Rating: 
Summary: For general mastery of the form...
Review: I find most of the reviews herein posted tedious, paltry, self-congradulatory and even ludicrous in their oft-expressed "I know better than you" didactic sense. As if we are to willingly attach a significance to them that is somehow deserving of more weight than is our own experience. Well, this will not do, do you see, for in point of fact, the only proper way to appreciate an O'Brian tale is to take it at face value, for what it is in fact, rather than what it might be in theory. That said, by all measures, "The Far Side of the World" is a roaring good tale of swashbuckling adventure and while it is true that astute readers of O'Brian's work will encounter a plethora of in-depth material, it is also true that it is sheer folly to try to think of this novel as a work in and of itself. Not at all. "The Far Side of the World" is but one installment in a far greater work. For those who doubt my words, I reccomend "The Golden Ocean," and it's sister volume, "The Unknown Shore," which, in no uncertain terms, unequivocally introduces us to the characters that would later become Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. The rest of the reviewers here are, with all due respect, a bunch of jackasses. I should not be surprised to see them aboard a Margate Hoy. -JD
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best in the series
Review: I first discovered this series in the Grenadines almost twenty years ago when only the first two volumes were generally available in the US. Since, then, I've decided to read the entire series in order. This is not one of the best of O'Brian's efforts. The book starts out promising, with excellent sections on Brazil and Cape Horn but as the Pacific looms closer, the bones of the plot start to show. If I read of another improbable rescue of the principals, I may not have the fortitude to continue the series. Add to that a showy locquacity and the usual courtly pretensions of the Tories and you end up with what for me became a disappointment. I'm already well into the next volume and find it much more engaging.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't read this book first!
Review: I found this book in the airport news stand and bought it without having read any others of the series. While reading, I thought often about just putting the book down and going on to something else - I wasn't carrying anything else. Having read the other reveiwers, I will accept that possibly I would have been better able to understand the story's origins had I read the other 9 books first. Also, I accept that the vast amount of detail missing at the end of the book may be found in the next of the series. I thought - and still wonder - that maybe there are omission of paragraphs, pages, and possibly chapters from the printing I have. I was looking for a stand alone story, not a book I would need to read nine before-hand and one or more afterwards to "finish". If you want to read one book to decide if you like the series, this is not the one.
Rating:
Summary: Don't read this book first!
Review: I found this book in the airport news stand and bought it without having read any others of the series. While reading, I thought often about just putting the book down and going on to something else - I wasn't carrying anything else. Having read the other reveiwers, I will accept that possibly I would have been better able to understand the story's origins had I read the other 9 books first. Also, I accept that the vast amount of detail missing at the end of the book may be found in the next of the series. I thought - and still wonder - that maybe there are omission of paragraphs, pages, and possibly chapters from the printing I have. I was looking for a stand alone story, not a book I would need to read nine before-hand and one or more afterwards to "finish". If you want to read one book to decide if you like the series, this is not the one.
Rating: 
Summary: Worthwhile, but dense and very little like the movie
Review: I had been unaware of O'Brian's series until the movie came out; this is the first "Master and Commander" book I've read. There are a few warnings I would give to those who, like me, saw the movie and want to read the books. First, aside from the time period and the geography, there's very little that is the same between the movie and the book. The movie, believe it or not, has more in the way of violent action, but leaves out huge chunks of the story (and completely changes the ending, of course...which is good for keeping some suspense). Second, the prose is tough to adjust to. O'Brian worked hard to give his characters authentic 19th Century personas, and the whole book is written in somewhat archaic language. That said, it's an engaging (and well-researched) read with great attention to detail. I do recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile, but dense and very little like the movie
Review: I had been unaware of O'Brian's series until the movie came out; this is the first "Master and Commander" book I've read. There are a few warnings I would give to those who, like me, saw the movie and want to read the books. First, aside from the time period and the geography, there's very little that is the same between the movie and the book. The movie, believe it or not, has more in the way of violent action, but leaves out huge chunks of the story (and completely changes the ending, of course...which is good for keeping some suspense). Second, the prose is tough to adjust to. O'Brian worked hard to give his characters authentic 19th Century personas, and the whole book is written in somewhat archaic language. That said, it's an engaging (and well-researched) read with great attention to detail. I do recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: If you liked the movie don't buy this book!
Review: If you are looking for a written version of the movie you have come to the wrong place! This book is a slow moving look at life in the Royal Navy back in its hayday. While it does cover that topic in a somewhat interesting manner, it does not resemble the fast moving movie in anyway. There is not one naval battle of any consequence in the book. It is really unfair to judge the book based on the movie, but I want to make sure that no one else buys this book expecting an action packed story filled with exciting naval battles.
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps the best installment of a superb series.
Review: Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin voyage to unfamiliar waters, chasing an American frigate around Cape Horn, up the South American coast to the Galapagos and into the South Pacific. The American is laying waste to British whaling, and Aubrey's mission is to stop her. "The Far Side of the World" of course has O'Brian's signature scholarship, his extraordinary attention to the detail of a square-rigged ship during the Napoleonic Wars, his wit and sense of the absurd, and, best of all, his pulse-racing descriptions of a chase and battle at sea. What sets this installment a bit above its counterparts is the exhilaration of a chase that winds through two oceans and thousands of miles, and a wonderful scene wherein Aubrey and Maturin are plucked from the drink by a female crew of Polynesian men-haters. By all means, read this book. (But read all the others in the series first!)
