In this installment of O'Brian's maritime epic, Captain Aubrey and the crew of the Surprise are pursuing an American privateer through the Great South Sea. As is his custom, O'Brian grabs your attention with the first, beautifully memorable sentence: "A purple ocean, vast under the sky and devoid of all visible life apart from two minute ships racing across its immensity." And he doesn't relinquish it until 260 pages later, by which point Jack Aubrey is delighted at the mere fact of being alive.


From Publishers Weekly
Though the Jack Aubrey-Stephen Maturin books can be profitably read separately, as fans know, together they read as one long, wonderful novel. This 16th installment (following The Truelove ) is no doubt the best chapter yet. In the early 1800s, Bluff Jack, captain of the privateer Surprise , steers his frigate across the Pacific to South America, around Cape Horn and into the Atlantic, taking French and American prizes, fighting off a Yankee Man of War and suffering dire eye and leg wounds for his trouble. Subtle Stephen, ship's doctor and British intelligence agent, almost pulls off a coup in Peru and must escape across the Andes, losing some toes to frostbite for his efforts. Favorite characters reappear here: Killick, Jack's crabby steward; Sarah and Emily Sweeting, precocious Melanesian waifs attached to Maturin's sick-berth; Sam, Jack's illegitimate black son and rising Churchman. The naval actions are bang-on and bang-up--fast, furious and bloody--and the Andean milieu is as vivid as the shipboard scenes. As usual, readers can revel in the symbiotic friendship of Jack and Stephen, who make for a marvelous duo, whether in their violin and cello duets or in their sharp dialogue. If O'Brian hasn't quite had a break-out book yet, then this deserves to be it. 40,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo; author tour. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
On the high seas in the early years of the 19th century, when full-rigged sailing ships carried cargoes of treasure and slaves and privateers were a continual threat, surgeon-spy Stephen Maturin and his good friend Capt. Jack Aubrey have set sail for South America. Their ship is a privateer with a crew more than ready to board and capture anything in their path. This 16th entry in O'Brian's long-running saga opens as the two men and their crew encounter a volcanic eruption and continues as Maturin, engaged in diplomatic scheming, heads for Peru, where he finds an exotic array of birds and animals as well as opportunities for espionage. Readers already familiar with the series will enthusiastically welcome this new chapter; others may find the references to earlier adventures and distant characters confusing. The plot groans under detailed descriptions of everything from managing the sails to galley-table etiquette. Recommended for libraries holding O'Brian's earlier works. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/93.- Elsa Pendleton, Boeing Computer Support Svces., Ridgecrest, Cal.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Alan Ryan, The Washington Post Book World
[O'Brian is] an author who is moralist, naturalist, and naval historian into the bargain.... Meticulously researched and heart-stoppingly vivid.


From Booklist
Slicing through the swells of the South Seas, HMS Surprise heads for the Peruvian coast on a general-purpose patrol. It's wartime circa 1812, so Captain Aubrey captures en route an American ship and its French master before discharging his main mission: depositing pal and secret agent Dr. Maturin ashore so he can foment revolution against the Spanish. Thickly annealed to this basic action, layer after layer, is talk--stilted talk about swabbing decks; Rousseau; anatomy and medicine; minuets and quartets; the quality of wines--all intended to evoke shipboard life in the days of sail. Moby Dick this ain't, but O'Brian's not aiming for the ages: he strikes for readers hungering after nautical minutiae, which he has served up in nearly two dozen tales of sea salts, many starring the Aubrey/Maturin duo. O'Brian appeals to those who buy into his maritime formulas--and the publisher banks on 40,000 doing so this time. Gilbert Taylor


