in the series to this point. At the beginning of this story, we find Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin headed home after their years-long adventures in the South Sea. Both are looking forward to home and family once again, but before Stephen can actually head home from port, he receives an urgent message to go to London and meet with Joseph Blaine, the head of the intellig...

The Wine-Dark Sea by Patrick O'Brian My rating: 4 of 5 stars After several years of returning to this series periodically, I'm now in the home stretch of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin tales. This is the sixteenth entry and the quality has not declined at all. In fact, The Wine-Dark Sea was one of the more interesting reads in this latter part of the long-running series. We begin with Captain Jack Aubrey and ship's surgeon and British intelligence agent Stephen Maturin aboard their privateer, the Surprise in the southern Pacific. They are pursuing an American privateer through the Great South Sea when things start to get weird. The sea turns a purple-red color and Aubrey notes that the sea "twitches" periodically. Even so experienced a seaman as Aubrey has never seen anything like it. In the midst of the chase, the sea suddenly explodes about them, hurling debris into the air. It is an undersea volcano, and the rocks and other debris that are being se...

The Truelove by Patrick O'Brian My rating: 3 of 5 stars Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin are still in the South Seas in this 15th entry in Patrick O'Brian's series. It's a rather slow moving tale that doesn't seem to advance the Aubrey/Maturin saga that much - at least until near the end when Maturin gets a clue that may identify a highly placed English spy in the pay of Napoleon's intelligence service. It's a name he has been seeking for a while. The storyline this time is that Captain Aubrey and the Surprise have been dispatched by the Royal Navy to the Sandwich Islands where a British whaler has been captured by a local chief at the instigation and with the assistance of the French. Intelligence reveals that there are two warring chiefs on the island - the northern one who has allied himself with the French and the southern one who turns out to be a particularly handsome woman of about 35. Aubrey's mission is to offer his assistance to th...

The Nutmeg of Consolation by Patrick O'Brian My rating: 4 of 5 stars At the beginning of The Nutmeg of Consolation , we find Captain Jack Aubrey, Dr. Stephen Maturin and the rest of the surviving crew of the Diane right where we left them at the end of The Thirteen-Gun Salute - shipwrecked on an island in the South China Sea where they were tossed by the typhoon that destroyed their ship. They've been there for a while now and foodstuffs on the island are getting low. Their situation is becoming more desperate. They have been busily engaged in building a schooner with timbers salvaged from the wrecked Diane . They hope to escape the island in it and sail to Batavia where they can find assistance. Before that can happen though, they are visited by a group of Malays who at first seem friendly and are engaged to carry a message to Batavia for the castaways. Unfortunately, the Malays turn out to be pirates and return later to ravage the camp, killing many of the crew and setting ...

The Thirteen-Gun Salute by Patrick O'Brian My rating: 3 of 5 stars The thirteen-gun salute refers to the number of volleys given in honor of an ambassador, an envoy, and that title here presages a tale of a diplomatic mission that Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin are assigned on behalf of England. But first, we find Aubrey still sailing the Surprise as in the last book, The Letter of Marque . That changes rather quickly, although never quick enough for Jack, when he is reinstated to the Royal Navy because of his exploits on behalf of the nation as a privateer. He is once again "Captain" Jack Aubrey and all is right in his world. Well, almost all. Being a part of the Royal Navy once again means he must leave his beloved Surprise behind. He is given command of the Diane , formerly a French vessel, which he captured in the last book, and he is sent to accompany his friend Maturin on a diplomatic mission that will take them to the South China Sea. There, Maturin...

The Letter of Marque by Patrick O'Brian My rating: 4 of 5 stars I started reading this series a little over two years ago and have been slowly working my way through it since. Time to check in on Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin once again. We left these two in a rather sad state of affairs in the last book, The Reverse of the Medal . Aubrey's long and glorious naval career was in tatters, after his enemies duped him and were able to have him charged with manipulating the stock market. Anyone who knows Aubrey knows he is too much of a simpleton about finances to be able to manipulate the market, but that didn't prevent him from being convicted, having his name struck off the list of naval captains, and, humiliatingly, sentenced to the stocks. We saw him locked into the stocks with his enemies set to take advantage of his helpless position by throwing garbage at him. But his shipmates, both present and past, came to his rescue, surrounded the stock and prevented anyone from ...

The Reverse of the Medal by Patrick O'Brian My rating: 4 of 5 stars Jack Aubrey is such a dunderhead. He really should not be allowed abroad on land without a keeper. At sea, he is authoritative, knowledgable, decisive, charismatic, a man of action that other men delight in following. He is "Lucky Jack." But on land, he is decidedly unlucky. He is "Dunderhead Jack," an easy mark for any scam artist. A scam artist is just what he meets on his way home from his duties of protecting whalers off the South American coasts. This well-spoken, well-dressed gentlemen convinces Jack that he has inside information that peace is going to break out in just a few days and that certain investments in the City, made before the news becomes public, are bound to make the lucky investors a fortune. Jack, who is always only half a step ahead of bankruptcy and ruin, jumps at the chance to make his fortune. He never considers who the man is or why he might be giving him this informa...

The Far Side of the World by Patrick O'Brian My rating: 4 of 5 stars Two years ago, I started reading Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series after years of prodding by my husband who insisted that the books weren't really war adventures - which I would hate - but were more about the relationships of the men on the ships. Finally succumbing to his persuasion, I found that hubby was right. Again. In fact, I do like this series very much. I've been reading it now at a rate of about five books a year, more or less, and if I continue on that pace, I should have at least two more years of good reading ahead. So far, I have not found a stinker among the books and this tenth one is, I think, my favorite of all that I've read. The bromance between Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin continues in The Far Side of the World . Aubrey is still captaining the Surprise which, much to his distress, had been designated to return to England to be decommissioned and pos...

