Customer Reviews

Fortune of War

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A year ago I read "Master and Commander" and was impressed. A month ago I read "Post Captain" and was hooked. Now I've read eleven of the installments of what has to be one of the great novels of the century.

"The Fortune of War" is an epic, moving installment that works on many levels. Although a Yankee, I can't help but feel for Jack and the Brits as they try to salvage some honor from the War of 1812, a rather dishonorable war for all concerned. Who could fail to be moved by the image of the Constitution holding its fire rather than destroy the helpless Java? Or Captain Lawrence tipping his hat to Jack from the deck of the Chesapeake, only to be killed immediately afterward (O'Brian doesn't mention that it was Lawrence who said "Don't give up the Ship"). The battle scenes are thrilling but tinged with regret.

In order to fit Jack and Stephen into actual historical events O'Brian has to put them into the background, and we share their anguish as one British ship after another falls victim to the tiny but tough American navy. Remember, this is during the Napoleonic wars, and the Americans were effectively allied with the Hitler of that day.

This book was apparently written with Homer in mind. Jack and Stephen are unwilling participants in historical events, when all they really want to do is to go home, Jack to a new command (so he can come back and whip the Americans) and Stephen to deliver an important message to Sir Joseph. In between battles, shipwreck, near starvation, and certain execution, O'Brian finds time to consider timeless notions of duty, honor, loyalty and freedom.

The Aubrey/Maturin series seems to get even better with each installment. The Fortune of War begins with Lucky Jack bringing his ship into port after the events of Desolation Island and reaches a thunderous conclusion with historical battle between the Chesapeake and the Shannon. In between O'Brian provides the reader with naval disasters, naval battles, cloak and dagger, tense escapes and even a cricket game! All this is set against the backdrop of the opening months of the War of 1812. The reader lives through unexpected reverses at sea and unanticipated successes on land in what is a tragic and senseless war.

In The Fortune of War Aubrey and Maturin spend much of their time in the United States where Louisa Wogan and Diana Villiers of early books reside. The reader gets an excellent feel for the period and place. Interestingly, in what appears to be a nod to modern readers, O'Brian cites the low taxes in the USA. Also, many modern readers might be surprised to read how unpopular "Mr. Madison's War" was at the time. Ironically what was a nasty, vicious war on the Canada/US border was a gentleman's war at sea. Officers were paroled and free to roam the streets in an enemy city. Ships' captains could write courteous letters to enemy captains inviting them out to engage in bloody naval conflicts. Perhaps the greatest irony was that the two societies with the freest men were engaging in a wasteful conflict while a tyrant was running roughshod over Europe.

Perhaps the most interesting perspectives for the naval buff are O'Brian's explanations of initial American successes at sea and their affect on British morale. According to O'Brian American frigates (the largest class they had available) outgunned their RN counterparts. Furthermore, many of their officers and men had learned their gunnery skills on RN ships. However, the RN was also the victim of some its own policies and past successes. The restrictions on the use of gunpowder in practice left Captains without independent means the opportunity to maintain crews with a high level of fighting efficiency. Furthermore, the systems of privilege and patronage had put a number of excellent captains on shore and poor or mediocre captains at the helms of fighting ships. Nelson's successes were also a problem. His approach to attacking French and Spanish ships was inadequate for better trained American crews. For the RN, which had a magnificent track record for decades culminating with Nelson's victory at Trafalgar, the few relatively insignificant tactical losses to the Americans were devastating to morale. Aubrey's reaction demonstrates this thoroughly. The fact that ships like the Constitution were severely damaged and out of action for long periods after victories did not satisfy. Nor did the victories on land in Canada.

The Fortune of War features some of the best action sequences that O'Brian put on paper. In particular, the historical battle sequences are riveting. The reader also gets to see the good Dr. Maturin as a man of action. Somewhat surprisingly the gentle doctor can be quite ruthless when the need arises. Rescued from torture by Jack Aubrey earlier in the series, it is now Maturin who plays the role of rescuer.

O'Brian has succeeded in providing his most action packed novel to date without sacrificing any of the use of language and insight into human nature that have been constants in the series. This is the best entry to date in what may be the greatest historical series written.

This is the sixth in the excellent series about a British Navy Captain and his friend the British Intelligence Agent but it is a little different from the previous novels. Steven Maturin the spy is definitely at center stage while Captain Aubrey mostly waits in the wings.

