MAURITIUS COMMAND, BY PATRICK O’BRIAN

Yes, yes, more galavanting on the high seas. Jack is commodore in a multi-ship campaign to seize Mauritius from the French. As with all these books so far, Jack has new command challenges, one of his subordinates is mysterious and troubling, and Stephen vacillates between urbane diplomacy, biological nerd out, and bitter invective. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. These books are truly more about the world and the characters than the plot, sort of like a video game. In this book, the “plot” is essentially the military campaign, battle by battle, but O’Brian seems unconcerned with treating it as such, leaving climactic battles between chapters (or in the hands of minor characters), and instead focusing on Jack wondering about his vegetable garden or Stephen wondering about Jack wondering about his vegetable garden. In one scene Stephen is moving between ships, falls into the drink and nearly dies, but it gets only about a longish paragraph and has little to no lasting effect on anyone. Not that I’m complaining, it’s just weird.