After a break from Aubrey and Maturin for a few months--mostly to take care of some nonfiction reading and reviewing--I finally have time to dive back into the continuing story. I went into Book 8, The Ionian Mission, with a bit of fear, however. Why? Because the last time I tried to read through O'Brian's series, this is the point at which I fizzled out and stopped the series. (This was partly because at that time I couldn't find a copy of Book 7, and it was difficult to get back into the series without having read that volume.) Added to that, a friend recently borrowed The Ionian Mission and returned it months later, saying, "This is really O'Brian at his most soporific; I could hardly pick up this book without falling asleep." So, I was worried. Was this the book that was going to stop my progress yet again?I needn't have worried. I finished the book in a week and thoroughly loved it. Not only did it include the "double-bottomed defecator," but it featured subtle character development that kept me intrigued the whole way through.Many ongoing plot points were settled, to some extent, by the end of the previous book, so this book is now a slow build into the next phase of the story. Jack's and Stephen's internal struggles start off very muted, but they will grow and develop through this book into what I assume will be the main conflicts in the next phase of their journeys.Stephen is assigned a complicated negotiation mission in enemy territory--typical for him in these stories. But this time, now that he has "settled" (such as he and Diana ever will), the conflict he faces has a different depth than before:If he were taken now he could expect no mercy at all: he could not hope to come away untortured or alive. In earlier days he had faced much the same kind of fate, but then there had always been a certain chance of deceiving the other side or of escape: and in those days he was not married - his aims were single-hearted and in any case he cared less about his life. (216)He is not much softer-hearted now than in previous books, but it is encouraging to see him beginning to develop a larger sense of the value of life.Jack begins to wonder about his destiny. He is as pained by his unluckiness on shore as the reader has been on his behalf for the past few volumes. The adventure that started with such verve and enthusiasm and promise seems to perhaps be fading into a grey existence."I have noticed . . . that luck seems to play fair, on the whole. It gave Mitchell a damned ugly swipe early on, and then made it up to him: but, do you see, I had amazing good luck when I was young, taking the Cacafuego and the Fanciulla and marrying Sophie, to say nothing of prizes; and sometimes I wonder . . . Mitchell began by being flogged round the fleet: perhaps that is how I shall end." (127)But Jack is now more concerned for those around him--especially Pullings, who still awaits an action that will move him from Lieutenant to Post--than for himself. His bitterness toward certain superiors, such as Admiral Harte, is more tempered, and he so desperately wants to be a better quality of senior leader than many that he has served under.As usual, the reader waits for the climactic battle that most of the Aubrey/Maturin books build up to. In this case, the reader waits almost the full length of the book, and has to work through some dizzingly complex political negotiations, but the battle finally begins. The end of the book sees the satisfying conclusion to a number of ongoing minor issues, while leaving open the larger matters of character development. I will be moving on soon, with much eagerness, to Book 9. My reviews of the Aubrey/Maturin series: Master and Commander Post Captain H.M.S. Surprise The Mauritius Command Desolation Island The Fortune of War The Surgeon's Mate The Ionian Mission Treason's Harbour The Far Side of the World The Reverse of the Medal The Letter of Marque The Thirteen-Gun Salute The Nutmeg of Consolation Clarissa Oakes The Wine-Dark Sea The Commodore The Yellow Admiral The Hundred Days Blue at the Mizzen 21
If you’ve thought about jumping aboard Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series, which follows a British ship’s captain and doctor through the Napoleonic Wars, it would be logical to start with the first volume, Master and Commander (1970), which gave its name to a Russell Crowe–starring film adaptation in 2003. But if I were going to recommend one of the twenty books in the amazing thirty-year series that best shows off the mastery of O’Brian, I’d say you might consider volume 8, The Ionian Mission. That’s because almost nothing happens in it.Perhaps the best way to think of O’Brian, if you’ve never read him is, a Jane Austen for guys. But that also makes him a military-historical novelist for gals. Nothing proves either point better than The Ionian Mission, which begins with a sentence worthy of Pride and Prejudice: "Marriage was once represented as a field of battle rather than a bed of roses, and perhaps there are some who may still support this view; but just as Dr. Maturin had made a far more unsuitable match than most, so he set about dealing with the situation in a far more compendious, peaceable and efficacious way than the great majority of husbands." The Irish-Catalan