My rating: 3 of 5 stars We last visited with Patrick O'Brian's creations Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin in The Ionian Mission during which they spent an interminable amount of time in a blockade off Toulon. It was a boring assignment for Aubrey/Maturin and crew and somewhat boring for the reader, as well. Now, the action picks up again in Treason's Harbour , the ninth entry in the series. This tale is set mostly in and around Malta, which turns out to be a veritable hotbed of intrigue. Half the population seems to be spying on the other half and nobody is to be trusted. Spying, gathering intelligence, is, of course, the purview of Dr. Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and erstwhile biologist. Malta is both a Mecca and a nightmare for him. When his ship is sent on what turns out to be a wild goose chase that is meant to lead them into a deadly trap, it becomes apparent that the admiralty's intelligence network has been compromised. It is only Captain Aubrey's vas...

I love reading series, returning again and again to visit with characters that I've come to know and value. There are few series that I enjoy more than Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin British Royal Navy seafaring adventures set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic War.  Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin are by now old friends of mine, even as they are old friends of each other. They are veterans of many battles and have come far since the early days of their association when they served in the Mediterranean. In the number eight entry in the series, they return to the Mediterranean, but their circumstances are much altered. Aubrey is a senior captain commanding a line-of-battle ship in the Navy's blockade of Toulon. There are no dashing frigate actions here, no prizes to be won. Instead, a great line of ships maintains a long, cold, hard line, trapping the enemy French ships.  It is a boring and tedious exercise, and, throughout much of the book, the reader...

Jack Aubrey is such a dunderhead on land. On sea, captaining a ship of His Majesty's Navy,  he may be canny and virtually invincible - "Lucky Jack" they call him - but on land, his only luck seems to be bad and it's the luck that he makes for himself through utterly foolish decisions.  Time and again he's had to be rescued by his friend, the ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin. That will be the case again in The Surgeon's Mate , seventh in Patrick O'Brian's excellent historical naval fiction series of the Napoleonic War period. This book is a continuation and completion of the tale begun in part six of the series, The Fortune of War . Jack and Stephen have been ordered home by dispatch vessel from Halifax, following their escape from captivity by the Americans in Boston.  With them is Diana Villiers, Stephen's long-time love, who escaped from Boston and an abusive relationship, with the two. Her presence is enough to goad her former lover, a rich an...

The Fortune of War , sixth entry in Patrick O'Brian's historical tales of the seafaring adventures of Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin, was first published in 1978, but the writing seems so fresh that it might have been published yesterday. The two have just survived their adventure among the ice floes of the Antarctic and their stop on Desolation Island. Now, they arrive in the Dutch East Indies to find that Jack has been appointed to command the fastest and best-armed frigate in the Royal Navy, but he must get to England in order to receive his command.  He and Maturin, along with several of his officers and midshipmen who have been with them throughout their adventures, take passage on a dispatch vessel, but before they can reach their destination, a combination of accidents causes that ship to be burned and all on board are cast into the sea. Jack and Stephen are picked up by the  Java  which heads north along the eastern coast of the Americas. They learn, ...

The now prosperous Captain Jack Aubrey is plucked by the Admiralty from his time on shore with his family, wife Sophie and three kids, to take command of the  Leopard  and sail halfway around the world to deliver prisoners to Botany Bay in Australia and to rescue the benighted Governor Bligh of  Bounty  fame. Accompanying him as usual will be his friend and surgeon Stephen Maturin who doubles as a master spy seeking to shorten the war against Napoleon. Stephen is recovering (again) from his obsession with the two-faced Diane Villiers and from his addiction to laudanum. He discovers that among the convicts which they will be transporting is a beautiful woman spy who bears a resemblance to Villiers and who, in fact, was a friend of hers. He sets out to funnel false information through her to her spy handlers. But meantime, Dr. Maturin has his hands full as the ship is wracked by a deadly disease. The disease starts among the convicts but quickly spreads to the crew. Ev...

This fourth entry in the Aubrey/Maturin naval historical series finds Jack Aubrey in the uncomfortable position of being stranded ashore. He has married his beloved Sophie and they have twin daughters, who absolutely flummox the captain. Also in the Maturin household is the mother-in-law and a young niece. So this man's man is stuck in a household of five women, not to mention the servants who are also women. He has never been so lost at sea or so miserable. Into this domestic scene comes his friend Stephen Maturin with secret orders for Aubrey. He is to take command of a frigate under a commodore's pennant and will sail around the Cape of Good Hope and mount a campaign against the French-held islands of Mauritius and La Reunion in the Indian Ocean. This part of the book is based on an actual campaign that occurred during the Napoleonic War. Patrick O'Brian's note says that he kept close to contemporary accounts including Admiralty records in telling the story, although...

H.M.S. Surprise  is the third in Patrick O'Brian's twenty book historical fiction series concerning the English Navy in the Napoleonic War and early 19th century period. The entire series has been acclaimed by professional reviewers and ordinary readers alike. The books are extremely well-written with tenacious attention to detail and that continues to be true in this third entry. Fans of naval history love the series for its wealth of detail regarding the most arcane aspects of life on a navy ship in the early 19th century. O'Brian obliges them with long passages describing, in the terminology of the period, how the ships are set up and how they are run, and the passages concerning the naval battles, I am sure, have those who are turned on by such things drooling. That really isn't me and I confess my eyes glaze over a bit at those times and I tend to skim hurriedly through them. But these books aren't just about the hardships of life on board ship and about naval ...