In this installment of the Aubrey-Maturin series, Captain Aubrey is tasked with carrying a load of convicts to New Holland (Australia) and assisting Captain Bligh (yes, that Captain Bligh, of HMS Bounty infamy) with his troubles with the locals there.

Patrick O'Brian is a seal: a most graceful creature in the water. His ability to fully immerse the reader in the early 19th-century British naval experience is unparalleled. He is, hands-down, the greatest historical novelist I've ever read. Seldom has a writer been able to create such a fully realized atmosphere as this. Certainly, this series is at its highest point when they are out at sea, doing what sailors do, talking how sailors talk. Even if you don't fully understand everything, you just go with it. It's surprising how much you pick up just by the way it's presented.

Unfortunately, seals aren't very graceful on land, and neither is PO'B--both just sort of bouncing around. Land is where the gestation takes place for their sea-based lives, so it's a necessity. But it's where they're both extremely vulnerable.

The first quarter of this novel takes place on land, and that's a little bit much. Once they are under sail, the narrative picks up, but the story hasn't really developed yet. It's not until about the halfway point that things get interesting. There's a slight espionage subplot that carries throughout the story, but most of what happens is just a few disjointed events that show us the situations sailors experience while they're at sea. It's almost as if O'Brian realized by book five that he had a loyal readership following his adventures, so he decided to spread the story ideas thinly across all the novels in the series, rather than use up too many in one novel.

The characters are well done. We have Jack Aubrey as the captain, and the situation closer to the end certainly brings home the mutiny aspects hinted at by referencing Captain Bligh early on in the story. We have Stephen Maturin with his espionage work, but also his doctoring work when typhus breaks out. The ship's crew is familiar to us from the previous books, but the characters of Mrs. Wogan, a convict, and Michael Herapath, a stowaway, add nicely to the mix.

Unfortunately, towards the end, the narrative gets heavy-handed. O'Brian trusts himself and his readers to be able to figure out what's going on with all the nautical jargon, but when it comes to the espionage, he resorts to over-explaining instead of just presenting it to us and going with it. Somewhat telling, though, this takes place on land. The story isn't quite fully resolved at the end, but the espionage subplot has been taken care of, and it's a fitting place to end it. That means book six can start on the sea almost from the get-go.

For new readers, start at book one, Master and Commander, because there's a lot of educating that goes on in that one. Skip book two because it's useless (it also happens to take place mostly on land). Then read the rest in order. Contrary to the extremely traditional nature of these novels, I recommend reading them as ebooks. You'll be better able to look up nautical terms and archaic place names, as well as locating the coordinates Jack takes during the voyage. The Patrick O'Brian Mapping Project (cannonade.net/) is also a useful tool, as well as other online resources dedicated to this series, but beware that they could potentially include spoilers. Enjoy.