From Kirkus Reviews
Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin--the amiable, music-loving heroes of O'Brian's wonderful sail-powered series (The Truelove, The Letter of Marque, The Far Side of the World, et al.)--follow orders into the midst of revolutionary South American politics. His Majesty's government has become interested in Peru, where the Spanish vicegerency is tottering and the beastly French seek greater influence. Who better to send to see that, when the old order falls, the new government is Anglophilic than that extremely clever half-Spanish ship's surgeon and spy Stephen Maturin? Maturin, concert-quality cellist, and Captain Jack Aubrey, the best violinist ever to command a man-o'-war, have successfully concluded their business in the South Pacific and are on board Surprise, a privateer. Licensed to steal anything they find in the way of enemy shipping, the duo make it a profitable crossing, taking their biggest haul from the Yankee ship Franklin, which carries, in addition to tons of loot, one Monsieur Dutourd, who says he's just another string-player and utopian disciple of Rousseau but who seems entirely too interested in Peruvian politics. Dutourd presents a problem in that he and Maturin have crossed paths in Paris, and if they land in Lima together, Maturin's identity as a British spy may become known. Along with fretting about Dutourd, Dr. Maturin is concerned about his assistant and fellow naturalist the Rev. Mr. Martin, whose belief that lust in one's heart can result in venereal disease has brought him to death's door. When the sailors at last reach the shores of Peru, Dutourd escapes and Maturin's mission, complicated enough by the various revolutionary factions, becomes a real hair-raiser involving an arduous transit of the Andes, where he is spit on by llamas and sees the great condors. Literate, leisurely, and as charming as the rest of the series. The illustrated guide to sails and masts is worth the price by itself. (First printing of 40,000) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
Praise for The Aubrey/Maturin series:

"Taken as a whole, the Aubrey/Maturin novels are by a long shot the best things of their kind, so much better than the competition that comparisons long ago ceased to be relevant: they are uniquely excellent..." - The New York Times Book Review

FROM OUR EDITORS

At the outset of an adventure filled with disaster and delight, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are pursuing a prize through the Great South Sea, where the strange color of the ocean waters (reminding them of Homer's famous description) is a portent of violence. Patrick O'Brian's brilliantly detailed narrative reunites them in a breathtaking chase through stormy seas and icebergs south of Cape Horn, where the hunters suddenly become the hunted. "The pleasures of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels defy enumeration...These are books that offer the reader both sensual and intellectual enjoyment, the pleasures of immensely stylish writing as well as the pleasures of engagement with an author who is moralist, naturalist, and naval historian into the bargain."-- Washington Post.

ANNOTATION

1st American ed.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

At the outset of this adventure filled with disaster and delight, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin pursue a heavy American privateer through the Great South Sea. The strange color of the ocean water reminds Stephen of Homer's famous description, but it also portends a spectacular submarine volcanic eruption that will create a new island overnight and leave an indelible impression on the reader's imagination. Their ship, the Surprise, is now also a privateer, the better to escape diplomatic complications from Stephen's mission, which is to ignite the revolutionary tinder of South America. Jack will survive a desperate open-boat journey and come face to face with his illegitimate black son; Stephen, caught up in the aftermath of his failed coup, will flee for his life into the high, frozen wastes of the Andes; and Patrick O'Brian's brilliantly detailed narrative will reunite them at last in a breathtaking chase through storm seas and icebergs south of Cape Horn, where the hunters suddenly become the hunted. This is storytelling without models or equals in recent literature; critics have noted in O'Brian's great Aubrey/Maturin epic, now sixteen volumes in length, haunting echoes of such writers as Joseph Conrad, Herman Melville, and Jane Austen. Some readers will respond to the undeniable excitement of the chases, storms, and battles, others to the precision of language, or the humor, or the wealth of erudition in Maturin's researches and conversations. But the truest mark of O'Brian's stature as a novelist may be the great number of readers who find fresh delights and deeper resonances in rereading his novels.

SYNOPSIS

At the outset of an adventure filled with disaster and delight, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are pursuing a prize through the Great South Sea, where the strange color of the ocean waters (reminding them of Homer's famous description) is a portent of violence. Patrick O'Brian's brilliantly detailed narrative reunites them in a breathtaking chase through stormy seas and icebergs south of Cape Horn, where the hunters suddenly become the hunted.