This book is therefore, by and large, a spy novel. After being captured with his friend by the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812, Maturin enveavours to keep the Americans from discovering that he is anything but a simple surgeon and naturalist. To make his life even more complicated, his lost love is also living in America and he struggles with his feelings toward her even as ruthless French agents seek him through the twisted streets of Boston.

But Captain Aubrey isn't entirely neglected. The English and American Navy are locked in a series of frigate battles and Aubrey and Maturin manage to be in the middle of two of them.

O'Brien upholds the outstanding reputation this series has garnered with another fine contribution.

The previous volume ended with the orchestrated escape of Mrs. Wogan and Michael Herapath from Desolation Island in an American whaler, and the reader knew that "the horrible old LEOPARD" was about to forge on, too, having managed to replace her destroyed rudder. This volume begins in late 1812, with the LEOPARD limping into harbor in the East Indies, with only a sentence or two given to the fate of Gov. William Bligh in Australia -- which didn't strike me as quite fair. The historical Bligh is a very interesting personality. However. The LEOPARD is good now only as a transport, and Jack Aubrey has been told of a nice frigate awaiting his command on his return to England, so he and Dr. Maturin and their followers take homebound passage with an old acquaintance of Jack's. It's a lovely voyage as far as the mid-Atlantic, but then events catch up with them, and they find themselves in a small boat struggling to reach the coast of Brazil. They're rescued by the JAVA -- which is then taken by the CONSTITUTION, the third British frigate to fall to the small U.S. Navy in a very short time. Very depressing for our heroes, but O'Brian doesn't hesitate to laud the abilities of the American seamen and commanders. Maturin and the wounded Jack end up as prisoners of war in Boston, where Stephen Maturin's intelligence activities against Napoleonic France come back to haunt him, and where he joins up again with Diana Villiers, Herapath (father and son), and Louisa Wogan. The focus is more on Maturin in this book than in most of the others (so far), and he shows himself to be quite cold-blooded when necessary in pursuit of his covert objectives. Escape from Boston becomes necessary when it becomes obvious that no exchange is contemplated for them, and they make their way to the SHANNON, which is maintaining the blockade of Boston Harbor, and which sends in a gentlemanly challenge to the CHESAPEAKE to come out and fight -- all of which is historically accurate, though strange to modern notions of warfare. And that brief but epic engagement is where this volume ends, with an obvious segue into the next. The earlier volumes were generally self-contained narratives, with a period of unremarked time passing between them, but the present novels cover too great a series of events to be dealt with properly in a single volume. And the greater the impact they have on history, the more Jack tends to recede into a secondary position -- which is only fair, since O'Brian didn't want to perturb the historical record too greatly. I enjoyed this volume in the series rather more than the last one, perhaps because I'm more knowledgeable than most about the early National period in the U.S. and the War of 1812 in particular. O'Brian does an excellent, balanced job of describing the local political situation in New England, and his powers of characterization are as strong as ever.

An excellent book, though no less could be expected from O'Brian. I took a considerable amount of time off between Desolation Island and this book so the characters and the nautical terms were a little unfamiliar to me. After the first twenty pages or so the characters, terms and myself came together like three old friends laughing and remembering our past adventures.

O'Brian re-introduces characters from his previous books (Diana Villiers, Michael Herapath and Louisa Wogan) which I found tiresome from his previous works. In this book, however, O'Brian uses these three characters to great effect. To see my old friend Stephen Maturin become the ruthless spy I always wanted him to be was exhilirating.

This is an excellent book and should be read by anyone who professes a liking for sea stories or historical fiction. Any bibliophile who is aimlessly scanning these reviews and has not read this series should start as soon as possible. Any O'Brian fan who wants to know if this tale is as good as the others in the Aubrey-Maturin series, let not your heart be troubled, it is excellent.

If you have read the first five in this series you won't need any encouragement from me for you to read this one too, but this book is just so fantastic that I just have to share my opinion. Like the other novels in this series, it is extremely well written and full of very witty dialogue. It is also full of action and suspense both on land and sea. As a matter of fact, I think the action on land, involving Stephen Maturin's activities as a spy, are even more suspenseful than the sea battles, which are also very well done. O'Brian balances his two main characters very well in this book, Aubrey dominating the action at sea and Stephen dominating the action on land. O'Brian also gets the reader involved in his characters' personal lives. For example, Diana returns to the scene in this book, and Stephen wrestles with his conflicting feelings towards her. The two sea battles depicted in this book were real historical battles and O'Brian does a great job making them come to life. Even though I knew who was going to win both battles, they still seemed very exciting and I was still in suspense as to what was going to happen to the fictional characters during these battles. Being an American, it bothers me just a little that the Americans are the bad guys in this book, but O'Brian is very fair in that he never depicts Britain's enemies, whether Spanish, French or Americans, as being particularly evil. They are simply the enemy. In fact, both Aubrey and Maturin like Americans in general. Anyway, novels simply don't get more entertaining than this.

