The Wine-Dark Sea

Read this book in2009, and its the 16th wonderful volume of the great "Aubrey/Maturin" series. In this tale Jack Aubrey and his crew on their ship the "Surprise" are in pursuit after an American privateer through the Great South Sea. While pursuing this American privateer the colour of the ocean will......more

Doctor Stephen Maturin, an intelligence agent of formidable powers, is dispatched to discomfit the Napoleonic French and their allies. With him comes his particular friend, naval captain Jack Aubrey. Each of them has some successes on this long voyage--Jack takes a truly ridiculous number of prizes-......more

One of my favorite in the series yet. Imagine being in a sailing ship near an underwater volcano when it decided to erupt and push up to the surface! Ice bergs in the south sea at the tip of South America and a sea battle with an American Man of War and escaping by the skin of their teeth. Struck by......more

I quite enjoyed this volume which while full of the expected sea chases and exotic locales, also had a few unexpected surprises for me. Things literally start off with a bang as the Surprise’s chase of the American frigate Franklin is interrupted by the eruption of an undersea volcano, causing havoc......more

Still a great book, but I feel that this is the point where the quality of the series slightly decreased. O'Brian seems to run out of new material and ideas; and consequently he started to recycle old naval encounters, situations, and even jokes.......more