HMS Surprise, the third book in O’Brian’s series following the fortunes of Stephen Maturin and Jack Aubrey, stands out for me as clearly the best instalment so far. Aubrey, back in debt again, is given command of the HMS Surprise and is given the job of taking a diplomat out to the Far East by way of India. I never did quite figure out why they were required to go to India as all they did there was get repairs following damage sustained on the journey and give Maturin the opportunity to advance his amorous intentions towards Mrs Villiers. But never mind; the journey and the events more than made up for any lack in purpose!
In this volume O’Brian gets the balance between the sea and land action just right and by action I don’t necessarily mean actual fighting action of which there is, possibly surprisingly but certainly realistically, not very much. There is plenty of interesting sailing details involved in the journey that takes them right around the globe making the relative lack of fighting action unimportant, though there is one excellently described and paced sea action against the French. But more importantly the relationship between Maturin and Aubrey is developed in much greater depth and the entangled mess of their respective love lives seems to only get more entangled. However on this occasion I found this aspect far more palatable; less heavily romanticised and far less infuriating.
I also found O’Brian’s descriptions of the sailing considerably more accessible in this book. Now, whether this is because he made them so or because I am gradually getting more knowledgeable I’m not completely sure but I certainly found the sailing passages, both when becalmed and in storm, more vivid and enthralling than ever, but without being overwhelmed by excessive technical detail. His descriptions of the conditions south of Cape Horn, rising up the mountainous waves and sliding down into the troughs was utterly gripping and just begin to give a sense of what sailing in such seas must have been like. Whilst, of course, no book or even film can ever really give that whole picture, here O’Brian definitely gives a sense of it.
An excellent book and, without a doubt, my favourite of the series so far.
In this volume O’Brian gets the balance between the sea and land action just right and by action I don’t necessarily mean actual fighting action of which there is, possibly surprisingly but certainly realistically, not very much. There is plenty of interesting sailing details involved in the journey that takes them right around the globe making the relative lack of fighting action unimportant, though there is one excellently described and paced sea action against the French. But more importantly the relationship between Maturin and Aubrey is developed in much greater depth and the entangled mess of their respective love lives seems to only get more entangled. However on this occasion I found this aspect far more palatable; less heavily romanticised and far less infuriating.
I also found O’Brian’s descriptions of the sailing considerably more accessible in this book. Now, whether this is because he made them so or because I am gradually getting more knowledgeable I’m not completely sure but I certainly found the sailing passages, both when becalmed and in storm, more vivid and enthralling than ever, but without being overwhelmed by excessive technical detail. His descriptions of the conditions south of Cape Horn, rising up the mountainous waves and sliding down into the troughs was utterly gripping and just begin to give a sense of what sailing in such seas must have been like. Whilst, of course, no book or even film can ever really give that whole picture, here O’Brian definitely gives a sense of it.
An excellent book and, without a doubt, my favourite of the series so far.