Rating:
Summary: Exhilarating . . . But Easily the Weakest of the First Ten
Review: Patrick O'Brian himself seemed to recognize, in his prefatory comments, that The Far Side of the World was unequivocally his weakest effort in the series to this point. Plot is virtually non-existent: take command (again) of the HMS Surprise to find, and deal with, the USS Norfolk, which is harassing British whalers in the South Seas. Period. The novel nevertheless has a captivating title, which explains the decision by Universal-Miramax-Fox (which studio DOESN'T have a piece?) to cobble together the titles of the first and the tenth Aubrey-Maturin installments into possibly the single longest film title of the season. (And, judging from the trailer and the promotional materials, the movie will have absolutely nothing to do with The Far Side of the World beyond the appropriation of its title.)
What this novel displays amid its linear spareness, however, is O'Brian's particular genius in characterization, his anthropological eye for the details of nautical life during the Regency, and his love of imparting - in impeccably wrought, Austenian prose - the arcane bit of datum, observation, procedure, or lore. Working within a lean plot structure, he fills his customary 300-plus pages with new turns on his by-now signature themes and concerns - friendship, love, betrayal, heroism, integrity, leadership (indeed, a surpassingly good volume on "leadership" could be compiled from these books) - while continuing to build an encyclopedic account of life at sea in the early 19th Century. The humanity of O'Brian's two principal characters, and the manner in which both they and their relationship develop over the course of the series, is the essence of the literary miracle O'Brian has created. His hero, Captain Jack Aubrey, a lion at sea and a naïf ashore, has by the time of this novel been more than two years at sea, has left his beloved wife to deal with an army of creditors and bad business deals, and must bear the weight of a blustering father who, as a member of Parliament and the Radical anti-government interest, gives Admiralty leadership what justification it requires to disfavor Aubrey. Stephen Maturin - ship's surgeon, "natural philosopher," and naval intelligence operative par excellence - is Aubrey's "particular friend" (and, I presume, O'Brian's idealized literary self, in knee-breeches and smudged silk stockings). A brilliant epitome of the Enlightenment, Maturin, an Irish "papist," is uncommonly learned, wise in the ways of human frailty, as cunning ashore as Aubrey is naïve, and hopelessly in love with a woman whose fidelity he can never ensure. On their long voyage around the Horn to the "far side of the world," O'Brian has time to develop detailed expositions on aspects of seamanship and life at sea - objects of long research in the naval archives and among his own acquisitions - on which in the course of the series he has yet to comment. He provides discourses on whaling (for the unabridged version, see Moby Dick), the provisioning of ships, the education of "squeakers" - the young midshipmen who ship with Aubrey - ways to float ships grounded on sandbars at low tide, the society of seaman at sea and their omerta-like rules of conduct, and so much more. Of course, by this 10th Aubrey-Maturin novel, O'Brian knew he was in for the long haul. Here, as throughout the series, he demonstrates a sure mastery of pacing, planting a variety of ticking time bombs - for example, letters that will not be read until subsequent novels - and ties up, wholly or partially, ends left loose from earlier installments. (I would imagine these to be difficult novels to read out of sequence, even though O'Brian is diligent in trying to fill in necessary detail without becoming tedious to devotees.) Secondary characters like Sophie Aubrey, Diana Villiers, Aubrey's steward Killick and other members of ship's company, and assorted friends, heroes, villains, knaves, and simple walk-ons are all etched sharply by O'Brian and, if they're around for more than one tale, show a stable core of personality amid human variableness and growth. As an single example, I point to the development of the disturbing Mr. Andrew Wray - a senior Admiralty official of many sinister attributes who makes a brief but important appearance here - as being particularly impressive over several books. Worthier reviewers than I claim these novels to comprise the finest literary series ever written. I cannot imagine anyone reading more than one and not agreeing. Each book is at once wholly familiar yet entirely different from its predecessors, set in O'Brian's uniquely realized world, as fascinating ashore as at sea - with everything floating in O'Brian's poetic prose. Each book is worth the effort to encounter. But you may need help. I did. As companions to O'Brian's unstintingly accurate period language and settings - and particularly those who will never intuitively understand the meaning of "wear ship" or "haul wind" - I recommend the helpful work of Dean King, O'Brian's unauthorized biographer, who has compiled two indispensable reference works, a glossary and a gazetteer. And while I'm at it, permit me to commend the astonishing Recorded Books Unabridged editions of the Aubrey-Maturin novels, narrated by the incomparable Patrick Tull, who, with a myriad of accurate dialects and accents, transforms bare words on a page into spoken dramas of subtle beauty and rare power.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding.
Review: Patrick O'Brian is at fever pitch in this novel, the 10th in the A/M series. The action begins with the Joyful Surprise hitting the coast of Brazil, rounding the Horn, cruising the waters off Chile up to Juan Fernandez and the Galapagos, then heading west for the Marquesas, all in pursuit of the elusive Norfolk, an American frigate making trouble for British whalers. Aubrey's task is to stop her, if the mighty Horn and Pacific typhoons don't stop him and his resolute crew first. O'Brian's descriptive power is almost overwhelming as he takes us on this journey into the unknown, for, indeed, not much was known of the Pacific then. It's almost as if we see it for the first time, too, in all of its infinite beauty, expansiveness and danger. At this point in the series, O'Brian has me caring about these characters way too much for my own good. All of them, down to the ship's goat, are so well drawn in The Far Side of the World that it's almost heartbreaking for me to think there are only 10 books to go. When I get there, there will only be one place to go -- back to # 1, to enjoy it all over again.
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