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sadie_slater's review
3.0
At the opening of The Mauritius Command, Jack Aubrey has married his Sophie and is living in a damp cottage with her, their twin daughters and her mother; a situation from which he is rescued by Stephen Maturin, arriving to offer him not only a ship but the opportunity to act as commodore of a small squadron, waging a campaign to capture the islands of Mauritius and La Réunion from the French. Like all the Aubrey/Maturin novels this mixes careful naval detail (in his author's note, O'Brien explains that the whole campaign is based on real naval actions) with social comedy and carefully observed human drama. Stephen's political influence has clearly continued to develop since HMS Surprise, as we now find him assigned as a political adviser to the whole mission; meanwhile, Jack has to learn how to command a squadron and not just a ship.
This was a more sombre book than I had expected; despite his famous luck, Jack doesn't take naturally to a more strategic level of command and the campaign involves significant losses, while one of the main supporting characters is the rather sad Lord Clonfert, who is clearly haunted by his failure to match up to Jack's achievements in what looks very like a form of Imposter Syndrome. (Mental illness is very much a theme of the novel, with the introduction of the surgeon McAdam whose interest is far more in diseases of the mind than those of the body, and as well as Clonfert's Imposter Syndrome we see Stephen's growing depression.) It also didn't seem to have quite as much of the interaction between Jack and Stephen that I loved in the first three books, as for much of the time the two are separated and going about their own business in the campaign. Still, I enjoyed reading it, and thanks to a lucky find in the Oxfam bookshop the other week I have the next four waiting to be read at some convenient point.
This was a more sombre book than I had expected; despite his famous luck, Jack doesn't take naturally to a more strategic level of command and the campaign involves significant losses, while one of the main supporting characters is the rather sad Lord Clonfert, who is clearly haunted by his failure to match up to Jack's achievements in what looks very like a form of Imposter Syndrome. (Mental illness is very much a theme of the novel, with the introduction of the surgeon McAdam whose interest is far more in diseases of the mind than those of the body, and as well as Clonfert's Imposter Syndrome we see Stephen's growing depression.) It also didn't seem to have quite as much of the interaction between Jack and Stephen that I loved in the first three books, as for much of the time the two are separated and going about their own business in the campaign. Still, I enjoyed reading it, and thanks to a lucky find in the Oxfam bookshop the other week I have the next four waiting to be read at some convenient point.
kateofmind's review
5.0
I'm realizing anew, this read-through of the Aubrey-Maturin novels, how much this series really depends on its fascinating array of guest stars, of which there are two in The Mauritius Command, both of great and sad importance: Captain Corbett, a vicious "flogging captain" whose idea of discipline is severe even by the standards of Nelson's navy, and Lord Clonfert, with whom Jack once served as a youngster but who hasn't done quite as well as Jack since. So, um, uh oh. We see trouble before we even meet the gentlemen in question.
We meet them on Jack and Stephen's latest mission, to take charge of a frigate, hang a commodore's broad pendant on it (thus signifying that Jack is, at long last, to command a squadron!) and head out to the African islands of Mauritius and La Reunion, there to take these potentially highly strategic islands away from the French, who are doing rather a half-assed job of using them as a base for action in the Indian Ocean. Consult a quality atlas if this confuses.
The action in The Mauritius Command highlights better than any we've seen so far just how much military vessels of this time period and since served as vast mobile artillery batteries. How else can ships take on an island? Float around and around in that effortless-looking way and unleash hell with the big guns on anything that looks like it might contain Frenchmen. Boom! And if the French are so bold and impetuous as to send out ships of their own to put a stop to this harassment, well, Commodore Lucky Jack Aubrey knows how to take care of those. This all goes off tolerably well, but for a couple problems, problems intimately tied in with the personalities of the two guest star captains I mentioned above. The trouble with Corbett is pretty straightforward; his crew are tired of getting fifty lashes every time a bit of tar plops down to mar the perfection of Corbett's decks and thus grow mutinous. The trouble with Clonfert....
Ah, Clonfert. Lord Clonfert is one of the most fascinatingly tragic characters O'Brian has written. A son of the Irish aristocracy -- who are not considered Irish by the Irish and are not considered real aristocrats by the rest of their class in the U.K. -- he's already got a chip on his shoulder before Jack shows up on the scene. Once Jack does, Clonfert pretty much loses it (and he's bi-polar to boot, I should mention; his crew are used to his mood swings and tolerate them because sailors "dearly love a Lord", but Stephen and Clonfert's own surgeon spend a lot of the novel shaking their heads over Clonfert's case) and mounts an all-out campaign to prove that he's just as good as his old shipmate, with disastrous results.