"The pleasures of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels defy enumeration...These are books that offer the reader both sensual and intellectual enjoyment, the pleasures of immensely stylish writing as well as the pleasures of engagement with an author who is moralist, naturalist, and naval historian into the bargain."—Washington Post.,br>

"The best historical novels ever written."—New York Times Book Review. 288pp.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Though the Jack Aubrey-Stephen Maturin books can be profitably read separately, as fans know, together they read as one long, wonderful novel. This 16th installment (following The Truelove ) is no doubt the best chapter yet. In the early 1800s, Bluff Jack, captain of the privateer Surprise , steers his frigate across the Pacific to South America, around Cape Horn and into the Atlantic, taking French and American prizes, fighting off a Yankee Man of War and suffering dire eye and leg wounds for his trouble. Subtle Stephen, ship's doctor and British intelligence agent, almost pulls off a coup in Peru and must escape across the Andes, losing some toes to frostbite for his efforts. Favorite characters reappear here: Killick, Jack's crabby steward; Sarah and Emily Sweeting, precocious Melanesian waifs attached to Maturin's sick-berth; Sam, Jack's illegitimate black son and rising Churchman. The naval actions are bang-on and bang-up--fast, furious and bloody--and the Andean milieu is as vivid as the shipboard scenes. As usual, readers can revel in the symbiotic friendship of Jack and Stephen, who make for a marvelous duo, whether in their violin and cello duets or in their sharp dialogue. If O'Brian hasn't quite had a break-out book yet, then this deserves to be it. 40,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo; author tour. (Nov.)

Library Journal

On the high seas in the early years of the 19th century, when full-rigged sailing ships carried cargoes of treasure and slaves and privateers were a continual threat, surgeon-spy Stephen Maturin and his good friend Capt. Jack Aubrey have set sail for South America. Their ship is a privateer with a crew more than ready to board and capture anything in their path. This 16th entry in O'Brian's long-running saga opens as the two men and their crew encounter a volcanic eruption and continues as Maturin, engaged in diplomatic scheming, heads for Peru, where he finds an exotic array of birds and animals as well as opportunities for espionage. Readers already familiar with the series will enthusiastically welcome this new chapter; others may find the references to earlier adventures and distant characters confusing. The plot groans under detailed descriptions of everything from managing the sails to galley-table etiquette. Recommended for libraries holding O'Brian's earlier works. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/93.-- Elsa Pendleton, Boeing Computer Support Svces., Ridgecrest, Cal.

AudioFile - Marc F. Pettingill

Ostensibly, the long-running Aubury-Maturin series is an adventure story based on English navy life in the early nineteenth century. True enough, but the series is also a compendium of the period￯﾿ﾽs naval lore, philosophy, etiquette, medicine, religion, politics and more. Tull￯﾿ﾽs narration is superb; he reads the two main characters as if they￯﾿ﾽre his alter egos and gives each supporting character a lively and convincing voice. The delivery is beyond the question of believability; it is simply, absolutely correct. This masterfully presented work will captivate those with a historical bent and anyone who enjoys a reader with an unerring command of the nuances of the spoken word. m.f.p. ￯﾿ﾽAudioFile, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin—the amiable, music-loving heroes of O'Brian's wonderful sail-powered series (The Truelove, The Letter of Marque, The Far Side of the World, et al.)—follow orders into the midst of revolutionary South American politics. His Majesty's government has become interested in Peru, where the Spanish vicegerency is tottering and the beastly French seek greater influence. Who better to send to see that, when the old order falls, the new government is Anglophilic than that extremely clever half-Spanish ship's surgeon and spy Stephen Maturin? Maturin, concert-quality cellist, and Captain Jack Aubrey, the best violinist ever to command a man-o'-war, have successfully concluded their business in the South Pacific and are on board Surprise, a privateer. Licensed to steal anything they find in the way of enemy shipping, the duo make it a profitable crossing, taking their biggest haul from the Yankee ship Franklin, which carries, in addition to tons of loot, one Monsieur Dutourd, who says he's just another string-player and utopian disciple of Rousseau but who seems entirely too interested in Peruvian politics. Dutourd presents a problem in that he and Maturin have crossed paths in Paris, and if they land in Lima together, Maturin's identity as a British spy may become known. Along with fretting about Dutourd, Dr. Maturin is concerned about his assistant and fellow naturalist the Rev. Mr. Martin, whose belief that lust in one's heart can result in venereal disease has brought him to death's door. When the sailors at last reach the shores of Peru, Dutourd escapes and Maturin's mission, complicated enough by the various revolutionary factions, becomes a realhair-raiser involving an arduous transit of the Andes, where he is spit on by llamas and sees the great condors. Literate, leisurely, and as charming as the rest of the series. The illustrated guide to sails and masts is worth the price by itself. (First printing of 40,000)