Okay so I have always wanted to read some of the Jack Aubrey/ Steven Maturin novels since Master and Commander came out because it is one of my favourite movies of all time. I chose this one rather than the ones used in the movies because it told the tale of Jack and Steven taking convicts to Australia and I thought the "Desolation Island" rereferred to in the title was Australia. It isn't, its an island in the middle of nowhere that the ship they are on, the Leopard ( a converted brig) finds itself anchored on after a conflict with a much more powerful Dutch ship. As a back story, Steven is sent on board to see if the convict Mrs Wogan is perhaps an American spy as Britain is on the edge of war with America. There is a stowaway who is in love with Mrs Wogan, who becomes Steven's assistant surgeon on board, a lot of illness, a race away from the Dutch ship chasing them, whalers, a surly know it all first mate instead of the ill Mr Pullings, and South American foreign ports in this very entertaining adventure.
I will say however, that I should have read this as an e-book as there was so much of the nautical and medical terminology that completely alluded me. If I had read it as an e-book I could have hit the "Look Up" feature on any word, as it was, I had to stop reading and google some of the words to find out what they meant. Kudos to the author Patrick O'Brian for, even though the book was written in 1978, it reads like a classic written at the time when it was set. ( I had just read Swiss Family Robinson and a lot of the prose was very similar!)
Interesting how Jack's joke about Weevils is actually from this book, not far Side of the World or Master and Commander, so obviously the screenwriters had read more than just these two novels of the series. Will I read anymore? Yes, possibly but only on e-book as lookig up words kept distracting me from the action in the plot. (What are Spankers and Mizzens anyway?) ( )

I haven't got time to properly read this lovely book again, but I love the close descriptions, the period phrases thrown in just often enough (like "cutting his coat according to his cloth"), and the close Third Person narrated internal monologue that keeps enough vivid action imagery to hold interest for several surprising pages.

Well worth a first or second read.
7 Feb, 12019 HE
Shira ( )

I haven't got time to properly read this lovely book again, but I love the close descriptions, the period phrases thrown in just often enough (like "cutting his coat according to his cloth"), and the close Third Person narrated internal monologue that keeps enough vivid action imagery to hold interest for several surprising pages.

Well worth a first or second read.
7 Feb, 12019 HE
Shira ( )

Desolation Island, Patrick O'Brian's fifth book in his Aubrey-Maturin series, once again see Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin take to the seas on one of His Majesty's ships during the Napoleonic Wars. Unlike previous novels, Aubrey's mission in this story is not explicitly for war, but rather to ferry prisoners to Botany Bay and there discover the fate of Captain Bligh (of HMS Bounty infamy) who was deposed as Governor of New South Wales following the Rum Rebellion. The early mention of Bligh and occasional references to him serve as a form of foreshadowing. The British government suspects one of the prisoners, a companion of Maturin's would-be lover Diana Villiers, of being a spy for the United States. Maturin must work to discover what information she has and how she both gathers and passes it along.
The majority of the novel focuses on Maturin's study of the woman and an American stowaway. The possibility of war with America looms ever-present in this novel (pgs. 42, 113, 264) with talk of the British policy of impressment and the unhappy coincidence that Aubrey captains the HMS Leopard, which fired upon and boarded the USS Chesapeake in 1807. This action was emblematic of worsening tensions between Great Britain and the United States prior to the War of 1812. Simultaneously, Aubrey finds one of his officers doubting his ability to command and, when injured in an action against a Dutch ship, those complaints intensify (pg. 210). Damage from an iceberg in the Southern Ocean leads the mutineers to abandon the floundering ship, leaving Aubrey and some of his more loyal sailors behind. From there, the action shifts to Desolation Island. There, further encounters with Americans foreshadow the United States' eventual entry into the war.
O'Brian's writing is its usual pleasure, firmly grounding readers in the world of life at sea during the Napoleonic Wars. That said, this novel reads more like a prologue for the eventual introduction of the United States as a belligerent to the war. Still, O'Brian handles the intrigue well and there's some good action for those looking for it. ( )

I'm finally getting back to Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series of Age of Sail novels after a bit of a hiatus. It's always a little hard for me to know exactly how to feel about these books. The deliberately old-fashioned style, complete with lots of historical slang, and the profusion of complicated naval terms make them much less fun and zippy reads than they seem like they really ought to be. Despite having read (or at least skimmed) an entire book-length guide to said terminology, I still can't follow any of the action when they're fighting storms or other ships at sea, which can get a little frustrating. But I do love the characters, and their wonderful odd-couple friendship, and the scattered moments of sly humor. I like those a lot.

This particular installment, which involves a voyage to Australia -- or at least in the direction of Australia, as they have various difficulties getting there -- seemed to me to feature a bit more slogging for a bit less reward than the last two, despite some character stuff for Stephen Maturin that did serve to regularly remind me just how fond of him I am. But once they reach the titular island, towards the end of the novel, things really came together in an interesting way, and I enjoyed the last fifty pages or so a great deal.

Rating: I'm going to give this one a 3.5/5 overall, but, hey, going very slowly and then finishing strong is better than going along well for a while and then finishing poorly. ( )