Number 17 in the Aubrey/Maturin series, The Commodore starts well, builds well and even has a dramatic finish. The last fifteen pages, however, almost appear to be O'Brian's attempt to finish the book as quickly as possible and fit the whole thing into some predetermined length. The fleet action that fills these pages seems distant, as if we were watching from some captain's logbook (which we probably are).
There's plenty of small-boat sailing when the Doctor discovers that he must leave the Bellona (Jack's flagship, now that he's a Commodore), rush into London to pick up some people and two huge chests of gold and rush down to Portugal. Small-boat for O'Brian but not truly small. Knight would call it a small yacht.
Anyway, a good story and quite satisfying. There's a little bit of landlubbering and some domestic surprises to round things out.
Comments (1)
My Japanese neighbor placed a copy of O'Brian's "Master and Commander" in my hands several weeks ago. Not wanting to have it lying around too long, and have to return it to him out of guilt for not reading it, I picked it up the other day for my first adventure. Good grief, I need a new dictionary to understand all the terminology. But so far it is an interesting read. I also need a map to determine where the "Sophie" is headed.
Posted by Dad | April 29, 2009 3:15 PM
Posted on April 29, 2009 15:15