Surgeon's Mate

Let's GOOO! Thank god they got together, my heart couldn't bear it anymore.

I'm posting this in March, but I'm counting it as a February read since I actually finished it in February! The Surgeon's Mate is my latest Aubrey-Maturin read, and while I do continue with the general Aubrey-Maturin love, I have to admit I found this one a bit erratic in quality.

There's a subplot with Jack that I found simultaneously amusing and annoying--and it winds up getting resolved in a way that really leaves nothing for Aubrey to do but privately angst about it for a little while and not, as near as I can tell, actually gain much from the experience. (I'll have to see whether this is actually different in later novels.) Meanwhile, there's quite a bit of mileage with Stephen doing nifty spy things, which is far and away the more interesting part of the book. Also of quite a bit of interest is the romantic subplot involving Stephen, which was very nice to see dealt with after what happened with him on that front in earlier books.

I found that the book really didn't pick up for me until the final quarter or so, but that part definitely made it worth the read. So I'll give this one three stars.

Repeated from review of Book 1

That Patrick O'Brian chose to place his characters on the sea in the not so distant past just raised the hurdle I had to leap to get to know this wonderful author.

I had never been enamored with sea stories, didn't much care for European history, and yet was wonderfully taken with this series. The sea is a major character, but history is not greatly illuminated, almost a backdrop to the specific circumstance the characters find themselves in. Which perhaps reflects the author's view, while the wide sweep of Europe's history progresses, men are left to deal with far smaller local problems.

And it is in men that O'Brian shines. O'Brian creates characters flawed enough to be human, without becoming base. Not the best of men, but rising to better as circumstance demands.

And while the author leaves the great sweep of history largely aside, the detailed history of these men's lives, the sacrifices, the conditions of life at sea are truly fascinating.