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Product Review Summary: Mostly Historical Fiction With a Bit of the Twilight Zone First of all, let us dispose of one possible connection that may exist in some reader's mind: There is utterly no similarity between the motion picture "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" and this novel except for the names of the major protagonists. If one has watched the motion picture and hesitates to read the book, fearing it will be repetitious, dismiss that misapprehension. The book and film are recognizably separate. Now then, on to the qualities of the novel.
This is the tenth book of the series of seafaring novels featuring Post-Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin, part surgeon, part spy. It is also by far the best written of the series to date (that is, the best of the first ten books, for I have yet to read the following volumes). Patrick O'Brian, whose real name is the very English and very non-Irish Richard Russ, has consistently shown at least three annoying weaknesses in his writing, all of which are almost absent from THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD:
First, O'Brian/Russ has the trait of eliding time. One line of text, for example, may have the captain calling for a mate, and in the very next line he will be speaking to that mate, absolutely no time having elapsed between the two acts. Even the transporter on the Starship Enterprise requires a few seconds to reassemble the molecules of the transportee, but not O'Brian. In his books, time can be folded upon itself, it seems. Surprisingly and happily, however, I can recall only a single instance of this nonsense in THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD. Bravo!
Second, O'Brian/Russ is fond of cobbling together entire paragraphs of late 18th and early 19th century nautical jargon which may or may not be technically accurate. The typical modern reader has no way of knowing, and such descriptions of spritsails and staysails and bowlines and rigging and lines and boots and whatnot come across pretty much as just so much gibberish. Again, though, there is only one instance of really extended incomprehensible verbiage in the novel, so again, I must say "Bravo, O'Brian. Your writing is improving dramatically!"
Third, the reader's understanding of several of the preceding nine novels in this series is highly dependent upon having read the books in chronological order and proper sequence. Numerous references to people, ships and actions can be interpreted only with a knowledge of what preceded their reappearance in a given volume. THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD is an exception. Yes, references to earlier events do occasionally appear, but they are neither so obscure nor so important to the story line that one has to be able to recollect them from earlier books. This volume actually could be read in isolation from the rest of the series and be enjoyed in its own right.
So, for all intents and purposes, is this volume flawless? Well, in a word, no. Things are progressing nicely, i.e., believably, until Maturin falls out of a window of the captain's Great Cabin in the stern of HMS Surprise and Aubrey leaps into the water to succor him. The carousing crew cannot hear their hails, and the ship sails off, leaving our two heroes to float in the Pacific Ocean the entire night. The next day, they are indeed rescued--by a group of male-emasculating, tattooed, cannibal vixens sailing some sort of huge outrigger canoe sporting a thatched hut. This brings the believability of the fiction to a screaming halt. Any suggestion of verisimilitude vanishes without a trace in the face of these savage females traveling the Pacific on their ocean-going canoe festooned with severed male genitalia while their captain munches on a smoked human hand. Although the novel soon regains its claim to be realistic historical fiction, the image of this "Twilight Zone" episode lingers with the reader until the end and weakens the believability of the story line from the point of its occurrence onward.
All in all, though, the nasty cannibal interlude notwithstanding, THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD is an entertaining and generally engrossing read. Balancing its strengths and weaknesses, it remains the best written of all the books in the series thus far and can stir the reader's imagination for several evenings with its images of life between water and sail. Based purely on its entertainment value and with a nod to the stylistic improvements I've mentioned above, I feel comfortable in characterizing the book with four Amazon stars.
Product Review Summary: the far side of the world by patrick o'brian In my case the fascination with the o'brian books came slowly- and admittedly the detail and complexity involved in many becomes tedious. But once you read the first couple (in sequence) you're hooked. Great history research and engaging plots.
Product Review Summary: O'Brian starts over One of the better of the series, perhaps because, as O'Brian explains in his introduction, he has mined out the history books for dramatic sea stories of the time, so is turning to strictly fictional action for this book.
This time, Aubrey's beloved Surprise, apparently headed for the boneyard, is instead drafted to try to cut off an American war ship before it turns the Cape of Good Horn to prey on English whalers. Through doldrums and storms, he comes up short, which takes the chase into the South Seas where a dramatic rescue of Aubrey and Matarin from a tiny coral outcrop and the stranding of the pair with a small contingent from the Surprise on a not-quite deserted island makes for some fine dramatic and comic writing (and reading!).
Eleventh in the series: The Reverse of the Medal
Product Review Summary: Great Novel! This was perhaps one of the best novels in the series. For those that enjoyed the film, loosely based on this book and others from the Aubrey-Maturin set, the book is far greater than the movie. I greatly enjoyed this volume in the series.
Product Review Summary: Not one for the time capsule The 10th book in the Aubrey-Maturin seagoing series. This was my least favorite so far in the series. O'Brian's books are always episodic, rather than plot-driven, but this story seemed even more of a collection of random incidents than usual. In this book, the Surprise is sent to protect the British whaling fleet in the Pacific. Along the way, there's adultery, a murder, a shipwreck, sharks, a lesbian band of runaway Polynesian women, and much, much more. Maybe O'Brian had writer's block and a deadline when he wrote this one, or maybe he was just "having us on."
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