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Desolation Island (Aubrey Maturin Series) | 
 enlarge | Author: Patrick O'brian
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy Used: $2.37
You Save: $11.58 (83%)
Rating:  49 reviews
Sales Rank: 103855
Media: Paperback
Pages: 325
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 039330812X
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780393308129
ASIN: 039330812X
Publication Date: August 1991
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: little bet up great book we ship out daily
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Captain Bligh (yes, the guy from the Bounty) needs to be rescued, and the Royal Navy has the perfect man for the job: Captain Jack Aubrey. With his friend and cloak-and-dagger expert Stephen Maturin in tow, Aubrey sets off for Australia. Several factors, including an attractive spy and a small-scale epidemic, conspire to change his plans, and before long his frigate is being pursued into Antarctic waters by a Dutch man-of-war. Five installments into the series, the Aubrey-Maturin story remains (to quote The Observer) "the best thing afloat since Horatio Hornblower."
Product Description
Read by Tim Pigott-Smith
Three cassettes, Approx. 5 hours
The 5th novel in Patrick O'Brian's hugely successful Aubrey/Maturin Series
Commissioned to rescue Governor Bligh of Bounty fame, Captain JackAubrey and his friend and surgeon Stephen Maturin sail the Leopard to Australia with a hold full of convicts.Among them is a beautiful and dangerous spy--and a treacherous disease that decimates the crew.With a Dutch man-of-war to windward, the under-manned, out-gunned Leopard sails for her life into the freezing waters of the Antarctic where, in mountainous seas, the Duthman closes...
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| Customer Reviews: Read 44 more reviews...
 Aubrey shipwreck on land / master at sea April 12, 2008
J. Hinkel
I enjoyed this book. Besides the fact that Napoleonic History is a hobby of mine, I believe that the author truly has put to words what a naval commander must feel while assigned to year long mission. Aubrey is miserable on land and yearns for another command even though that means leaving his wife and young children. While Aubrey is a hero on the high seas, he is a ship wreck on terra firma. Back at sea, he comes back to life but begins to feel isolated from a crew that hasn't entirely warmed to him. As always his physician, Maturin makes insightful analysis of his friend Jack, but that is not all.
We begin to see more into Maturin's alternate persona, as a highly trusted intelligence agent, as he is entrusted with delivering an American spy to the Botany Bay penal colony. Has the good Dr successfully manipulated the American spy after arranging for her "escape?" We will see.
Throughout the voyage we are treated to the author's great tale-telling: cat-and-mouse encounter with a Dutch ship-of-the-line as well as the perils of the South Atlantic.
Definitely worth reading.
 the slow boil January 16, 2008
B. A. Williams
I admit that this fifth book in the Aubrey-Maturin series starts a little slow and remains seemingly mundane until several chapters into it. Then the tension builds up until you can hardly bear it. Of all the POB books I've read so far, this one gave me a breathless, tight feeling in my chest as the characters got deeper and deeper in peril. While the naval action is sparse, it is tremendous when it occurs. Several other reviewers have praised the battle scene in Desolation Island and I can hardly add more to their comments other than to say that O'Brian punctuates the military engagement with one of the most concise and moving moments of character development I have ever read. (And it is generally true that in the Aubrey-Maturin series character drives the action, and the action in turn reveals and further refines the character.) The main arc of the story involves Maturin's intelligence work, and the intrigues will appeal to fans of John leCarre. Indeed the pacing of it is much more akin to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy than to Forester's Beat to Quarters.
 A Story of Hope and Salvation on DESOLATION ISLAND November 23, 2007
WILLIAM H FULLER (SPEARFISH, SD USA)
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
The fifth book in the Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin series of high seas adventure, DESOLATION ISLAND is neither as long nor as slow-moving as several of the other novels by Richard Russ, better known by his nom de plume of Patrick O'Brian. By and large, the adventure moves right along and even involves a few things that the indomitable Captain Jack Aubrey has never before experienced: an assignment to transport prisoners to Botany Bay, a ship in imminent danger of sinking, and an insurrection by a large number of his officers and crew who would prefer to risk the ocean in their small boats than to continue to man what they feel to be a doomed ship. When one considers the number of novel situations and various crises that appear in DESOLATION ISLAND, it is not inaccurate to observe that it may be one of the most exciting and readable novels in the series, at least among its early books.
Not unexpectedly, the usual authorial weaknesses displayed by Russ/O'Brian in his other books are also evident here, though perhaps not so blatantly. He attempts to foreshadow the desertion of the sinking Leopard through several conversations invoking the name of Captain Bligh and the mutiny that was raised against him on HMS Bounty. This proves to be an ineffectual foreshadowing, though, for not only are the circumstances of the desertion of the Leopard's crew quite different from those that motivated the Bounty's men, but, though an uncharacteristic permissiveness on Captain Aubrey's part, the crew actually desert with his acquiescence, thus technically avoiding a mutiny.
Russ/O'Brian, along with his readers, also reaches the end of the book with a huge question yet unanswered; that is, what the fate may be of the officers and crew who abandon the Leopard and depart in small boats, hoping for landfall a thousand miles away. Hopefully, this question is resolved in the following volume, THE FORTUNE OF WAR, but it is assuredly left hanging so far as this volume is concerned.
Russ/O'Brian has still not learned how to handle time transitions consistently, either. In one sentence, he may have an officer summoned, only to be addressing that officer in the very next sentence. Even the 23rd century transporter on the Starship Enterprise requires several moments to move an individual from one place to another! Occurrences of this annoying writing technique are, at least, less frequent than in some of Russ/O'Brian's other novels, giving the reader hope that they may disappear altogether before the twenty-first book of the series!
