The Far Side of The World

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Twists, Subtle Language
Review: The tenth volume in O'Brian's wonderfully intelligent nautical series finds Captain Aubrey and Stephen Maturin in Gibraltar, still aboard the Surprise. Their mission is to track an American ship down the Atlantic and on to the largely uncharted Pacific whaling grounds. While "Far Side of the World" contains none of the heart-pounding muzzle-to-muzzle naval battles that readers have come to expect in O'Brian's stories, it contains lots of imaginative plot twists nonetheless. A strange and tragic love triangle, a raft full of primitive lesbians, Maturin's disappointing visit to the Galapagos, and an oddly gripping denouement as the Surprises confront their American nemeses. The book is entirely afloat, with pit stops to refit, but no extended periods ashore with family or engaged in intelligence affairs. Maturin's friendship with Dr. Martin, a naturalist parson, provides comic relief at every turn.

O'Brian never fails to please. This book smoothly picks up where the last one left off, and leaves a thread or two dangling to launch the next volume. As always, the writing is brilliant and spare, the characters complex and developed, and the adventures well-researched, founded in British naval histories. Another great voyage.

Rating:
Summary: Am I missing something?
Review: This is my first O'Brian book, and after reading it, I can surely state that it will be my last! I don't get all the furor about what a great series this is, because I found that, even though I finished the book, I didn't enjoy it very much. The plot (what there was of it) moved at a snail's pace, and kept getting interrupted by naturalist lectures and other really boring asides between the characters. There was more than enough going on with nautical terms that had me scratching my head in puzzlement, and that certainly took away from the reading enjoyment. Nothing much happened in the book, and it went through several hundred pages for this nothing to finally come to an anticlimactic end. Mr. O'Brian certainly has his rabid fans, but I for one will not join them!

Rating:
Summary: Huh?
Review: This was the first book of the series that I've tried and this book did not catch my interest. Maybe I would have enjoyed it if I'd read some of the earlier ones but this book was very dull and had little action. I'll stick with Horatio Hornblower.

Rating:
Summary: A must read in the Aubrey/Maturin series
Review: Throughout his brilliant Aubrey/Maturin series, O'Brian has delighted his readers with the uneasy juxtaposition of order and chaos. The tension between the two reaches a fever pitch in "The Far Side of the World."

The title itself resonates with the struggle. Perhaps it had a literal meaning during the Age of Sail but, today, with jet travel and the internet changing our entire conception of time and space, the phrase seems archaic, as though the natural order we so take for granted is about to be stood on its head, and O'Brian is, indeed, taking us to the "far side"-- into a dark, chaotic world dimly perceived, little understood.

For O'Brian, a single, solitary female is usually enough to create tension and discord in an otherwise well regulated Man of War. That happens with Mrs. Wogan in "Desolation Island" and Clarissa Oaks in "The Truelove". Both women are stand-ins for the ultimate female provocateur of the entie series, Diane Villiers, who nearly destroys Aubrey's career in "Post Captain" and temporarily turns Maturin into a heart broken opium eater.

But in "The Far Side", 19-year old Mrs. Horner creates more than tension and discord aboard the HMS Surprise. Her adulterous affair leads to utter chaos and despair. O'Brian seemingly ties the entire plot together with the letter "H". There's Mr & Mrs. Horner, Hollum (the adulterer), Higgins (the abortionist), Howard (the callous, blood-thirsty marine,) and last but not least, the Greek Tragedian, Homer. The poetical Lt. Mowett is reading the Iliad, and on a dark, stormy night Maturin opines that Homer's Iliad is not only, "...the great epic of the world...," it is also, "a continued outcry against adultery."

Although he has no "H", the ventriloquist, Comptom, is all about chaos. His ability to project his voice in a shrill, inhuman fashion is another blow to the natural order. After one weird stunt right in front of no one less than the Captain, Aubrey tells Maturin, "It was the strangest experience: there he was, telling me things to my face as though he were invisible."

Later, at night, Jack Aubrey botches a familiar violin transition and Maturin admits that, "I was uneasy in my mind before we ever sat down; and for once music has not answered." For Maturin to admit that his playing with Aubrey for once "has not answered"-- he's saying a lot! Their music binds the two together. Music is how they express their devotion to one another book after book. And, now, the beauty and internal logic of music, which is somehow related to the system of math and the harmonic path of planets and stars, which in turn, are the well-spring of time and navigation-- well, all of it is out of sorts.

The sweet balm of music is so much wormwood for Maturin because, not only is there adultery aboard ship, Maturin has been receiving malicious letters from home alleging the infidelity of his wife, Diane Villiers.

Adultery, in short, is chaos. And adultery, abortion and murder coalesce in one of the eeriest scenes I can recall from the entire series. Howard shoots a baby manatee, and that night its mother commences a human-like wail for its child, circling the ship and spooking the entire crew. Not even "time" can stand the strain anymore. A marine sentinel caught up in the terror forgets to flip the watch glass and Aubrey cries out, "God's my life. What the devil are you thinking of? Turn the glass and strike the bell."

If you're racing through the Aubrey/Maturin series, strike your topgallants and drift awhile through the waters of "The Far Side". It's quite a voyage!

Rating:
Summary: The Best of the Best
Review: When reading the Aubrey/Maturin series it is hard to think that perhaps any one book is better then the rest. Because of O'Brians brilliant use of language and subtlety, the best book always seems to be the one you have most recently put down. This seems to be the case until you read The Far side of the World. This book has all the elements that you love about the series - great dialogue, authentic naval warfare, love, intrigue, and more - all rolled into one. O'Brian is able to present early 19th century life to you in a way that can only be equalled by primary sources. I would recommend that you read the series in order , but if you had to read just one make it The Far Side of the World.