H.M.S. Surprise

Every Patrick O’Brien novel – especially all of the Aubrey Maturin series – should be required reading for anyone who loves a great story with compelling characters, adventure, suspense and just the slightest touch of romance. Add to that that they are steeped in actual history – based on the logbooks of the RN captains who sailed in the era about which he writes – these are history lessons in the most entertaining form imaginable. Highest recommendation i could possibly give.

Anyone who reads O’Brian’s books knows that they are all outstanding. Each is essentially a time machine that carries its readers back to the Napoleonic wars, onto the decks of British fighting ships and amongst the men who sailed them. I rate all 21 books 5 stars; I’m undecided on the last, unfinished book.
Read all of them – you’ll learn more history than most college courses teach.

What I love about Patrick O’Brian’s fiction is his command, his understanding of human nature and, more importantly, his ability to capture that understanding in words that very convincingly depict the most essential element a writer can convey – life with all its ups and downs in a completely believable way. This novel captures the time and place very well too. I am rereading the series after several years of reading contemporary authors accounts of this slice of history. I think any fiction reader will do well to read all of O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin novels as well as all of the Dewey Lambdin Lewrie novels and of course Dudley Pope’s Ramage novels. I highly recommend H. M. S. Surprise.

The story is set in the time of Bonaparte. Captain Aubrey of the British Navy must fight the French Navy with a small British frigate. The scholarship is outstanding, not only in time, uniforms, customs and pay, but also in the rigging of the ships (right down to the names of some of the grommets,) but also in armament and strategy (speed of wind, power of current and tides, and the all important “Weather Gage.”) I have read all the O’Brian stories once, and now I am reading them a second time. My joy is undiminished.

When Stephen is captured by the French and tortured, Jack and the Surprises rescue him and then sail east, carrying an envoy to his new post. Stephen continues to pursue Diana while Jack suffers for his inability to marry Sophie.

As always, this book lacks a coherent storyline – it offers more a collection of episodes in Jack & Stephen’s lives. But the characters are so vivid and engaging that I can forgive O’Brian’s apparent inability to write a novel with a definite beginning and end. Don’t avoid this series, saying you don’t like battle scenes; I don’t either, and I just skim them. There is plenty of people action to interest those of us who aren’t crazy about war stories.

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