Rating: 
Summary: Engaging
Review: "Fortune of War" is the sixth installment in Patrick O'Brian's monumental 20-volume 19th-century maritime series. It is full of energy, as Captain Jack Aubrey and best friend Stephen Maturin limp into port in HMS Leopard, after their adventures from the previous book. Aubrey learns that he is to be given a fine new ship, but must take a transport to Britain to meet her. He never makes it. He suffers shipwreck, two burnings, and two of the epic sea battles that O'Brian depicts so keenly that a reader is torn between reading them apace and pausing to catch some breath. The War of 1812 with the United States has begun and the American frigate USS Constitution is building what will become an enduring historical legacy. In Boston, Maturin meets Diana Villiers, his long-time love, and confronts shadows from his past of espionage. Once again, O'Brian has combed the historical records and offered up an engaging blend of fiction and fact. These ships did exist, the spirit of 1812 Boston is faithful and evocative. Odd as it sounds, Aubrey and Maturin have evolved in something of a Kirk-and-Spock team. Aubrey is all action, sometimes a bit shallow, but always gregarious and outgoing. Maturin is stoic, deep and introspective, and always pulling strings that others can not even see but that often reach across seas and years in their reach. They are a well-matched team, they make us smile. This is a good book.
Rating:
Summary: High Point
Review: A worthy addition to the life-changing Aubrey-Maturin opus, chiefly distinguished for this reader by its heart-stopping description of an attempted assasination attempt on Maturin on the fog-bound streets of Boston, an episode matched in the series only by the chase of the Waakhaamzheid in Desolation Island.
Rating:
Summary: A Fine Addition to a Great Series
Review: A year ago I read "Master and Commander" and was impressed. A month ago I read "Post Captain" and was hooked. Now I've read eleven of the installments of what has to be one of the great novels of the century. "The Fortune of War" is an epic, moving installment that works on many levels. Although a Yankee, I can't help but feel for Jack and the Brits as they try to salvage some honor from the War of 1812, a rather dishonorable war for all concerned. Who could fail to be moved by the image of the Constitution holding its fire rather than destroy the helpless Java? Or Captain Lawrence tipping his hat to Jack from the deck of the Chesapeake, only to be killed immediately afterward (O'Brian doesn't mention that it was Lawrence who said "Don't give up the Ship"). The battle scenes are thrilling but tinged with regret. In order to fit Jack and Stephen into actual historical events O'Brian has to put them into the background, and we share their anguish as one British ship after another falls victim to the tiny but tough American navy. Remember, this is during the Napoleonic wars, and the Americans were effectively allied with the Hitler of that day. This book was apparently written with Homer in mind. Jack and Stephen are unwilling participants in historical events, when all they really want to do is to go home, Jack to a new command (so he can come back and whip the Americans) and Stephen to deliver an important message to Sir Joseph. In between battles, shipwreck, near starvation, and certain execution, O'Brian finds time to consider timeless notions of duty, honor, loyalty and freedom.
Rating:
Summary: They keep getting better
Review: Amazing.
The above reviewer dissatisfied with this book misses the (whole) point I fear, else he is small-minded.
I confess I don't read for historical accuracy, but enjoyment.
This author has it all; psychology, character development, action/suspense, technics, logic, you name it. (Maybe not history; I don't follow.)
I am not a scholarly reader, but these books astonish me; I believe some of the best in english fiction.
Rating:
Summary: The Fortune of War
Review: An excellent book, though no less could be expected from O'Brian. I took a considerable amount of time off between Desolation Island and this book so the characters and the nautical terms were a little unfamiliar to me. After the first twenty pages or so the characters, terms and myself came together like three old friends laughing and remembering our past adventures. O'Brian re-introduces characters from his previous books (Diana Villiers, Michael Herapath and Louisa Wogan) which I found tiresome from his previous works. In this book, however, O'Brian uses these three characters to great effect. To see my old friend Stephen Maturin become the ruthless spy I always wanted him to be was exhilirating. This is an excellent book and should be read by anyone who professes a liking for sea stories or historical fiction. Any bibliophile who is aimlessly scanning these reviews and has not read this series should start as soon as possible. Any O'Brian fan who wants to know if this tale is as good as the others in the Aubrey-Maturin series, let not your heart be troubled, it is excellent.
