The Mauritius Command

If you saw Russell Crowe play Jack Aubrey in Peter Weir's superb movie or if you read the novels and developed your own idea of how this vital lover-of-life would sound and act, you might have a problem with Simon Vance's pompous blowhard characterization of Aubrey. This is a rare misstep for Vance, but particularly unfortunate because Jack Aubrey is such a wonderful central character in this series of novels. I was glad I'd read the books years ago because the naval language is now somewhat familiar to me and might have been harder to follow if I was hearing these stories for the first time as an audio-book.

I'm bumping my rating of this up to five stars from four after my reread. Damn this is a fine addition to the Aubrey-Maturin series. There is genuine comfort in reading this book, and I think some of that comfort stems from Patrick O'Brian's comfort with his characters. O'Brian knows his men intimat......more

3.5 stars 2023 re-read: nothing to add to my original review below, except to note that it’s still a great read and I really enjoyed the look we received into Stephen’s inner turmoil, understated as it was, and I’m continually impressed with how skilled O’Brian is at both developing his characters a......more

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......more

Abbastanza incomprensibile. Un gran movimento di navi, con cambi di bandiere e nomi. Ci si perde un po'. Rimane l'affetto per Aubrey e Maturin, ormai compagni di viaggio fra loro e anche miei.......more