Fortunately, even as Jack is dealing with the consequences of having Corbett and Clonfert under his command, he is also working closely with an army colonel that is an infantry version of Jack himself, the capable and vaguely Sharpe-like Colonel Keating. Together they manage to overcome most of the obstacles created by the fractious captains. Most of them.
For of course, no officer, however capable, has any control over what his superiors say or do, or where they show up, just in time to steal his thunder. Feeling outraged on Jack's behalf is, however, all part of the fun of reading these novels.
And fun they most certainly are!
We meet them on Jack and Stephen's latest mission, to take charge of a frigate, hang a commodore's broad pendant on it (thus signifying that Jack is, at long last, to command a squadron!) and head out to the African islands of Mauritius and La Reunion, there to take these potentially highly strategic islands away from the French, who are doing rather a half-assed job of using them as a base for action in the Indian Ocean. Consult a quality atlas if this confuses.
The action in The Mauritius Command highlights better than any we've seen so far just how much military vessels of this time period and since served as vast mobile artillery batteries. How else can ships take on an island? Float around and around in that effortless-looking way and unleash hell with the big guns on anything that looks like it might contain Frenchmen. Boom! And if the French are so bold and impetuous as to send out ships of their own to put a stop to this harassment, well, Commodore Lucky Jack Aubrey knows how to take care of those. This all goes off tolerably well, but for a couple problems, problems intimately tied in with the personalities of the two guest star captains I mentioned above. The trouble with Corbett is pretty straightforward; his crew are tired of getting fifty lashes every time a bit of tar plops down to mar the perfection of Corbett's decks and thus grow mutinous. The trouble with Clonfert....
Ah, Clonfert. Lord Clonfert is one of the most fascinatingly tragic characters O'Brian has written. A son of the Irish aristocracy -- who are not considered Irish by the Irish and are not considered real aristocrats by the rest of their class in the U.K. -- he's already got a chip on his shoulder before Jack shows up on the scene. Once Jack does, Clonfert pretty much loses it (and he's bi-polar to boot, I should mention; his crew are used to his mood swings and tolerate them because sailors "dearly love a Lord", but Stephen and Clonfert's own surgeon spend a lot of the novel shaking their heads over Clonfert's case) and mounts an all-out campaign to prove that he's just as good as his old shipmate, with disastrous results.
Fortunately, even as Jack is dealing with the consequences of having Corbett and Clonfert under his command, he is also working closely with an army colonel that is an infantry version of Jack himself, the capable and vaguely Sharpe-like Colonel Keating. Together they manage to overcome most of the obstacles created by the fractious captains. Most of them.
For of course, no officer, however capable, has any control over what his superiors say or do, or where they show up, just in time to steal his thunder. Feeling outraged on Jack's behalf is, however, all part of the fun of reading these novels.
And fun they most certainly are!
justlcruz's review
3.0
A slow start that took me awhile to read through the shore story. Similar to real shore life. Finished with the great sea stories you expect from O'Brian.
buttonsbeadslace's review
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
readingpanda's review
3.0
When the fourth book of the Aubrey-Maturin series begins, Jack Aubrey is land-bound at his cottage in England. Married life is agreeing with him, overall, and yet ... he misses the ocean, the cottage is overcrowded, and he's living on half wages. Stephen shows up and soon, they have a mission which will send them halfway around the world to Mauritius to fight the French again.
The strengths:
As always, the friendship between Jack and Stephen
O'Brian's wonderful descriptions of everything; I could feel the bustling claustrophobia of Jack's cottage
Stephen's often-thwarted attempts to collect wildlife specimens in the exotic places he visits
The weaknesses:
With Jack often being at a distance from the action, it wasn't as exciting
Somehow, the book's pacing felt odd - both rushed and with long periods of not much happening
It was a good book, not stellar. But it's a long series, and HMS Surprise was absolutely wonderful, so this one suffers in comparison.
Recommended for: anyone already embarked on the series, fans of buddy road-movies
Quote: "'The coffee has a damned odd taste.'
'This I attribute to the excrement of rats. Rats have eaten our entire stock; and I take the present brew to be a mixture of the scrapings at the bottom of the sack.'
'I thought it had a familiar tang,' said Jack."