Rating: 
Summary: Our Heroes Visit America
Review: As an American I found it extremely interesting to read "The Fortune of War." Fourth grade history books always gloss over the second war with Britain, now here's a book that brings it to life. My only problem: whom should I root for, our British heroes or my American countrymen? O'Brian has managed to inject his characters into several real historical battles without allowing them to have any influence on the outcome. If the main characters don't have an influence on the outcome, what's to keep a gal reading? A lot, it turns out. Subterfuge, espionage, romance, danger, and exploration of "the human condition" made this a page-turner for me. (Though not as much as the last book, "Desolation Island.") I recommend this book. If you liked the others, you should enjoy this one too.
Rating:
Summary: I love the whole series!!
Review: I bought all twenty of the hardbacks, and spent a few weeks ignoring everything else in my life. I was so absorbed by this series. It is fantastic. I'm sorry it came to an end. I bought the eleven books of Horatio Hornblower which I'm reading now. While it is enjoyable, they don't match up against Captain Jack and Dr. Maturin.
Rating:
Summary: An amazingly good novel
Review: If you have read the first five in this series you won't need any encouragement from me for you to read this one too, but this book is just so fantastic that I just have to share my opinion. Like the other novels in this series, it is extremely well written and full of very witty dialogue. It is also full of action and suspense both on land and sea. As a matter of fact, I think the action on land, involving Stephen Maturin's activities as a spy, are even more suspenseful than the sea battles, which are also very well done. O'Brian balances his two main characters very well in this book, Aubrey dominating the action at sea and Stephen dominating the action on land. O'Brian also gets the reader involved in his characters' personal lives. For example, Diana returns to the scene in this book, and Stephen wrestles with his conflicting feelings towards her. The two sea battles depicted in this book were real historical battles and O'Brian does a great job making them come to life. Even though I knew who was going to win both battles, they still seemed very exciting and I was still in suspense as to what was going to happen to the fictional characters during these battles. Being an American, it bothers me just a little that the Americans are the bad guys in this book, but O'Brian is very fair in that he never depicts Britain's enemies, whether Spanish, French or Americans, as being particularly evil. They are simply the enemy. In fact, both Aubrey and Maturin like Americans in general. Anyway, novels simply don't get more entertaining than this.
Rating:
Summary: Excitement by land and by sea...
Review: In "The Fortune of War" Patrick O'Brian cranks up the action & never lets it falter. This, the 7th installment of the Aubrey/ Maturin series, starts in Java & takes us to the infant United States where war has been declared with Britain. Jack Aubrey & his friend Stephen Maturin survive a fire at sea, near death from dehydration & exposure, a close battle at sea which leaves Aubrey with a severely injured arm, being taken prisoner by the Americans, pneumonia & fatal intrigues between battling intelligence agents. The situations Maturin finds himself in due to his previous disinformation campaigns are particularly exciting. The book ends with a victorious HMS Shannon defeating USS Chesapeake right outside Boston Harbor. This is an intricately plotted, exciting installment of Patrick O'Brian's excellent series, that wraps up story lines from previous books, & introduces complications to be pursued in the following "The Surgeon's Mate". If you are dipping into this series, you will definitely not want to miss "The Fortune of War"! It will leave you eager for the next book.
Rating:
Summary: O'Brian mixes history and espionage well
Review: Of the early Aubrey-Maturin novels, this is my favorite! O'Brian has dug deeply into historical reality to place his characters in the middle of the War of 1812, making real-life sea heroes like Bainbridge, Lawrence and Broke come alive in their scenes with Aubrey. What's more, O'Brian finally lifts the veil off Maturin's espionage, as Stephen's previous activities have blown his cover, and enraged the U.S.-based French intelligence officers who hope to make him pay big-time. Less talk, more action than in earlier books, as French and American spymasters hunt down Maturin in Boston. Yet he has time for another coup, and Aubrey recovers from serious injuries to show amazing resourcefulness and courage in engineering Maturin's escape. Regarding the obligatory-and-thrilling battle scenes, American readers will cheer the USS Constitution's capture of HMS Java, and mourn anew the bloody defeat of Lawrence's USS Chesapeake by the determined Captain Broke of HMS Shannon. O'Brian does an excellent job of describing just how seriously the little US Navy humiliated the Brits during the Second War of Independence. Finally, O'Brian plucks the romantic heartstrings with grace as he renews Maturin's and Diana Villiers' relationship (which I'd earlier found unconvincing) in a most unusual fashion.
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