HMS Surprise: Book 3 (Aubrey-Maturin)

‘Few, very few, books have made my heart thump with excitement. H.M.S. Surprise managed it. [O’Brian’s] erudition is phenomenal, as is his capacity for creating another completely believable world. I might have given a better idea of this book if I had simply written 600 times the word
“superb”.’ Helen Lucy Burke, Irish Times

‘As sinewy, and virile as its predecessors, this is a copper-bottomed investment for the numerous fans of Jack Aubrey... we sail breathlessly through perilous seas to the Far East. Vivid and authentic as is Mr O’Brian’s mastery of period and life at sea, it is in his creation of characters that he excels.’
Sarah Lake, Daily Telegraph

“Lucky” Jack Aubrey and his friend Stephen Maturin accept a commission to the East Indies in this tale of Nelson’s navy.

H.M.S. Surprise follows the variable fortunes of Captain Jack Aubrey’s career in Nelson’s navy as he attempts to hold his ground against admirals, colleagues and the enemy, accepting a mission to convey a British ambassador to the East Indies. The voyage takes him and his friend Stephen Maturin to the strange sights and smells of the Indian sub-continent, and through the archipelago of spice islands where the French have a near-overwhelming superiority.

Rarely has a novel managed to convey more vividly the fragility of a sailing ship in a wild sea. Rarely has a historical novelist combined action and lyricism of style in the way that O’ Brian does. His superb sense of place, brilliant characterisation, and a vigour and joy of writing lift O’Brian above any but the most exalted of comparisons.