Some critics have referred to the Aubrey/Maturin books as one long novel united not only by their historical setting but also by the central plot element of the Aubrey/Maturin friendship. Having read these fine books over a period of several years, I decided to evaluate their cumulative integrity by reading them consecutively in order of publication over a period of a few weeks. This turned out to be a rewarding enterprise. For readers unfamiliar with these books, they describe the experiences of a Royal Navy officer and his close friend and traveling companion, a naval surgeon. The experiences cover a broad swath of the Napoleonic Wars and virtually the whole globe.
Rereading all the books confirmed that O'Brian is a superb writer and that his ability to evoke the past is outstanding. O'Brian has numerous gifts as a writer. He is the master of the long, careful description, and the short, telling episode. His ability to construct ingenious but creditable plots is first-rate, probably because he based much of the action of his books on actual events. For example, some of the episodes of Jack Aubrey's career are based on the life of the famous frigate captain, Lord Cochrane. O'Brian excels also in his depiction of characters. His ability to develop psychologically creditable characters through a combination of dialogue, comments by other characters, and description is tremendous. O'Brien's interest in psychology went well beyond normal character development, some books contain excellent case studies of anxiety, depression, and mania.
Reading O'Brien gives vivid view of the early 19th century. The historian Bernard Bailyn, writing of colonial America, stated once that the 18th century world was not only pre-industrial but also pre-humanitarian (paraphrase). This is true as well for the early 19th century depicted by O'Brien. The casual and invariable presence of violence, brutality, and death is a theme running through all the books. The constant threats to life are the product not only of natural forces beyond human control, particularly the weather and disease, but also of relative human indifference to suffering. There is nothing particularly romantic about the world O'Brien describes but it also a certain grim grandeur. O'Brien also shows the somewhat transitional nature of the early 19th century. The British Navy and its vessals were the apogee of what could be achieved by pre-industrial technology. This is true both of the technology itself and the social organization needed to produce and use the massive sailing vessals. Aubrey's navy is an organization reflecting its society; an order based on deference, rigid hierarchy, primitive notions of honor, favoritism, and very, very corrupt. At the same time, it was one of the largest and most effective bureaucracies in human history to that time. The nature of service exacted great penalities for failure in a particularly environment, and great success was rewarded greatly. In some ways, it was a ruthless meritocracy whose structure and success anticipates the great expansion of government power and capacity seen in the rest of the 19th century.
O'Brian is also the great writer about male friendship. There are important female characters in these books but since most of the action takes place at sea, male characters predominate. The friendship between Aubrey and Maturin is the central armature of the books and is a brilliant creation. The position of women in these books is ambiguous. There are sympathetic characters, notably Aubrey's long suffering wife. Other women figures, notably Maturin's wife, leave a less positive impression. On board ship, women tend to have a disruptive, even malign influence.
How did O'Brian manage to sustain his achievement over 20 books? Beyond his technical abilities as a writer and the instrinsic interest of the subject, O'Brien made a series of very intelligent choices. He has not one but two major protagonists. The contrasting but equally interesting figures of Aubrey and Maturin allowed O'Brien to a particularly rich opportunity to expose different facets of character development and to vary plots carefully. This is quite difficult and I'm not aware of any other writer who has been able to accomplish such sustained development of two major protagonists for such a prolonged period. O'Brian's use of his historical setting is very creative. The scenes and events in the books literally span the whole globe as Aubrey and Maturin encounter numerous cultures and societies. The naval setting allowed him also to introduce numerous new and interesting characters. O'Brian was able to make his stories attractive to many audiences. Several of these stories can be enjoyed as psychological novels, as adventure stories, as suspense novels, and even one as a legal thriller. O'Brian was also a very funny writer, successful at both broad, low humor, and sophisticated wit. Finally, O'Brian made efforts to link some of the books together. While a number are complete in themselves, others form components of extended, multi-book narratives. Desolation Island, Fortune of War, and The Surgeon's Mate are one such grouping. Treason's Harbor, The Far Side of the World, and The Reverse of the Medal are another. The Letter of Marque and the ensuing 4 books, centered around a circumnavigation, are another.
Though the average quality of the books is remarkably high, some are better than others. I suspect that different readers will have different favorites. I personally prefer some of the books with greater psychological elements. The first book, Master and Commander, is one of my favorites. The last 2 or 3, while good, are not as strong as earlier books. I suspect O'Brian's stream of invention was beginning to diminish. All can be read profitably as stand alone works though there is definitely something to be gained by reading in consecutive order.

"The Fortune of War" continues where "Desolation Island" left the readers hanging in Patrick O'Brian's previous novel. But rather than being rescued and safe, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are taken out of the frying pan and put in the fire. Whether it is an exploding ship heading home, the pummeling broadsides of the USS Constitution, or the clutches of the fledgling American intelligence network; Patrick O'Brian gives his famous and beloved protagonists almost more than they can handle.

Aubrey and Maturin spend the majority of this novel as prisoners of war in Boston, while the War of 1812 continues a series of great victories for the newly founded American Navy. Aubrey, severely wounded, is more of an auxiliary character in this novel, and Stephen Maturin comes fully into the foreground as the main protagonist attempting to save his friends. Diana Villiers also returns to the series, and Maturin must deal with his feelings for her in addition to the American agent with whom she is currently associating. The great intelligence coup Maturin achieved in the previous novel has returned to haunt him, as his powerful enemies close in on all sides. . .

This novel is great spy adventure set in Boston, and contains two very well written historical engagements with America's new fleet of frigates- the USS Constitution and the Chesapeake. As a patriotic American, it was a challenging read, as my two favorite literary characters would have been my adversaries if I had been their contemporaries. However, O'Brian writes this story with a well balanced eye to this conflict of interests between the British and American people. Additionally, I have to give a shout out to the USS Constitution, as I am a member of its honorific namesake in the modern American Army- the 1st Armored Division "Old Ironsides", and have spent some great times in her city of origin, & where she can be seen today: Boston. The one drawback of this story is that it has a substantive portion of the adventure on land. Granted, it is still a great story and very well written, but the magic of journeying across the wild and untamed ocean is not present.

While not the best of the Aubrey/Maturin series; I am always eager for more action at sea, "The Fortune of War" is very readable and enjoyable. It is also essential to read in order as the second installment of the first miniseries within O'Brian's larger story arc. Make sure you start with "Desolation Island" first.

For the first five novels in Patrick O'Brian's hallowed Aubrey-Maturin series, Captain "Lucky Jack" Aubrey was the swashbuckling hero and Dr. Stephen Maturin was the mysterious sidekick. Thanks to O'Brian's wonderful prose, this balance worked exceedingly well.

And yet, there was always a sense that there was more to the surgeon-spy Maturin than O'Brian was letting on . . . that he was more than a sidekick, but a serious player in his own right. Of course, this was slightly undercut with Maturin's hilarious inability to master even the most rudimentary elements of the seafaring life, but you still knew that Maturin had a courageous, dashing heart to go with his naturalist's brain.

In "The Fortune of War," Maturin shoves his way to the fore and Captain Aubrey is more or less sidelined with a grevious wound to his sword arm. The War of 1812 has broken out, and the British navy experiences some shocking defeats at the hands of the heretofore contemptible American navy. Eventually, Aubrey and Maturin find themselves going broadside-to-broadside with the Americans, but perhaps since Aubrey is not in command of his vessel (Aubrey and Maturin being saved from certain death after their ship sinks in a fiery accident), Aubrey is forced to watch his ship strike its colors.

Maturin and Aubrey are brought to Boston as prisoners of war, and while Aubrey convalesces, Maturin dives pell-mell back into his life as a spy. Boston is a city of intrigues, and Maturin's history as a spy plays havoc with his attempts to free himself, Aubrey, and the lovely Diane Villiers. Maturin gets to demonstrate that he's got a bit of super secret agent in him, and many readers will be shocked at the violent means Maturin often uses to achieve his ends. He's a far cry from the non-violent physician he is often assumed to be!

Perhaps spending more time on land than any book in the series so far, "The Fortune of War" still offers thrills and escapades galore. For fans of this series, this novel is not to be missed.

This one has it all! Romantic tension, exploding ships, climactic battle scenes, and (my favorite) ingrigue! The characters, are at their most Jack-and-Stephenesque. O'Brian manages to fit more meaning and emotion into a single simple sentence than any author since Austen and he manages to fit more events into this book than many of his others. Anyone who has gotten this far in the series doesn't need me to urge them to read this one, but I couldn't help but sing its praises.