The Mauritius Command (Aubrey/Maturin Novels, 4)

He’s an exceptionally fine storyteller, and excels at both interior and exterior dialogue. His yarns are full of human characters you’ll (over the series) come to love and admire, warts and all. This series embodies the idea(l) that books are time machines.But it’s all about the language for O’Brian. Whether nautical, medical, zoological, or gastronomic, you’ll be referencing texts (or websites) to better understand the myriad archaic words and phrases his characters employ. Context allows a rough parsing, but a finite grasp requires a deeper dive.The same advisory applies to the concepts of sail-powered naval combat — O’Brian gives the reader a rudimentary primer, but a fuller comprehension (& appreciation) can be had with a modicum of research. (The Internet is, after all, at your fingertips!) His books entertain but will also make you think, and work a little, too. If you’ll find this is an annoyance or imposition, then these aren’t the books for you — only inquiring minds need apply.

The 4th novel in O'Brian's series of Cpt. Aubrey and Dr. Mautrin has Aubrey made acting Commodore in command of a small flotilla seeking to disrupt the French presence off the coast of south Africa and make an amphibious landings on two small islands off Madagascar. Both charges challenge Aubrey's considerable nautical skill.As Aubrey's responsibility grows, he soon finds so do the complications of command as he quickly learns a complaining crew is much easier to handle than managing the egos and navigating the political waters of senior command. The interaction between Aubrey and his peers, the infighting, manipulation and machinations between officers (those directly under his command as well as those above him) make for particularly riveting reading, every bit as interesting as the battles at sea.I am continually impressed with O'Brian's ability to keep the stories fresh: as readers become better acquainted with Aubrey and Maturin, the plots become more complex and larger, and one's understanding of the characters becomes deeper. In _The Mauritius Command_, the ante is upped further by basing the story on true events in the Napoleonic wars. The series is every bit as good as fans would have you believe. Highly recommended.

O’Brian is a remarkable guide into another time and place whose writerly talents are awesome to behold. His ability to capture a bygone era both puzzle and bemuse, as the reader has no idea whether the rich idioms he employs in his dialogue and descriptions are the product of meticulous research or are (oh so skillfully) made up in whole cloth.I know enough of the Napoleonic era age of fighting sail to know that the nautical descriptions are impeccably accurate, so one wants to believe the dialogues are equally true. This reader wonders nonetheless, but having said that, in truth it hardly matters. As my high school a English teacher would say, “it works.”Why only four stars then?Only on a comparative basis basis with the author’s other works and evident aspirations. The central plot element of the book is poor, doomed, Captain Clonfort, a lieutenant contemporary of Jack Aubrey in his early years who Aubrey later eclipses. The initial incident which presumably sets up Clonfert’s inferiority complex is a bit muddy in presentation, leaving the reader wondering what the take away is supposed to be. Was Clonfert actually cowardly? It’s not clear. If he wasn’t, what’s the significance of that scene?Also of note, O’Brian is apparently portraying an actual Indian Ocean campaign, superimposing Jack Aubrey’s persona on the exploits of a real captain(s). That’s quite interesting, but constraining. Perhaps the story line could have been more effective had it not been more constrained. Certainly O’Brian’s result would be more laudatory if his result had been transcendent rather than simply workmanlike.In sum: a very worthwhile and readable book. But an author with so much talent sets himself a bar that a five star rating is comparatively much harder to attain.

This book is well written enough to re-read in a multiplicity of encounters, like all the others in this amazing series. This is my fourth time through the entire saga: first in hardback, second in paperback, third in compiled tomes, and now fourth in Kindle format: portable, available, approachable, a complexity of literary elegance that improves like fine wine with age. The quality of the writing draws the reader more deeply with each reading, and the artistry becomes more compelling. Take this phrase for example: "...the great lambert stars hanging there in a velvet sky...". More than a storyteller, it takes an artist to bring the sounds of the sea lapping at the wooden sides of a ship on a warm tropical night right into the readers senses. The vocabulary, the attention to detail, the penetration of insight into the human condition; all these draw the reader into a more engaging encounter with the author, yardarm to yardarm, with undaunted broadsides of give and take. I'd recognize this author's voice anywhere, and take pleasure being in the company of an old friend. O'Brian is certainly "a deep old file."

i like this author

Read this book in 2008, and its the 4th wonderful outing in the "Aubrey/Maturin" series.In this tale at the beginning Captain Jack Aubrey is on shore at half pay without a command, when Stephen Maturin arrives with secret orders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a commodore's pennant.With a mighty expedition sailing towards the Indian Ocean, their action will need to be done against the French and their Islands, Mauritius and La Réunion.But not carrying out his orders correctly are two Captains who are thwarting Aubrey's orders and those men are Lord Clonfert and Captain Corbett.With two of his ships in turmoil, with a possible mutiny at hand on board these same ships, commodore Aubrey will need all his strength and determination to get those ships into line with all the others while performing their actions to the full satisfaction for the British Monarchy against the Islands from Napoleon's France.What is to come is another wonderful authentic written tale by this amazing author, in which Aubrey, Maturin and all the others figures come vividly to life within this tale set in the Napoleonic Wars, a war that is fought in this part of the world between Britain and France on the waves of the Indian Ocean.Highly recommended, for this is another amazing addition to this wonderful series, and that's why I like to call this episode: "A Superb Mauritius Command"!

Great service

Eine weitere sehr spannende Erzählung aus der Serie Aubrey/Maturin, die die perfekte Mischung von Seefahrerroman und Historie darstellt. Die Spannungsbögen zwischen den Charakteren sind psychologisch wunderbar, die Eitelkeiten, Unsicherheiten, Erfolge und Misserfolge in einer wunderbaren Sprache beschrieben. Deshalb unbedingt auf Englisch lesen.

Another un-put-downable instalment in this brilliant series. Worth reading just for the description of the captains of Aubrey's squadron. I would love to read an account of the real life events this is presumably based on.As always one thing feels strange : it is very hard to get an accurate impression of the time that goes by : weeks and months blur, and the pace of the action is sometimes hard to grasp : did that battle last mere minutes or endless hours? One can only hope it was the former for the sake of all concerned...