The strengths:
As always, the friendship between Jack and Stephen
O'Brian's wonderful descriptions of everything; I could feel the bustling claustrophobia of Jack's cottage
Stephen's often-thwarted attempts to collect wildlife specimens in the exotic places he visits
The weaknesses:
With Jack often being at a distance from the action, it wasn't as exciting
Somehow, the book's pacing felt odd - both rushed and with long periods of not much happening
It was a good book, not stellar. But it's a long series, and HMS Surprise was absolutely wonderful, so this one suffers in comparison.
Recommended for: anyone already embarked on the series, fans of buddy road-movies
Quote: "'The coffee has a damned odd taste.'
'This I attribute to the excrement of rats. Rats have eaten our entire stock; and I take the present brew to be a mixture of the scrapings at the bottom of the sack.'
'I thought it had a familiar tang,' said Jack."
wealhtheow's review
3.0
At the end of the [b:H.M.S. 'Surprise'|77427|H.M.S. 'Surprise' (Aubrey/Maturin Book 3)|Patrick O'Brian|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255923714s/77427.jpg|1200332], Captain Jack Aubrey finally had the chance to marry his beloved and settle down into a little country cottage. [b:The Muaritius Command|77431|The Mauritius Command (Aubrey & Maturin, #4)|Patrick O'Brian|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266467194s/77431.jpg|2393986] begins with his bff Doctor Stephen Maturin visiting him and offering Jack an opportunity to go back to sea. Jack leaps at the chance, both to return to the profession he loves and to get away from his hectoring mother-in-law and lumpish twin infants. And even better than he'd expected--when Jack makes it to La Reunon, he finds that he will be commanding the naval action. If he succeeds at the nearly impossible task of snatching Mauritius from the French, he might very well become an Admiral--but if he fails, his career will be over.
Jack is outgunned and outmanned, and several of the captains under his command are almost worse than useless. But through his own determined hard work and strategy, and Stephen's sly propaganda on land, success appears almost within reach...
I missed Sophie and Diana, and there was less interaction between Stephen and Jack than previously. But I was so glad to read about Stephen's depressed, almost viciously insightful thoughts on the people around him (and his deeply mistaken ideas of what was going on with the navy) and Jack's own terrible jokes and tireless, fearless action. What surprised me the most were Jack's own tact and tactical skills--all too often I fall back into the assumption that Stephen is the smart one, but truly the difference between them is the arenas in which they are gifted. I love these books for being full of nail-biting adventure and suspense--and also brimming with psychological insight. In fact, I love these books so much that I'm starting the next book as soon as I finish this review!
Jack is outgunned and outmanned, and several of the captains under his command are almost worse than useless. But through his own determined hard work and strategy, and Stephen's sly propaganda on land, success appears almost within reach...
I missed Sophie and Diana, and there was less interaction between Stephen and Jack than previously. But I was so glad to read about Stephen's depressed, almost viciously insightful thoughts on the people around him (and his deeply mistaken ideas of what was going on with the navy) and Jack's own terrible jokes and tireless, fearless action. What surprised me the most were Jack's own tact and tactical skills--all too often I fall back into the assumption that Stephen is the smart one, but truly the difference between them is the arenas in which they are gifted. I love these books for being full of nail-biting adventure and suspense--and also brimming with psychological insight. In fact, I love these books so much that I'm starting the next book as soon as I finish this review!
remocpi's review against another edition
4.0
Cuarta novela de la serie de Aubrey y Maturin, en la que el autor nos deja ver nuevas facetas de la vida en la flota. Vemos a Maturin actuar para levantar los ánimos de la población local a favor de los ingleses en los territorios que se piensan conquistar (Mauricio y Reunión), vemos a Aubrey comandar una escuadra de barcos en vez de un barco solo. Muy entretenida y con abundancia de acción.
stevenk's review
3.0
All of the battles in this book, both on land and at sea, are based directly on the real battle for the Mauritius Islands but with the fictional Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin mixed in. This book finds the main characters older and more subdued but still characters that O'Brian has made into likable old friends to the reader. O'Brian's attention to detail and love of the tall ships comes across and makes these highly enjoyable reads. I'm not recommending this one more because the reality got in the way of the story, the strange back and forth of the actual Mauritius campaign made this one drag a little bit at times.
bokashi's review
2.0
Better for those who are into military history. Less social intrigue than earlier books and not as much cultural commentary on the Southern Africa region where the story is set. Didn't work well as an audio book because too much hinged on which ship was which, who is who and geographic details I couldn't catch.
matthewlang's review
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0