Ashore without a command--and on half-pay to boot--Jack Aubrey's prayers are answered when Stephen Maturin shows up with a secret mission for him. The two men have been ordered to the Cape of Good Hope. There they hope to dislodge the French garrisons on the islands of Mauritius and La Reunion. Alas, two of their own colleagues--a dilettante and a martinet--prove to be nearly as great an obstacle as the French themselves.


Amazon.com Audiobook Review
Sounding every bit the proper English gentleman, narrator Tim Pigott-Smith gives a delightfully entertaining, yet appropriately restrained performance in this rollicking addition to the popular Aubrey/Maturin series. Blending historical fact with fiction, author Patrick O'Brian has crafted another captivating saga based on obscure events in maritime history. "The frigates never reached the Antilles. Nothing was heard of them until they hit Mauritius, where they upset the balance of powers in those waters entirely. The news of their presence reached England a very short while ago." In less competent hands, efforts of this nature might well sink under the weight of pedantic prose and mind-numbing minutiae, but O'Brian's impressive writing and the considerable vocal talents of Pigott-Smith help keep this adventure, and the long-lived series itself, riding high in the water. (Running time: 5 hours, 3 cassettes) --George Laney


From Publishers Weekly
This initiates the reissue (see H.M.S. Surprise above) of O'Brian's long-out-of-print novels, set in Napoleonic-era England, about the unlikely pair, Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin. Aubrey is a strapping blond man of action; Maturin, his ship's surgeon and occasional intelligence agent to the king, is diminutive and somber. Aubrey is without a ship, uncomfortably surrounded by wife, babies and mother-in-law, when Maturin comes to visit. The good doctor has engineered a new mission for his friend, and they set off to take two small islands off the coast of Madagascar, thereby making the Indian Ocean safe for English commerce. O'Brian is a graceful writer, and the book is full of wonderful period details, such as the use of a sail to create a wading pool for non-swimmers in Aubrey's crew. Unfortunately, with Aubrey as commodore, too much of the action is seen from afar, as when batteries are taken on one of the islands. The book's peculiar narrative structure builds repeatedly towards anticipated climaxes that never happen. However, aficionados of C. S. Forester and Alexander Kent will delight in the almost excessive period nautical jargon. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Captain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half pay without a command--until Stephen Maturin arrives with secret orders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a commodore's pennant, there to mount an expedition against the French-held islands of Mauritius and La Reunion. But the difficulties of carrying out his orders are compounded by two of his own captains--Lord Clonfert, a pleasure-seeking dilettante, and Captain Corbett, whose severity pushes his crew to the verge of mutiny.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly