From AudioFile
Companionship is certainly the key to happiness in life at sea. This first in O'Brian's series of Jack Aubrey novels introduces Dr. Stephen Maturin, intellectual foil to the captain's man of action. Earphones Awards winner Simon Vance juggles multiple characters, accents, and dramatic and comedic scenes with aplomb. Vance's warm, welcoming voice captures colorful characters, entertaining relationships, and not much plot. Readers in search of a handful of excellent companions with whom to spend many enjoyable hours will be hail and well met. R.O. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Now available in an attractive movie-tie-in jacket for the release of the motion picture Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World starring Russell Crowe: This, the first in the splendid series of Jack Aubrey novels, establishes the friendship between Captain Aubrey, R.N., and Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and intelligence agent, against a thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Details of a life aboard a man-of-war are faultless rendered: the conversational idiom of the officers in the ward room and the men on the lower deck, the food, the floggings, the mysteries of the wind and the rigging, and the roar of broadsides as the great ships close in battle. It is the dawn of the nineteenth century; Britain is at war with Napoleon's France. When Jack Aubrey, a young lieutenant in Nelson's navy, is promoted to captain, he inherits command of HMS Sophie, an old, slow brig unlikely to make his fortune. But Captain Aubrey is a brave and gifted seaman, his thirst for adventure and victory immense. With the aid of his friend Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and secret intelligence agent, Aubrey and his crew engage in one thrilling battle after another, their journey culminating in a stunning clash with a mighty Spanish frigate against whose guns and manpower the tiny Sophie is hopelessly outmatched.

FROM THE CRITICS

New York Times

The best historical novels ever written.

Observer

Patrick O￯﾿ﾽBrian can put a spark of character into the sawdust of time.

Sir Francis Chichester

The best sea story I have ever read.

Library Journal

These two selections represent a series of abridged audiobook versions of O'Brian's works narrated by Robert Hardy, that most blustery and unstudied of British actors. Hardy reads the stories cold, but here it works. He uses his voice to evoke everything from brutality to mannered drawing-room excesses to the physical threat of a storm at sea. The stories are superb depictions of life on a British man-of-war and incorporate O'Brian's exquisitely accurate historical detail (Testimonies, Audio Reviews, LJ 7/96). The friendship of protagonists Capt. Jack Aubrey and ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin plays out against an expanse of ocean, from India to the Atlantic, with a full complement of battles and adventures at sea for devotees of naval fiction. Highly recommended.--Mark Pumphrey, Polk Cty. P.L., Columbus, NC

AudioFile