Member Reviews

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  • Rated 5 stars

  “(book 8 of a 21-book series, published 1981):
  6980 pages of pure joy - culturally & linguistically immersive historical literature, set on the sea of the Napoleonic Wars. Ah, so captivating, I sincerely miss plunging from one book to the next now that they're complete. Yes, this was an adventure my Mom started me on, buying one of the first books as a present based on a review she read. The language, the leadership, the relations, the sea, rich with characters one learns to love. I'll look back with fondness on my 21 weeks of sailing with O'Brian across his inspired imagination.”

  Teduardo wrote this review Wednesday, February 20 2008. ( reply | permalink )
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  • Rated 0 stars

  “The Ionian Mission by Patrick O'Brian. Another Aubrey/Maturin novel. This one takes a slightly different tack than most. Usually Aubrey is sent off in a small, fast ship for a mission in an exotic part of the world: but this one has him assigned to a slow ship of the line (Worcester, 74) doing dreary blockade duty in the Mediterranean; where barnacles, boredom, naval politics and a diminishing supply of spars are the chief enemy.
  
  Despite this realism, O'Brian manages to keep enough plot elements in play to keep things going. There are a couple of nicely comic scenes. Action heats up a bit towards the ending.”

  TheophileEscargot wrote this review Wednesday, January 9 2008. ( reply | permalink )