Please see my comments on Vol. 1, Master and Commander. ( )

Unexpected plot twists and delightful travelogue make this my favorite O'Brian novel so far: I am working through Patrick O'Brian's famed Aubrey-Maturin series in order, and am both proud and sad to say that I've reached the midway point with Book 10, "The Far Side of the World." But it is without reservation that I say that this is my favorite novel in the series so far.

Part of that enjoyment stems directly from my enjoyment of first nine books in this series - this is not an example of one sterling novel in a series of sub-par efforts. Rather, I appreciate "Far Side" for the new directions where O'Brian is willing to take the characters he has established so well.

The first nine novels can be safely broken down into "Aubrey novels" or "Maturin novels". The "Aubrey novels" have plots that follow the personality of Captain "Lucky Jack" Aubrey - they are action packed, with taut sea-chases and horrific broadsides. "Master & Commander" and "The Mauritius Command" fall into that category. The "Maturin novels," on the other hand, focus their plots on Dr. Stephen Maturin and his spy-games. "The Surgeon's Mate" is one of these novels. While all the novels feature the classic O'Brian love of language, their plots tended to focus on one over the other.

"Far Side" takes a new tack, as in this novel Aubrey is charged with tracking down an American frigate, the "Norfolk," that is harrassing British whalers in the Pacific. So there is lots of sailing - they have to get to the Far Side of the World, after all. O'Brian reveals himself as a travel writer of surpassing skill as he describes the wild sights that enchant the naturalist Maturin, including the Galapagos Islands. For the nature-lovers in O'Brian's cast of characters, the thought of spying a new type of beetle is just as romantic a notion as encountering a pod of eighty-ton sperm whales.

In addition to some spectacular travel writing, O'Brian musters up fights, murder, mayhem, shipwrecks, and even the sub-plot of Aubrey and Maturin winding up lost at sea, only to be rescued by seafaring Polynesian/Amazonians. The novel twists and turns, but always seems both plausible and restrained. Look for a lot of humor and touch-and-go action in this novel, and the novel's conclusion is highly satisfying and yet leaves one panting for Book 11, "The Reverse of the Medal."

Be warned - despite its title, this is not the sole O'Brian novel that was used to make the fantastic Peter Weir movie, "Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World." That movie borrowed several plots and ideas from many different novels in the entire series - you will surely recognize some of them in this book, but not all. For fans of the movie, this is a good thing - it will encourage you to read all the other novels as well. And you will be glad you did.

The book that the movie 'Master and Commander' is loosely based on. Here the enemy ship is American not French, and things end up a bit differently for our hero. ( )

Typical great Capt.Aubrey, Dr. Maturin adventure novel. ( )

This is the 2nd M&C book I've read, after the 1st in the series. I was disappointed in some ways. As before, the writing and the characters are great, really enveloping you in the world of the early 19th-century British navy. But I was quite taken aback by some of the offensive caricatures of Polynesians and women in this book, caricatures that are due to Mr. O'Brien, not to the characters in the book. It also felt like Mr. O'Brien was stretching for drama in the plot in a not very convincing manner.

(It doesn't affect my review, but just a note that the plot has almost nothing to do with the film, which is substantially better than this novel.) ( )