Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating addition to a fabulous series
Review: The opening of THE MAURITIUS COMMAND finds "Lucky" Jack Aubrey married, poor, and bored. He is without a command, on half pay, and doing no more than tinkering with his telescopes. Happily, his particular friend Stephen Maturin comes bearing glad tidings: an assignment leading an expedition to capture the French-held islands of Mauritius and La Reunion just east of Madagascar.Unlike the previous novels, where Jack commands a vessel usually unattached from joint maneuvers, he here commands several ships. Unfortunately, the Commodore (as Jack is temporarily called) has a problem: the captains of the three primary ships are troublesome. Lord Clonfert nurses a long held jealously of Jack's fame and success, and has a tendency for self-promotion and showmanship. Pym is solid, but in the end lacks judgment in battle. Corbett is the polar opposite of Jack in regard to discipline. While Jack believes in discipline, he staunchly believes that brutality and frequent punishment is both cruel and counterproductive, leading to an unhappy ship. Corbett, on the other hand, is a savage disciplinarian, and keeps his crew on the edge of mutiny. All of the novels in the series have their unique appeal, and this one delights in its chronicling the course of a single campaign, a campaign that O'Brian notes is based quite closely on real events. The novel is also superb in its setting in a locale of which most readers will be utterly unfamiliar. It is also fun because more than in the previous novels, Stephen Maturin plays a more prominent role as an intelligence officer, and his work on the islands in fermenting rebellion against the French is as crucial as Jack's role in leading the military expedition. I would caution anyone tempted to read O'Brian to start with the very first novel and work from the first to the last. I deeply love these books, but they do not stand alone.
Rating:
Summary: First-rate REAL historical fiction!
Review: This fourth novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series shows more narrative unity than the first three, which is partly a function of Jack Aubrey's now-exalted rank. As a newly promoted commander in a small sloop, and even as a post captain, he was at the beck of more senior officers. Now, as commodore in command of a squadron of several ships-of-the-line and lesser warships, plus a small herd of transports and Indiamen crowded with troops, he has reached a position of high command, with orders to capture the French outpost islands of Mauritius and La Reunion in the Indian Ocean. As Dr. Maturin privately notes in his diary, Jack was probably happier as a junior officer, with only his own ship and men in his direct responsibility; now he must manage other ships's captains at one remove, deal diplomatically with the Army, and oversee the installation of a new British governor. O'Brian hews closely to historical fact in narrating this little-known but complex campaign, and he also delves more deeply into the psychology of the supporting characters -- especially Lord Clonfort, a not unintelligent but very unhappy young commander apparently afflicted with bipolar disorder, who constantly seeks the approval of his own subordinates as well as his seniors. As true historical fiction, this volume is, for me, the most enjoyable in the series yet.
Rating: 
Summary: Not up to the series' reputation
Review: This is the fourth book sequentially and the second I've read of the extremely popular Aubrey/Maturin series of historical novels.
After a brief and interesting look at Jack's less than blissful connubial life with the wife he married at the end of "HMS Surprise", O'Brian whisks us off to the Indian Ocean, where French frigates based in Mauritius have been making havoc with the ships of the East India Company, so central to England's economy, not to mention the private wealth of many of it's most powerful people. (One merit of the books is how they show us that, even if another conflict is known as the First World War, the Napoleonic Wars were in fact fought on fields and seas throughout the world.) Aubrey is lifted to the rank of Commodore and given the assignment of defeating the enemy vessels and, if possible, capturing Reunion and Mauritius.
The ups and downs of the campaign , which O'Brian states are based closely on history, make for a good story. But the Aubrey/Maturin characters are not as developed as in "HMS Surprise", and the potentially interesting characters who are introduced aren't given enough space to live up to their promise, with the exception perhaps of the foppish but courageous Lord Clonfert, a captain in Aubrey's squadron. His rival captain Corbett, a sadistic disciplinarian, isn't on stage enough to emerge as an individual, nor is another rival captain, Pym.
O'Brian obviously has a vast knowledge of the ship designs, tactics, methods, slang, even cuisine of the Royal Navy he describes. But he shows little mercy for the reader who is unlikely to share his expertise. Thus one of the points of a story like this, to show Jack Aubrey using tactical resourcefulness to salvage a difficult situation, falls flat. Aubrey's maneuvers are described fully enough, but O'Brian fails to explain why a given decision was made. In the absence of authorial assistance, the numerous description of how various sails are manipulated tells us little indeed.
The story ends rather suddenly; just when it seems to be really taking off, it's all over in a few pages.
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