Scan barcode
ckjaer88's review against another edition
3.0
fflf's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.0
l1nds's review against another edition
3.0
teachinsci's review against another edition
4.0
dotorsojak's review against another edition
3.0
I'm a little puzzled by the high marks the goodreads community gives this one. There is no one mission and no particular villain either. Stephen has not much to do. A couple of characters are introduced and then dropped, or at least they disappear for long stretches of the novel. Jack gets a cold!
The best part of the novel is the opening few pages in which we learn about what kind of day-to-day husband Stephen makes. Funny.
Recommended only if you're determined to read your way through the whole series.
neilrcoulter's review against another edition
4.0
After a break from Aubrey and Maturin for a few months--mostly to take care of some nonfiction reading and reviewing--I finally have time to dive back into the continuing story. I went into Book 8, [b:The Ionian Mission|77429|The Ionian Mission (Aubrey/Maturin, #8)|Patrick O'Brian|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388360954s/77429.jpg|3575252], with a bit of fear, however. Why? Because the last time I tried to read through [a:O'Brian|5600|Patrick O'Brian|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1212630063p2/5600.jpg]'s series, this is the point at which I fizzled out and stopped the series. (This was partly because at that time I couldn't find a copy of Book 7, and it was difficult to get back into the series without having read that volume.) Added to that, a friend recently borrowed The Ionian Mission and returned it months later, saying, "This is really O'Brian at his most soporific; I could hardly pick up this book without falling asleep." So, I was worried. Was this the book that was going to stop my progress yet again?
I needn't have worried. I finished the book in a week and thoroughly loved it. Not only did it include the "double-bottomed defecator," but it featured subtle character development that kept me intrigued the whole way through.
Many ongoing plot points were settled, to some extent, by the end of the previous book, so this book is now a slow build into the next phase of the story. Jack's and Stephen's internal struggles start off very muted, but they will grow and develop through this book into what I assume will be the main conflicts in the next phase of their journeys.
Stephen is assigned a complicated negotiation mission in enemy territory--typical for him in these stories. But this time, now that he has "settled" (such as he and Diana ever will), the conflict he faces has a different depth than before:
If he were taken now he could expect no mercy at all: he could not hope to come away untortured or alive. In earlier days he had faced much the same kind of fate, but then there had always been a certain chance of deceiving the other side or of escape: and in those days he was not married - his aims were single-hearted and in any case he cared less about his life. (216)He is not much softer-hearted now than in previous books, but it is encouraging to see him beginning to develop a larger sense of the value of life.
Jack begins to wonder about his destiny. He is as pained by his unluckiness on shore as the reader has been on his behalf for the past few volumes. The adventure that started with such verve and enthusiasm and promise seems to perhaps be fading into a grey existence.
"I have noticed . . . that luck seems to play fair, on the whole. It gave Mitchell a damned ugly swipe early on, and then made it up to him: but, do you see, I had amazing good luck when I was young, taking the Cacafuego and the Fanciulla and marrying Sophie, to say nothing of prizes; and sometimes I wonder . . . Mitchell began by being flogged round the fleet: perhaps that is how I shall end." (127)But Jack is now more concerned for those around him--especially Pullings, who still awaits an action that will move him from Lieutenant to Post--than for himself. His bitterness toward certain superiors, such as Admiral Harte, is more tempered, and he so desperately wants to be a better quality of senior leader than many that he has served under.
As usual, the reader waits for the climactic battle that most of the Aubrey/Maturin books build up to. In this case, the reader waits almost the full length of the book, and has to work through some dizzingly complex political negotiations, but the battle finally begins. The end of the book sees the satisfying conclusion to a number of ongoing minor issues, while leaving open the larger matters of character development. I will be moving on soon, with much eagerness, to Book 9.
My reviews of the Aubrey/Maturin series:
Master and Commander
Post Captain
H.M.S. Surprise
The Mauritius Command
Desolation Island
The Fortune of War
The Surgeon's Mate
The Ionian Mission
Treason's Harbour
The Far Side of the World
The Reverse of the Medal
The Letter of Marque
The Thirteen-Gun Salute
The Nutmeg of Consolation
Clarissa Oakes
The Wine-Dark Sea
The Commodore
The Yellow Admiral
The Hundred Days
Blue at the Mizzen
21
michael5000's review against another edition
5.0
Audiobook, March 2015. Still awesome.
January 2021. Still awesome. This installment is particularly rich in memorable episodes and incidents.
jkrudop's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0