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Title: Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian ISBN: 0-393-30812-X Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: August, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.72 (32 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: O'Brian's height
Comment: Desolation Island is one of the richest, and at the same time most easily approached, titles in the Aubrey Maturin series. I'm an avid Patrick O'Brian reader, one who's been through the series more than once, and I'm running through this one again right now at spare moments.
Maybe it's heretical to suggest not starting with the first book, but Desolation Island, H.M.S. Surprise, and The Far Side of the World are the ones I recommend to people when I'm trying to get them hooked. Master and Commander is excellent, but it seems to me like O'Brian was writing for a genre audience to start with. (The historical setting is truly wonderful and the characters are a delight, but he was writing for readers who were already interested, say, in the detailed workings of the royal shipyards.) By the time he got to Surprise he had hit his stride, at least for me. The books had stopped being "Another variation on sea life during the Napoleonic age" for him, and the world he was writing just feels complete and right.
Also, those three books all feature long, solo voyages. It's a simple point, but that plotline is easier for a beginning fan to understand and follow. In some ways it gets at the heart of O'Brian's writing best, too. The ship's community as a close, isolated society, the complex nature of Jack's choices as captain, Stephen's isolation with his secret life, the consolation they take in their friendship -- those elements all shine during the long voyages throughout the series.
Desolation Island, as a starting point, also includes one of the most exciting, tense chases in the series. It has a full set of complex minor characters whose fates you really do care about, and it's one of those O'Brian plots that gives you a double-take or two if you don't know where it's going. Highly recommended.
Rating: 5
Summary: Aubrey's and Maturin's Desperate South Seas Voyage
Comment: Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin return in "Desolation Island", Patrick O'Brian's fifth installment in his critically acclaimed Aubrey/Maturin series of novels, on a mission to rescue Admiral William Bligh from yet another mutiny in New South Wales, Australia. It is a mission fraught with much excitement and peril, since Aubrey's ship, the elderly fourth rate H.M.S. Leopard, is chased by the Dutch warship Waakzaamheid through frigid, uncharted waters between Africa and Australia. Without a doubt, this is one of the most suspenseful chapters in the Aubrey/Maturin saga; it is also my personal favorite. I concur with a previous reviewer who sees a strong resemblance between this novel and those of British espionage novelist John LeCarre.
Rating: 5
Summary: Series humming along
Comment: I started the Aubrey/Maturin series with an audiobook version of Master and Commander and switched to print with Post Captain. At first I was a little intimidated with nautical terms and the prose, but by Desolation Island, I was firmly hooked. I looked up and I was halfway through Desolation Island and already looking forward to the following novels. Needless to say, do not start with this book, start at the beginning, for the whole series is a narrative that never really comes to a close at the end of one book. That said, looking back I think Desolation Island is the best of what I have read so far (no reflection on the later books, which are outstanding). It combines everything I love about the series, it has naval battles, interesting character development between the two protagonists, Maturin's love of natural science as well as political intrigue and other developments in the overall story.
Fantastic book and maybe the highlight of the series. The chase with the Dutch 74 gun is a fine example of why I love the series.
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Title: The Surgeon's Mate by Patrick O'Brian ISBN: 0393308200 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: January, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Ionian Mission by Patrick O'Brian ISBN: 0393308219 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: January, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Treason's Harbour by Patrick O'Brian ISBN: 0393308634 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: April, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian ISBN: 0393307069 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: November, 1990 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Reverse of the Medal by Patrick O'Brian ISBN: 0393309606 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: August, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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