Still, even with these on-going shortfalls in writing style and technique, Russ/O'Brian has produced an adventure-filled novel which will hold the reader's attention quite well throughout most of its pages. On that basis alone, I am sorely tempted to rate it with four Amazon stars, but in truth I cannot quite justify that high a rating, for the appeal of the Russ/O'Brian seafaring novels lies solely in their plots, or, if one prefers, story lines. Great fiction is imbued with significance and meaning beyond the superficial story. The reader can discern a more universal message from the author, artfully depicted by the story he or she has chosen to weave. Alas, with Russ/O'Brian the story is all we get. It may be a moving story, and, indeed, it may depict a bit of the society and culture in which it is played out, but it is devoid of deeper or broader meaning. These novels are fine for entertainment and diversion, but as fiction that contributes to our knowledge of humanity or of the universe through which we move, they are insubstantial. Read them for fun, read them for pleasure, read them for diversion and relaxation, but do not come to them anticipating a great vicarious learning experience, for there is none to be had. With this observation in mind, I find that I am far more comfortable with myself in continuing to rate Russ/O'Brian as a three-star author.
 Is anyone READING it ? August 8, 2007
Mr. C. Cooper
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
Sorry but after reading this book and then seeing the reviews I have to ask if anyone is really READING it or just studying the words? Apart from Obrien's constant use of the old naval terminology which hardly anyone can understand (there were many whole paragraphs and chapters which made no sense whatsoever to the non-sailor) there was very little story at all? One review mentions Aubreys task is to rescue Captain Bligh in Australia. Apart from the mention of it at the start, it ends without them anywhere even close to Australia in a conclusion so abrupt I thought I'd lost half the book somewhere !!! Much as I enjoy these type of novels and will continue to consume them regardless of their quality(within reason),I have to say that reviews that class Obrien as one of the greatest historical fiction writer are pure fiction in themselves. How on earth these books can possibly be compared to Bernard Cornwell or C.S Forester is beyond my understanding(well I could be cynical and suspect that the critics have a conflict of interest somewhere) . I am begining to feel that the 20 odd books in the series could probably be condensed down into no more than 5 once the ramblings of old naval parlance and duplicated situations were dispensed with. I'm starting to feel I could even write one myself as long as I learned how to 'come up the fore and main topsail sheets half a fathom or ease my quoin for greater elevation' or maybe even learn what 'Royal and weather studding-sails' does? I really do hope that the quality improves over the next 15 I shall read. Yes I'll still read em but mainly due to lack of anything else new to me.
Slow to Boil, But Still Makes a Satisfying Cup of Tea January 1, 2007
M. L. Asselin (Bethesda, MD USA)
A devoted fan of the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey-Maturin series from book one, MASTER AND COMMANDER, I've been slowly savoring these novels. This one, the fifth in the series, takes a little while to really get started.
The uninitiated reader should not begin with DESOLATION ISLAND which, try as the author might to provide a modicum of amplifying information about events that occurred in earlier volumes, doesn't entirely succeed in helping the reader of the previous books recall all of the earlier events alluded to let alone, I would venture to say, assist the new reader navigate through them.
But never mind. Except for the especially well versed, or the extremely diligent, reader, there are always aspects of the Aubrey-Maturin books that one just lets slide: not knowing a spritsail from a foresail isn't going to detract from your enjoyment; in fact, it might help you better relate to the resident lubber, Dr. Stephen Maturin. I relish these books because of O'Brian's wonderful mastery of language that seems to capture so well the world of the early eighteenth century British Royal Navy. One can afford to let a thorough understanding slip a bit to stay immersed in O'Brian's intoxicating love of words.
O'Brian's novels revolve around the friendship between the captain, Lucky Jack Aubrey, and the ship's doctor, Maturin. (If this makes you think of Star Trek, you're not far off.) The way they interact is one of the joys of reading O'Brian. Of course, one also reads these books for the enthralling depictions of life at sea and the gripping sea battles. In addition, O'Brian throws in bit of the espionage genre to enjoy, insofar as that in addition to his day job as a surgeon, and his avocation as a naturalist, Dr. Maturin is an agent of the British government. Finally, there's a thread of humor that runs throughout the novels. (In DESOLATION ISLAND, for instance, Maturin is listening to the captain's orders being repeated, and "licking a piece of ice--it was quite fresh--once again meditated upon the enormous amount of repetition in the service" (p. 250).)
The significant problem with DESOLATION ISLAND is that the things that one enjoys about the O'Brian novels are in somewhat short supply for the first couple of hundred pages: the relationship between Jack and Stephen is not that much further developed; there's little battle action (though what there is is intense); with much of the book taking place on an isolated vessel, the espionage theme is constrained; and the humor is somewhat a pale echo of the earlier books. Fascinated by Chinese culture, I was at first delighted to see that a character introduced here, Herapath, is an American translator of classical Chinese poetry. Unfortunately, I had to suffer along with Maturin when the doctor found that circumstances made it difficult for him to learn much more about Herapath's interests.
Like the Monty Python peasant who said a witch turned him into a newt, the book does get much better. The last hundred and fifty pages or so are quite marvelous, in fact. O'Brian takes us to a place we weren't expecting, and the journey there is engrossing. These final sections really do redeem the entire work. And so, not put off by DESOLATION ISLAND, I look forward to further voyages with Lucky Jack Aubrey and Dr. Maturin.
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