Desolation Island

Rating:
Summary: Great read about a terrible trip
Review: I have been reding the series through starting with master and commander. Desolation Island and The Maritius Command are both fast paced and hard to put down. the story moves along well and reding it I can see much of it is setting the reader up for future adventures with Aubrey and Maturin. Both of these books move at Sea and give great insight into political and military strategies of the Napoleonic world, but don't get overly stuck in domestic (home life) and the social mores of the day which make Post Captain an Treason's Harbor(which I read out of order) move slowly and somewhat of a struggle to read.
I have just gotten Fortune of War and hope that it will be as good as Desolations Island.

Rating:
Summary: When bad things happen to good sailors...
Review: "Desolation Island" is probably my least favorite Aubrey/Maturin novel. I should add that it contains the single most exciting description of a sea battle that I have ever read! This alone makes it well worth reading. The description of the "horrible old Leopard" racing thru towering seas desperately trying to stay ahead of "the bloody minded" Waakzamheid is guaranteed to make your pulse beat faster & your head shake in wonderment as you visualise it. The towering seas these men faced in their wooden vessels are awesome to contemplate, & Patrick O'Brian's descriptive powers will make the scenes vivid to your minds' eye.

Jack Aubrey & Stephen Maturin have become so real to me in the course of this series that I have a difficult time reading about bad things happening to them. It may sound silly, but since most of "Desolation Island" is a series of misfortunes & tragedies, it was hard going for me. Unlike other installments of this 20 book series, the plot of "Desolation Island" is pretty much self-contained; it has very few repercussions in the later books in the series. Of course, any reader embarking upon Patrick O'Brian's world will eventually want to read all his tales, but this one would be safe to read out of sequence.

Rating:
Summary: When bad things happen to good sailors...
Review: "Desolation Island" is probably my least favorite Aubrey/Maturin novel. I should add that it contains the single most exciting description of a sea battle that I have ever read! This alone makes it well worth reading. The description of the "horrible old Leopard" racing thru towering seas desperately trying to stay ahead of "the bloody minded" Waakzamheid is guaranteed to make your pulse beat faster & your head shake in wonderment as you visualise it. The towering seas these men faced in their wooden vessels are awesome to contemplate, & Patrick O'Brian's descriptive powers will make the scenes vivid to your minds' eye.

Jack Aubrey & Stephen Maturin have become so real to me in the course of this series that I have a difficult time reading about bad things happening to them. It may sound silly, but since most of "Desolation Island" is a series of misfortunes & tragedies, it was hard going for me. Unlike other installments of this 20 book series, the plot of "Desolation Island" is pretty much self-contained; it has very few repercussions in the later books in the series. Of course, any reader embarking upon Patrick O'Brian's world will eventually want to read all his tales, but this one would be safe to read out of sequence.

Rating:
Summary: The high point of the Aubrey-Maturin series
Review: A really gripping read. O'Brian's books are best when there's tension among the crew, and that's definitely the case here.

But be warned: if you've never read any of O'Brian's novels, they're not always an easy read. I lent this book to a friend, telling her it was a real page-turner. A week later she said, "Ok, I give up, where's the good part?" I checked: turns out the action doesn't really start until page 160. But it's worth the wait...

Rating:
Summary: Another Aubrey/Maturin triumph.
Review: A wonderful story which, true to the O'Brian tradition, combines good honest story-telling with a rigorous attention to the detail of everyday life in the early 19th Century, both ashore and afloat. The build up to the loss of the Dutch ship "Waakzaamheid" at the height of a full blown gale in the Southern Ocean whilst in pursuit of HMS Leopard is one of the best pieces of writing I have ever come across - dramatic in O'Brian's typically understated way. Strongly recommended and as ever a consistently better read than Hornblower or Bolitho.

Rating:
Summary: A solid installment in the series
Review: After the disjointed Mauritius Command, I found Desolation Island a refreshing change to the plot devices that maked this series worthwhile. Instead of loosely commanding a squadron of ships as in the prior novel, Captain Jack Aubrey is again commanding a single ship here, the Leopard, accompanied by his good friend (and fascinating character), Stephen Maturin. Stephen really takes center stage in the novel, since his on-again off-again relationship with Diana is explored early, and Stephen (with his intelligence background) is intricately involved in the action of the novel as American agents are aboard the Leopard, on the verge of the outbreak of the War of 1812.

