As a palate cleanser after the disappointing Orphan Trilogy, I returned to an author whose prose style invariably delights me. The Far Side of the World is Book 10 in the Aubrey-Maturin series, which means I'm nearly half way through!
The distinctive feature of this chapter in the saga is that our heroes sail into the Pacific, resulting in South Sea adventures to complement their more typical assignments in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. O'Brian crams in a few too many plotlines perhaps: he didn't need to cast them away on desert islands twice, and he squanders the dramatic opportunities presented by a group of lunatics assigned to the boat's crew. But the book was entertaining as always. And as always, the story starts slowly and builds to a frantic, in medias res finish.
The distinctive feature of this chapter in the saga is that our heroes sail into the Pacific, resulting in South Sea adventures to complement their more typical assignments in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. O'Brian crams in a few too many plotlines perhaps: he didn't need to cast them away on desert islands twice, and he squanders the dramatic opportunities presented by a group of lunatics assigned to the boat's crew. But the book was entertaining as always. And as always, the story starts slowly and builds to a frantic, in medias res finish.
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