doctor and secret agent Stephen Maturin has finally persuaded the vain, brilliant heart-breaker Diana Villiers to marry him, and the book begins with a description of their separate but oddly compatible living arrangements. Then, halfway through chapter one, the metaphor is brilliantly extended to the longer-term marriage of “Lucky Jack” Aubrey, captain in His Majesty’s naval war against Bonaparte:"As far as real battlefields and beds of roses were concerned, Captain Aubrey was far better acquainted with the first, partly because of his profession, which, with enormous intervals of delay, often cold and always wet, brought him into violent conflict with the King’s enemies, to say nothing of the Admiralty, the Navy Board, and bloody-minded superiors and subordinates, and partly because he was a wretched gardener." With that high, tongue-in-cheek style, punctuated by a sharp punchline, consider yourself introduced to the greatest Catholic historical novelist writing in English. (Sorry, I reserve greatest overall for Sigrid Undset.)In The Ionian Mission, if you choose to embark on it, you’ll sail with “Lucky Jack” and his brilliant, moody friend as they take part in the long, impossibly boring (for Jack) blockade of the French port of Toulon. But it won’t be boring for you, because you’ll have ample opportunity to learn about every possible aspect of English sea-going life at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and smile while doing so.By the time the sea action finally comes—against a bloodthirsty pirate named Mustapha in the final 15 pages of this 350-page book—you will be so enthralled that you’ll scarcely notice the excitement.
What do You think about The Ionian Mission (1992)?
The only thing disappointing about this book is the fact Killick didn't enter his lyrical "all wasted, not even tasted" into the poetry contest! - Which he would have won it and gone on to publish by subscription and we would today rate him with Byron and Shelley and literary history would be forever altered... The humour in these books is as imperative as any other element. I've heard POB's humour described as "dry" - I disagree. It achieves all levels: dry wit, sarcasm, punning, low humour, dirty jokes, slapstick/physical, situational irony - you'd have to be made of stone to not laugh out loud at least once. My favourite is his depiction of people who think they are funny - but who are not funny at all - and are, consequently, hilarious (ie. Captain Aubrey and all his officers).
—Sarah Bynum
I believe I'm on my fourth trip through the Aubrey-Maturin series although this might have been my fifth reading of The Ionian Mission. The great thing about this book is that O'Brian has managed to bring together all of our favorite crew members: Pullings, Jack's protege, eager to win the next step in his career, Mowat, like pullings and Babbington, all mid-shipmen in the first book of the series (Master and Commander), Bonden, Aubrey's invaluable coxswain and Killick, his crabby steward, Joe Plaice who is Barret Bonden's cousin and Awkward Davies, a powerful but stupid sailor who Jack saved from drowning which left Davies with the belief that he is entitled to serve the Captain. In addition we are introduced to Nathanial Martin, a one-eyed Anglican priest who lost his eye to an owl and becomes Stephen Maturin's surgeon's mate and natural history colleague and who later appears in several books.Jack has taken command of the wretched old Worchester, a ship of the line on it's last legs and is assigned to the blockade fleet off the coast of France hoping that the French will come out and do battle. Stephen goes along because he has been given an intelligence mission which involves landing in France. Later, they get to take Jack's favorite frigate, The Surprise, on a mission to Greece which explains the title of the book.The beauty of these novels is that one gets to go on a trip through history, experiencing life aboard Royal Navy warships, living with the crew through storms and battles and hours of blue water sailing. The writing is so excellent (O'Brian is clearly the most underrated writer in history) that the characters take on a reality unmatched in fiction. As one wades through the thousands of pages of stories, often based on real actions gleaned from dispatches and diaries, the adventure never ends. By the time you finish the 7500 pages of the series you are ready to sign on again or in the historical naval sense are pressed against your will to go back to Master and Commander and open to page one and start reading of the beginning of the epic friendship between Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturing.
—Randy
The final third of the book, concerning the eponymous Ionian Mission, is thrilling. The first two thirds are unfortunately quite plodding as Aubrey and Maturin spend a lot of time sitting in blockade waiting for the French to come out. O'Brian spends a lot of time describing how dull blockades are, which makes me wonder why he chose to devote most of the book to it. Not that it's bad, by any means -- no Aubrey-Maturin novel I've read so far is -- just that it's not as good as some of the previous adventures. Hopefully the next installment is more like the last third of this book.
—Oliver Kim