Since the entire novel takes place, more or less, on board the Leopard we see more of the interaction among the characters, especially Aubrey-Maturin, an odd American stowaway, and a pretty female prisoner with ties to both Diana and the American stowaway. There is a tremendous naval battle involving a much larger Dutch ship, and a desperate detour towards the Antarctic as Aubrey fights to save his ship among calamity and possible mutiny as the Leopard races to rescue the infamous Captain Bligh. For fans of the series, there is a great deal here to like, and I thought the book was as good as anything I have read thus far by O'Brian.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best in the series
Review: Another classic Aubrey/Maturin novel. The chase between the Waakzamheid and the Leopard more than surpasses any of the Hornblower novels. (As Mary Renault said, it's really not fair to compare with Forester; O'Brian is so much better.) Combined with Maturin's schemings on the intelligence side, Desolation Island is not to be missed.

Rating:
Summary: Elegant writing, short on action
Review: As with the previous four Aubrey-Maturin books, this one is well-written. Humor abounds, and the richness of character is beautifully done. It's also similar to the other four in its paucity of action. Alexander Kent's Bolitho series and Dudley Pope's Ramage tales are much better for vivid action, and include the same level of detail that O'Brian used so well. I plan to read the rest of this series, partly because I enjoy the interplay between the main characters so much. One minor point that grows irritating as the books go on: O'Brian used "cried" as a verb much too often, would have been nice if someone had mentioned that to him as constructive criticism early on. Overall, though, "Desolation Island" is recommended reading.

Rating:
Summary: LeCarre in the South Atlantic
Review: Aubrey and Maturin are back at it again in a combination period piece, sea chase and spy story. As usual action is subordinated to the use of language and period detail although O'Brian manages to build nail-biting suspense into the story.

Desolation Island begins with the two protagonists having their problems on land. Aubrey, who has become wealthy as a result of his participation in the Mauritius Campaign, is being cheated and swindled on land. Maturin again tries to contact Diana and is addicted to laudanum. Both men need to go back to sea. In this installment the duo have to transport convicts to New South Wales and retrieve William Bligh who has survived yet another mutiny. The convicts may include a spy and Maturin must use his counter-intelligence expertise. They are also undermanned from plague and must face a grueling sea chase in the South Atlantic.

While the story itself is exciting O'Brian, as always, uses the novels as a vehicle to discuss universal problems with humanity. For instance, Maturin's addiction to laudanum is as relevant to day as it was when it was written and when it was set. Appropriate punishment for crime is still a question. A possibly fatal voyage to New South Wales and exile for often relatively minor crimes was harsh by our standards. Perhaps some of our punishments will seem harsh and some lenient 200 years hence.

The spy story is perhaps the most crucial thread running through the novel. Maturin, an Irishman, has subordinated his dislike of English rule in order to fight the greater tyranny of Napoleon. To succeed he must employ methods that are akin to the enemy he fights. Desolation Island is in some ways similar to contemporary works by LeCarre such as The Honourable Schoolboy or The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. It is the spy story that has the most tension and provides the ultimate climax.

While it has a bit of slow start Desolation Island is another solid entry in an excellent series.

Rating:
Summary: O'Brian's height
Review: Desolation Island is one of the richest, and at the same time most easily approached, titles in the Aubrey Maturin series. I'm an avid Patrick O'Brian reader, one who's been through the series more than once, and I'm running through this one again right now at spare moments.

Maybe it's heretical to suggest not starting with the first book, but Desolation Island, H.M.S. Surprise, and The Far Side of the World are the ones I recommend to people when I'm trying to get them hooked. Master and Commander is excellent, but it seems to me like O'Brian was writing for a genre audience to start with. (The historical setting is truly wonderful and the characters are a delight, but he was writing for readers who were already interested, say, in the detailed workings of the royal shipyards.) By the time he got to Surprise he had hit his stride, at least for me. The books had stopped being "Another variation on sea life during the Napoleonic age" for him, and the world he was writing just feels complete and right.

Also, those three books all feature long, solo voyages. It's a simple point, but that plotline is easier for a beginning fan to understand and follow. In some ways it gets at the heart of O'Brian's writing best, too. The ship's community as a close, isolated society, the complex nature of Jack's choices as captain, Stephen's isolation with his secret life, the consolation they take in their friendship -- those elements all shine during the long voyages throughout the series.

Desolation Island, as a starting point, also includes one of the most exciting, tense chases in the series. It has a full set of complex minor characters whose fates you really do care about, and it's one of those O'Brian plots that gives you a double-take or two if you don't know where it's going. Highly recommended.